August 27, 1998 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Female business executives “are looking for new ways to make their voices heard — and their money mean something — in the philanthropic arena,” says an article in Working Woman magazine (July-August).
“Driven by mounting disposable incomes and the desire to give,” says the magazine, “and, in some cases, to shine a brighter spotlight on themselves or their companies, they are no longer content just to shoot a check into the mail or buy tickets to the annual charity ball. They want to take action themselves.”
Some women are starting their own private funds or non-profit groups, while others are joining with other women to support special causes, the magazine says.
For instance, the magazine cites the case of Michele McGeoy, founder of a successful San Francisco software company, who sold her business and decided she wanted to throw herself into a charitable cause that would mean something to her. She saw a scarcity of jobs for low-skilled workers in the technology industry, so she put $300,000 from the sale of her company into a charity called Access to Software for All People, an organization that trains poor youngsters in skills they need to enter the computer industry.
Marie Wilson, president of the Ms. Foundation for Women, tells the magazine that the demand to take a hands-on role in philanthropy is coming about because “executive women have to work very hard to earn their money, so they want to do something worthwhile with it. You don’t just hand it over and say, ‘Take care of these poor women.’ You say, ‘Let’s make change.’ ”
“Philanthropy is the next frontier of the women’s movement,” adds Andrea Kaminski, executive director of the Women’s Philanthropy Institute, in Madison, Wis. “The challenge is to see where we can change — or have some influence on — society.”
