TPI's Remmer kicks off Philadelphia Fdn. Women's Philanthropy Network

Ellen Remmer, TPI's President and CEO kicked off The Women’s Philanthropy Network on June 24th with a workshop entitled, Realizing the Power and Potential of Women’s Philanthropy.

Remmer spoke about the ways in which women can make a life of inspiring others and achieving societal and systems changes. Read the transcript from her speech below to learn more about the power and potential of women’s philanthropy.

Women and Philanthropy - Transformational Leadership

Passion is the perfect starting point.  But now, what do we do about those passions?  And specifically, are there ways that women do and can act upon their passions so that they are particularly impactful and meaningful?  And does this even matter?

First of all, why does it matter?  Well, women now control 83% of household spending and over 50% of personal wealth. Women are coming up the wage curve with 30% of working wives out-earning their spouses – twice the rate of 20 years ago.  Women are becoming corporate leaders and are owning more businesses.  And women still outlive men by 5.5 years, thus standing to control a huge amount of this ongoing intergenerational transfer of wealth and enormous amount of potential philanthropic capital. So by sheer numbers, women are increasingly in the drivers seat for wealth and giving.

I’ve spent a lot of time looking for differences between men and women in their giving, and while I see some differences and research suggests a few differences, for the most part I would wager that these distinctions come from diverse life experiences.  So while men may have historically given bigger gifts, focused their gifts in fewer issue areas, and given to different issue areas than women as a group, I’m not convinced that these behaviors are truly gender based.  However, I do believe in a few other important differences.

Alice Eagly and her colleagues at Northwestern University conducted a meta-analysis of 45 published and unpublished studies on leaders in business, academics and other areas to see whether and how typical leadership styles of men and women differ.  Their studies revealed just a few differences across gender, but the one that I found most compelling is that women are more likely to be transformational leaders while men are more likely to be transactional leaders.  Transformational leaders are  defined as “those who serve as role models, mentor and empower workers and encourage innovation even when the organization they lead is already successful”   Transactional leaders, in contrast, “appeal to subordinates’ self-interest by forming exchange relationships, based on using reward and punishment as incentives.”  And in their analysis, they found that the transformational style was more likely to lead to good performance and organizational effectiveness.

I believe women have a tendency to bring transformational leadership to their philanthropy.  I’ve seen it.  Women draw on the assets, skills and differences of others to help them make decisions – e.g. look at the phenomenon of giving circles.  Women work in partnership with grantees and recognize that true change can only happen when the populations experiencing difficulties are also part of the solution.  (Fireman scholars, Parents survival guide)

Family systems and succession specialist Kelin Gersick, who wrote the only piece of research ever conducted on why some family foundations successfully thrive through the generations noted:  “The inclusion of women seems to have a significant impact on the grantmaking process, especially if a woman is in the leadership position… they looked for support from the group.  They were more accommodating and better able to tolerate multiple agendas.  They were also more inclined to inclusion across branches and generations.” 

There are many wonderful examples of women as transformational philanthropic  leaders and I know there are many examples in this room.  I think of a group of women in Boston who have partnered with a Rwandan community to create a school for 60 girls, both hutu and tutsi.  Not only did they raise $800k to build the school but they recruited a mentor for the headmaster and a group of retired American educators who will work in partnership with the Rwandan based group to run a teacher training institute. The school is a symbol of hope for a shattered country and a great example of partnership where undoubtedly both the role of giver and receiver are intertwined and both are transformed. 

On the more political front, today we have women leaders like Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who, in her campaign  said she wanted to become president in order "to bring motherly sensitivity and emotion to the presidency" as a way of healing the wounds of war.  That would be transformational, wouldn’t it?

Realizing your potential

So how can you realize your potential as a powerful woman philanthropist and transformational leader?  TPI’s founder Peter Karoff developed something we call the philanthropic curve many years ago and I think it is valuable tool for thinking about where you are in your philanthropic journey and where you might want to go:
 
                         Harmony and Congruence
                     Leveraging
                Focusing on Issues and Results
           Becoming More Strategic
     Getting Organized
Becoming a Donor

Find your passion(s).  What do you really care about? Children?  Our environment?  Music?    Has something touched you personally?  Or does something outrage you?  Inspire you?  If you are passionate about something, you will persist and you will succeed.  “to love what you do and feel that it matters – how could anything be more fun?”  (Catherine Graham)

Take charge and create a giving plan - this is part of being organized and in control of your giving.  The average American receives 230 requests/year.  If you don’t take charge of your giving – it will take charge of you.  Establish a budget, mission, allocation, goals.  Find a giving vehicle or set of vehicles that work for you.  You might want a donor advised fund at the Philadelphia Foundation where they do all the back office work and can offer due diligence on organizations in the community.  Or you may be in a position to set up a foundation that is perpetual.  Or maybe a planned gift with a regular stream of income to you and a charity.  With a plan, you can maximize the dollars, effort and impact of your giving.

Be a learner – I think Philanthropy is the best graduate school in the world.  It is a platform for thinking about important issues and crafting a strategy to tackle them.  Whether you care deeply about institutions or issues, you can increase the impact of your contribution by learning about what’s worked, what’s failed, what’s needed, what’s new.   Build on what others have done.  Rely on resources like the Philadelphia Foundation for their knowledge of the community, its great organizations and potential partnerships.

Be strategic – Consider focusing your gifts (or some portion), so that you can really add value.  There will always be the “good citizen” gifts that you will want and need to make.  But consider taking on one or a few issues or institutions where you can become really knowledgeable and add value.  Small gifts that are carefully targeted have the ability to give you leverage, to fill in an important gap, to connect the dots.  See if you can avoid the “spray and pray” phenomenon that too many donors give in to.

Be creative - this is your chance to be a social entrepreneur and improve our society in just about any way you choose.  It’s wide open. You can support individual leaders, you can build organizations, you can be the convener of unlikely parties to address a thorny problem.  You can experiment with new ideas or foster that in others.  Philanthropy offers the opportunity to think differently.

Don't marginalize.  Take a page from Emily’s list, the political fundraising group that challenges women to write a check that equals the worth of the clothes and accessories they are wearing.  Women have always been great volunteers, but let’s become serious financial givers too.  Think about giving out of assets. 

Think big and leverage your giving – Develop a vision for the change you want to see in the world.  Challenge others to give, or join with others.  “Who are you serving by living small in the world”  (Nelson Mandela)  Use your power. Use your heart. Be a transformational leader.

Be a role model and a mentor - be willing to stand up and tell your story.  This counts and it works.  Think about the role models in your life and the difference they made to you.  As a woman, be a role model to other women and to the next generation.  For those who are mothers, aunts, grandmothers, godmothers – you can play a big role in teaching, practicing and reinforcing the love of giving with the next generation.  Start family giving projects, launch a mother/daughter book and giving clubs, create a family fund – there are many different ways to do this.  “What you teach your own children is what you really believe in.” (Cathy Warner Weatherford)  

The power and potential of women’s philanthropy is infinite.  All it takes is all of us.