For the first time in history, women are on the verge of controlling the majority of personal wealth. The unprecedented transfer of wealth to women is projected to reach $30 trillion in the next decade. What is unprecedented about that figure is certainly how much wealth will be transferred, but even more importantly, how women will direct that wealth. Women spend more money on their families and their households and on socially responsible products. Across income levels and generations, women are more likely to give, and give more than their male counterparts. With women at the helm of financial decision-making, I see a future of philanthropy that is collaborative, joyful, democratic, and rooted in trust.
Melinda French Gates and MacKenzie Scott are two women who often make headlines with their philanthropy—both for how much, but just as importantly how they give. Two weeks after her departure announcement from the Gates Foundation, French Gates laid forth her bold plan to move $1 billion to women’s rights groups in under two years, a bold way to move the needle on the stagnant 2% of charitable giving that goes to the causes of women and girls each year. This is in addition to her venture capital investments in women, a field where the statistics are eerily similar. Similarly, MacKenzie Scott has mobilized a staggering $17 billion to 2,300+ nonprofits globally since 2020, largely through unrestricted seven-figure donations rooted in the growing calls to center on the knowledge, relationships, and expertise of leaders on the frontlines of social change. Brava.
