New Director Has Ambitious Plans for Women Donors Network

Helping people give away money is Donna Hall’s forte. She has helped the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation decide which charities deserve support and has advised family foundations about their grant-making programs. Now, as the new executive director of the Women Donors Network, which consists of 90 women who qualify to join by giving away at least $25,000 a year, Ms. Hall plans to turn the low-profile membership group into an organization that resembles a foundation in its giving power, public-policy influence, and prominence.

The network, in Palo Alto, Calif., was created nine years ago to educate wealthy women about how to give effectively. Initially it helped women who had inherited money and lacked confidence in their financial abilities, but now it serves a much broader array of women who want to be sure that their philanthropy makes a difference.

The members give away an estimated $250-million a year — in the same ballpark as the total grants made by the Rockefeller Foundation last year, she likes to point out. The members, she says, are like amateur foundation program officers. Every year they meet for three days at a conference center to share their giving strategies, hear presentations from experts, and otherwise educate themselves. They keep in touch the rest of the year through the group’s Web site, and many also attend informal meetings. In addition, members can get free advice on their giving from Ms. Hall whenever they need it.

The group does not pretend to serve just any wealthy woman who walks through the door. The members must also be devoted to supporting what Ms. Hall calls liberal approaches to solving social problems. Among the many interests of members are women’s programs that emphasize changing gender roles, prison reform and anti-death-penalty activism, and most recently, supporting antiwar activities.

The Women Donors Network projects a budget this year of between $600,000 and $700,000, with all of the money coming from members. The budget includes funds for the annual conference, the group’s Web site, and three staff members. The network started as a project of Resourceful Women, a San Francisco charity that gives financial advice to wealthy women who inherited their money, but is now in the process of becoming legally independent.

Ms. Hall says she hopes to shake the organization up during her tenure. She believes that by welcoming more people into the group and publicizing its work, the members can have more clout in the philanthropic world, which will, she hopes, lead to more-effective results. “We now want to go from being a somewhat mysterious, unknown club to a professional organization,” she says. She plans to double its membership during her first year. Eventually she wants to coordinate members’ gifts, so that the group acts more like a foundation with a well-defined giving strategy.

Ms. Hall says she realizes that as the group grows bigger, it could lose its original appeal: an organization that offers confidentiality to its members and that encourages women to support each other as they wrestle with decisions about how their charitable donations can best be put to work. “The onus will be on me to maintain the intimacy of the organization while it grows,” says Ms. Hall. “The minute the safe-haven feeling disappears, we become like any other organization.”

In an interview, Ms. Hall discussed the organization and her role.

Why did you take a job at a small charity, after coming from such large foundations?

It’s been a long time since I’ve been in such an entrepreneurial setting. Also, the philosophy of the organization is in sync with my values: empowering women and making a difference. It’s progressive, defined broadly as wanting to change the world. This is a great opportunity to grow something that’s small.

What services do you offer women donors?

One thing we offer is mentoring for new people coming into the field. There has been a big change in terms of the needs of our donors versus 10 years ago. Young women used to feel uncomfortable about having money that they inherited — they were embarrassed to be identified or exposed as wealthy, and unsure how to think about philanthropy. Younger women now have a lot more sophistication. We try to help both new members and more experienced members to leverage their dollars.

Why is it important for women to have their own organization?

Women come to money and to this experience differently than men. Women for a long time have had to deal with: ‘Where did they get the money?’ Women currently control a majority of the wealth in the United States. According to some studies, they tend to be more generous. They tend, as they grow older, to be self-sufficient and to deal with the issues germane to their lives through philanthropy. They want to develop girls’ and women’s programs and to fight for social justice. That’s why women need the organization. We have any number of men who say, ‘Why can’t we have an auxiliary?’ Maybe someday, but not now.

How are women different from men in their giving?

They are more likely to give over longer periods of time and to give a higher proportion of their income. Men are more likely to give to traditional charities: their university, sports clubs, or their churches. Women are considered more liberal in their giving. They take risks. I don’t want to grossly generalize, but from my Rockefeller days, we studied an overseas microlending program and observed that the first money that the women made, they thought of giving it back to the community or supporting their children. Men tended to spend it more on themselves.

Why is membership in your group limited to those who give at least $25,000?

That’s something that I asked when I got the job. Many members think we could and we should consider a lower number for new members. But on the other hand, it is part of how we spur each other to give. There seems to be something at the $25,000 level that indicates a seriousness of purpose. Once people join the group, their giving almost always increases.

What does it mean to have or encourage “progressive values”?

We have a very wide range of people, from far left to moderate left to centrist. We are all united by a focus on social change: helping poor and disenfranchised people, the rights of women and girls, pro-choice issues, peace and justice, international issues, and the effects of a globalized world.

ABOUT DONNA HALL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WOMEN DONORS NETWORK

Education: Received a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and anthropology from Stanford University. Earned a master’s in business administration from Stanford University and a master’s in public health from the University of California at Berkeley.

Previous employment: After graduate school, she worked in the strategic-planning unit at Syntex, a pharmaceutical company. She joined the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation in 1986 to coordinate projects that aimed to prevent the spread of disease. In 1992, she moved to Connecticut to become an independent consultant to foundations. She then worked for three years at the Rockefeller Foundation, overseeing grants to support research on the role of women on the job.

Charitable interests: Serves on the board of the National Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy, Parenting, and Prevention, an advocacy group in Washington. She is also volunteering her time to create a new organization in Los Angeles that will help high-school students from low-income families get jobs in the film industry.

Currently reading: The Divine Right of Capital, by Marjorie Kelly.