‘Marriage support is not needed’: how billions of women recycle charitable donations

“It doesn’t need to be helped by a couple.” Five words on Melinda Gates’s divorce The request last week was not well known to a woman who has a billion dollars in her name and what she wants to get Bill Gates $ 130bn Microsoft grant.

She could also be the head of a growing group of women whose commitment transforms American gifts.

The details of the break-up with Gates remain confidential, even a few days after Bill’s divorce goods for sale more than $ 2bn for Melinda.

As the couple continues to run Bill & Melinda Gates Council together, it manages less than half of Bill’s finances, raising hopes for more wealth and making Melinda a charitable donor of her own.

There is not a single template for a new class of female megadonors in which they already appear. There are some whose divorce has been the subject (in particular MacKenzie Scott’s $ 38bn settlement by Jeff Bezos) and other key widows, such as Laurene Powell Jobs, Julia Koch and Sheryl Sandberg.

Priscilla Chan, wife of Mark Zuckerberg, is one of those who have shared the same income as the couple since their first donation in octane. And there are a growing number of people whose wealth comes from self-employment rather than men or parents.

Together, she is struggling with feminist gifts away from her relationships with pearly-dressed socialists and dinners, announcing population growth and the changes that charities are trying to respond to.

The growth of women’s empowerment on the one hand reflects their economic growth. Women account for one third of the world’s wealth, and the BCG to compare, and it is growing at an alarming rate. But those working in the fields say that the well-known benefactors are encouraging others to follow their example.

Scott ruined her list of donors last year by giving her $ 5.7bn – second to her ex-husband. Even more shocking is the impact of money laundering, says Andrea Pactor, former director of Indiana Philanthropy Institute of Indiana University.

“[It] it was so popular that I believe it is a very important issue and will change the way women, and hopefully men, think of their contributions, ”she says.

In just four months, Scott’s team analyzed information from 6,500 organizations, asking hundreds before taking action. Receiver 384 working on everything from food banks to education.

“McKenzie Scott’s approach is making a comeback, forcing public-funded organizations to come back and ask,” How is this going? “said Jacob Harold, vice president of Candid, who studies the basics and nonprofits.

Notably, he says, his approach was “very credible”, incorporating a reduction in zeal due to the persistence of many foundations, and these were unsolicited, unlimited donations for the benefit of the poor, not the elite.

The visible spaces on Scott and Gates are “difficult” for some women, Pactor says. But it would not be right to get too close to them, warns Phil Buchanan, President of the Center for Effective Philanthropy. Gates has been a co-chair of the Gates Foundation for two decades, with Scott (like Bezos) new to the list of major donors.

Yet as these women make the list more diverse, Buchanan says, they hope we will see “very low-key, business-minded ideas that sometimes give investors a hard time”.

Pactor research shows that men and women have different types of charitable giving and different reasons for giving.

Dana Brakman Reiser, a professor at Brooklyn Law School, says that reproductive factors can play a bigger role than gender. Gates is only 56 years old, a year younger than Jobs. Scott and Sandberg are 51, and Chan is only 36 years old.

“Charity seems to be changing from some of the things you do when you retire to the other things you do to build your kingdom, while you are raising your family,” he says.

Young providers are very interesting Combining other interests is a waste of money, as well as the use of small companies’ loans and funds advised by the suppliers, which are more flexible and confidential than the basics.

Young sponsors such as Jobs and Chan, who started using LLCs, are announcing “counting with charitable tools”, Brakman Reiser said.

When the University of California at Los Angeles launched a charity program 25 years ago, women’s donors are being helped out.

“She feels like: ‘I made the donation: With my check, my husband’s name was never found and [yet] a message of thanksgiving. . . is back to him ‘, ”recalls Melissa Effron Hayek, who runs the program.

But the school has seen it change of mention For women who give freely, and less “sales” for their contributions, Effron Hayek says: “Mothers give for a variety of reasons. It is not necessary to have a name in the house… They want to volunteer to get married and feel supported.”

Kathleen Loehr, a consultant for charitable organizations that provide women, points out Scott’s willingness to be involved, her strong research and analysis as a symbol of how women give differently.

Many women donors find the term “charitable donors” and do not object to their desire to partner with the groups that support them, she says. It also contributes to the causes of neglect by many men, such as overcoming financial inequalities, and advancing other women and girls.

In this, Gates is also an example. Whatever she does after, without the support of her partner, she has also encouraged her fellow women who donate money, Effron Hayek says: “Melinda Gates is our soul.”