by Cheryl Altinkemer
Cheryl L. Altinkemer is the director of development and alumni relations for the school of Consumer and Family Sciences at Purdue University. She is a board member and president-elect of the Women's Philanthropy Institute. She was co-founder of the National Advancement for Family and Consumer Sciences group devoted to helping deans and professionals raise funds for colleges of family and consumer sciences and human ecology. Altinkemer has presented at the National Conference on Planned Giving, CASE 5 in Chicago, and several regional NSFRE Chapters. She served as vice president of membership for the Indiana Chapter of NSFRE and was past chair of its region in Lafayette, IN. In 1993, Altinkemer established the Felker Leadership Conference at Purdue University to annually educate women about philanthropy and leadership issues. This group has given or pledged millions of dollars since the first conference. Ms. Altinkemer can be reached at 765-494-7890 or altinkemerc@cfs.purdue.edu
What is the rule of seven? It was developed by S. Shaw and M. Taylor in the mid 1980s to describe the following phenomenon:
Only one of the seven is still true: Women still outlive men by seven years.
According to Paul Schervish and John Havens in their Boston College report, the estimates are based on different rates of economic growth.
Amount | Growth | Charitable Bequests |
$41 trillion | 2% | $6 trillion |
$73 trillion | 3% | $12 trillion |
$136 trillion | 4% | $25 trillion |
The implication of this information is that if women outlive men, and we are not properly cultivating, asking and stewarding their gifts, especially in the case of couples, we are ignoring a very important constituency. There are further differences and facts that influence this notion.
The following summarizes bequests that are being transferred today, according to the IRS Statistics of Income Bulletin, summer 1999, (based on Bequests for Women & Men, 1995 IRS estate tax data).
Women | Charitable Bequests | Percentage |
Educational, medical, and scientific institution. | $1.6 billion | 32% |
"Other" institutions. | $1.4 billion | 27% |
Private foundations. | $1.7 billion | 23% |
Men | ||
Private foundations. | $2 billion | 38% |
Educational, medical, and scientific institutions. | $1.6 billion | 31% |
"Other" institutions. | $1.1 billion | 22% |
According to a report published in Planned Giving Today, December 2000, Cindy Sterling compared alumnae of women's colleges with the alumni of co-ed colleges that formerly had been all male. The schools were small, liberal arts colleges in the northeast who were participating in capital campaigns.
In those campaigns, the types of planned gifts given were:
Type of Gift | Women | Men |
Life Income Gifts | 10.4% | 17% |
Matured Bequests | 21.8% | 7% |
If the emphasis is to encourage irrevocable gifts as opposed to revocable gifts, we may need to rethink our strategies, and the implication and comfort of will bequest and beneficiary gifts for female donors. There is a huge educational opportunity for teaching women the benefits of irrevocable gifts.
Although the numbers have changed, the impact is still that an enormous amount of money will pass from the parents of baby boomers to their children and charity for years to come. In many cases, it will pass to women. Have you reviewed how you educate women about planned giving, and how couples make decisions together and separately about giving? Do life stages and giving styles also affect giving?
Us! As donor advisors, we are not always sensitive to many issues concerning donor's motivations: gender, age, culture, and style differences.
Them! As a couple, the dynamics of these issues double in complexity and continue with family/life circumstance issues.
Men. We try to avoid generalities when developing individual strategies for major and planned gifts, but there are some styles that are unique to men.
Women. Again, we're speaking in generalities, but women are often the silent public voice, and may also not feel comfortable with giving away family income if they were not the breadwinner or inherited wealth.
How do we change and adapt? We learn about each group's styles and differences.
Gender Communication
According to author Deborah Tannen and other gender communicators, men and women tend to use the following styles to communicate:
Men use report language. Men tend to want the technical aspects of how an endowment will grow, investment policies, etc. first, while women want to talk about the program first, then how to make the gift.
Women use rapport language. Women must have a relationship with the organization in order to give a major or planned gift. They also want involvement long after the gift is complete.
Men will sit through the Olympics for almost anything, as long as they get to see some winners and losers. Women want to know who the athletes are, what sacrifices they made.
Dick Ebersol, president, NBC Sports
There has been much already published about how to obtain gifts from the breadwinner, or male of the household, but literature has not been as generous with how to appeal to women. Again, as our focus is on planned gifts and women living an average of seven years longer than men, understanding women's motives becomes increasingly important. What we know is that although some men may exhibit similar behaviors, as a rule:
Women's giving depends on the following:
Wealth accumulation. Was the woman's wealth self generated, inherited, or was she in a one-income household? These issues determine a woman's confidence level in giving away assets and income.
Education. The higher the educational level again affects confidence and willingness to give through bequests.
Charitable giving attitude. The giving style and the values a woman wants to pass on to her children all determine amounts and willingness to give to charitable causes. If a woman's value is to teach philanthropy while also leaving an estate to her children, the challenge becomes how to educate her on the proper way to pass on social capital.
Women determine:
Based on research by Shaw and Taylor, women are motivated to give by the "six Cs:"
Women need accountability and good stewardship to know that their dollars are doing what they intend. They take longer to make decisions, and will want to stay active with the group long after the gift is donated. Men tend to make decisions quicker and then let the organization do its work.
By using the knowledge of the six Cs, you can help donors create a personal philanthropic vision. Begin with an individual exercise of personal reflection. Ask the donor reflective questions:
Once you understand gender, then understanding different generations will help you learn how age affects motivations for giving. The environment that you grew up in, especially when you were 10 years of age, strongly impacts your value of money.3
Traditionalists
Traditionalists were age 10 from 1920-1930. They were affected by:
Traditionalists tend to be:
Traditional Women:
Builders
Builders were age of 10 from 1940-1950. They were affected by:
Builders were influenced by:
Women Builders:
Baby Boomers
Baby Boomers were age 10 from 1956-1970. They were affected by:
Baby Boomers:
Boomer Women:
Busters: Gen Xers
Busters: Gen Xers were age 10 from 1970-1980. They were affected by:
Busters: Gen Xers were influenced by:
Busters: Gen Xers are more gender neutral:
A book entitled, The Seven Faces of Philanthropy, by Prince and File helps us to understand how giving styles affect how individuals give. This was an in-depth study of 218 people who maintain $1 million or more in a discretionary investment advisory account. They contributed $50,000 or more to a single nonprofit within the past two years, and more than 800 wealthy people participated in other ways to the study. Based on this information, they developed seven styles. Although a heavy majority of the donors they interviewed were male, the categories still are valid, especially with the traditionalist's age group.
Communitarian
Investor
Socialite
Repayer
Altruist
Dynast
Now that we know what motivates men and women to give, and how age may influence values, you must determine the best giving vehicle to meet a donor's individual style. You can then develop a strategy that best meets the household interests, if appropriate, then move onto individual strategies.
Remember the rule of seven: If you have included the woman's interest in a couple, the magic "seven-year rule" may disappear and you will have many satisfied clients.
Endnotes
References
The Women's Philanthropy Institute became part of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University in 2004. Go to http://www.philanthropy.iupui.edu/PhilanthropicServices/WPI/ for further information.
Boom Times a Bust For Retirement Assurances: Results of the 1998 Retirement Confidence Survey, Employee Benefit Research Institute, Washington DC.
"Will Boomers Give Generously?," Braus, Patricia, American Demographics, July 1994, pp. 48-57.
Donor Study, Craver, Mathews, Smith and Company, 1999.
"The Heart of a Donor: A Lifestage Analysis," Direct Marketing Associates Nonprofit Council, New York, NY, 1996.
Millward Brown Brand Equity Study, 1999.
Global Demographics: Fund Raising for a New World, Nichols, Judith E., Precept Press, Chicago, IL, 1995.
"Philanthropic Styles," Prince, Russ; File, Karen and Gillespie, James, Nonprofit Management and Leadership, Vol. 3, No.3, spring 1993.
"The Heart of the Donor: A Lifestage Analysis," Russ Reid Co., Direct Marketing Associates, New York, NY, January 1996.
"How We Talk: Men vs. Women," Rutter, E. Jane, Advancing Philanthropy, spring 1996.
Reinventing Fundraising, Shaw, S. and Taylor, M., Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, CA, 1995.
"Beyond Rocking the Ages, an Interview with J. Walker Smith," Stoneman, Bill, American Demographics, May 1998.
"Survey Finds Women Suffer 'Financial Paralysis,'" Sonshine Pasher, Victoria, National Underwriter, July 8, 1996.
You Just Don't Understand, Tannen, Deborah, William and Morrow & Co., New York, 1990.
"Millionaires and the Millennium; New Estimates of the Forthcoming Wealth Transfer and the Prospects for a Golden Age of Philanthropy," Schervish, Paul and Havens, John, Boston College Social Welfare Research Institute, 1999.back
Exercises and information from "Million Dollar Exercise," Taylor, Martha A., and Inspired Philanthropy: Creating a Giving Plan A Workbook, Gary, Tracy and Kohner, Melissa.back
"You Are Is...What You Were When," Massey, Morris E., Ph.D., Magnetic Video Library, Farmington Hills, MI, 1981, and Rocking the Ages, the Yankelovich Report on Generational Marketing, Smith, J. Walker and Clurman, Ann, Harper Business, 1997.back