Here’s some great news for women’s organizations: women give more than men. Women are the world's most powerful consumers and control well over half of consumer spending. When analyzing married couples, women influence the philanthropic decisions between 75-81% of the time. While many organizations (particularly women’s causes) are skilled at major gift cultivation and donor communication, how can the data on women’s giving habits guide your event planning?   

Here are the factors that drive women’s giving and how your event can reflect these qualities:

Women connect to a cause because of their personal experience.
Women donors often give out of personal experience, or are motivated by a cause affecting their children. Many women's organizations steward their current donors through grant evaluations or site visits, but how can they capture the attention of brand new donors? 

A few event ideas that tie in this giving factor include the following:

• If you are honoring women, record a few anecdotes or quotes unique to their experience and highlight the honorees via short blog posts, images on social media and on the screen during your event. Questions might include: What is your advice to a young woman at your company?  What is the funniest question you’ve received which was TOTALLY because you are a woman? What would you have done with additional $0.27 per dollar you would have received if we had pay equity?  
• Use a photo booth creatively by having pre-set signs that are unique to a woman’s experience (a mix of funny and not-so-funny is a good way to get your mission across).   

Donors to women’s organizations believe there is a correlation between equality and societal progress.
Women’s Funds/Foundations have this research - many of you funded it. Let’s use it. New donors and event guests have not benefitted from this information yet, which could inhibit them from connecting to your cause quickly.

Can your event bridge this opportunity?

• Make your research available. Link your research to your event website, put the link in the email with the ticket.  
• Create a short, compelling video that summarizes the research. Use anywhere / everywhere.  
• Re-target your guests with ads. Use Facebook advertising to put your research in front of guests prior to the event (use the emails of your registered guests to create an ad group and target them with an opportunity to download your research).
• Post-event. Get the research to your guests post event (email, copies at the exit) and connect it with the funds raised at the event itself.

Women give because they view your organization as strong and effective. 
The event is the most visible activity to a new donor and it’s imperative that you convey strength, vibrancy and organizational effectiveness. Your use of new ideas, keeping the event fresh and most importantly, who attends conveys strength. What types of queues can you send guests during your event?

• You are organized. Organizational strength can be conveyed by a smooth check-in and check-out experience, a well executed program and your staff being available to meet guests.  
• Social proof. Whether we agree or not, your guests attend the event and may evaluate your organizational strength by who is involved. It behooves the organization to take deliberate steps to include individuals on the board or event committee that garner respect. Social media activity is the perfect way to turbo-charge this network and cast your net widely.
• Vibrancy. Is your event on auto-pilot? Keeping an event fresh and up-to-date with technology indicates vibrancy and an organization focused on the future.
• Make sure to promote the differentiating factors of your organization versus other similar ones, and display where donations go and specifically how they help women and children.

Women have been, and will continue to, shape philanthropy for their homes. Make sure your organization has the metrics in place to capture their passion (and their dollars).

Statistics and references for this post came from IUPUI. The report can be found here.

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