Where Is All The Funding For Women and Girls?

Did you know that less than 2% of capital is invested in women-led businesses? Did you also know that less than 2% of philanthropic dollars are invested in women and girl-serving organizations?

When I made this connection, I was completely blown away. I can’t believe this is 2023 and women and girls are still underinvested in and undervalued.

That’s why I made a bold decision this year. I am putting all of my effort into empowering women and girls to challenge the status quo. This decision was inspired by my own journey as a nonprofit leader and seeing just how hard to it is for women to obtain leadership roles, equal pay, and get the necessary funding they need to achieve bold change in their communities. To give you just one example, women represent 70% of the nonprofit workforce, yet they hold only 20% of CEO roles. On top of that, they earn only 72 cents of every dollar that men earn.

Women and girls are underinvested in even though they create inclusive communities, build more profitable businesses than men, and are more likely to invest most of their income back into their families.

So, where is all the funding for women and girls?

Let’s start with women-led businesses and startups. Although women founders are more likely to outperform male founders, the traditional profile of what a “successful” investment looks like doesn’t include women. The traditional profile of a successful investment is typically a male-led company, even when hard facts and data tell a different story.

It’s also important to consider who holds the power to distribute funding. According to Pitchbook, check writing authority is primarily male-dominated. This is why it’s so important to have women represented at the investor level. To seek out the nontraditional profiles of women-led businesses who are going produce higher ROI.

Another example I want to highlight that also supports this dynamic is sponsorship for women in sport. Sponsorship for women in sport is increasing rapidly. In a recent roundtable, we discussed that even with this growth, only $1B out of $57B is invested in women athletes. And when you look at where the revenues come from, the largest revenues are from financial services, technology, and automotive industries (all male dominated).

Next up, let’s take a look at women and girl serving organizations. I was really surprised when I learned that very little funding is invested in women and girl serving organizations. And I wanted to break this down and understand why. There are a couple of dynamics at play here.

The Women and Girls Index measures philanthropic funding directed towards women and girl serving causes. This report showed that girl-serving organizations are experiencing steady growth rates and are emerging as their own sub-sector within the nonprofit space.

At the same time, there are existing nonprofit organizations who are expanding their focus to women specific or girl specific programs, but are not categorized as a “woman or girl-serving organization”. This means that there may be more funding invested in women and girl serving programs, but it is difficult to measure.

Photo Credit: Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Women & Girls Index 2021

Additionally, if we look at the capital pool and who controls the distribution of funding, there are similar challenges that we see in the investor/VC funding side. There is a lot of data out there that suggests over 70% of philanthropic dollars come from individuals. However, I am going to agree with Nonprofit AF that foundations carry the bulk of funding. When you dive deeper into the data and look at smaller organizations (most are bet. $500K-$1M), individual donations are only a small fraction of revenues.

This makes complete sense to me. As I was writing this, I tried to find a gender breakdown of individual donors only to find research showing that women are more likely to give more than men. Of course they are! I couldn’t help but think something might be off with that assumption. If women are in fact giving more than men, I wondered if they are not investing in women and girl serving organizations. So the fact that foundations play a bigger role in funding organizations makes more sense to me. And here’s why.

I’ve yet to find data that backs this up, but I think it’s important to note. Through my own experience as a fundraiser, I’ve found that foundation management is typically male dominated. Particularly for private family foundations, which make up over half of all foundations. I believe this dynamic is creating the same effect that we are seeing on the investor/VC side of funding. Less representation at the investor/funder level means less investment in nontraditional profiles.

The other factor at play here is visibility which was highlighted in a NY Times article. Because women and girl serving organizations are still emerging as their own sub-sector, it is difficult to gain enough traction and visibility to compete with larger and more established organizations who may support women and girls in their programs. As a result, their work remains hyperlocal, and in effect, their funding pool does as well. This means that even when funding opportunities become available, these organizations are often overlooked and not on a funder’s radar.

I share this information with you not to create a bleak outlook, but to highlight the need for intentional investment and efforts. We hear a lot of hype about the progress being made to support women in business and to invest in women and girls. But when we look at the data and see just how far we need to go to reach equity, there is a lot more work to be done.

That's why I am doing my small part to address these dynamics and create real change, I am doing a few things a little differently this year:

1. I’m only working with women led organizations or women and girl serving organizations to help bolster their fundraising efforts. And I’m pretty damn good at it, so watch out world!

2. I’m starting a Girls in Sport Collaboratory for girl-serving organizations that focus on the niche area of sport and fitness to raise their visibility, enhance collaboration, and boost financial support.

3. I’m intentionally including funders to be part of my community because I believe that to truly make an impact, we need to break traditional patterns of funding distribution and highlight the value of investing in women and girls. And it starts with funders who are managing critical capital investments, particularly women who can connect with the value of nontraditional investments.

4. If I have a business or service need, I am looking for women-owned businesses first!

I hope you’ll join me in this effort and feel inspired to play a role in whatever capacity you can to make a difference and create real change for women and girls. Because we all know the entire world is better off when women and girls are thriving.

If you want to join our community in some way, reach out to me! There’s a space and place for everyone here.

PS: If you're a bold woman leading change in your community, come join us Friday at 2pm ET for a Grant Writing Secrets to Success Workshop!