FAQs
She Gives is the culmination of a long-simmering desire to celebrate the incredible contributions of women as agents for positive social change, to build on the available data around women’s giving in Australia, and to collectively inspire more to give, give more and give more impactfully. Noble Ambition, a fundraising consultancy which works directly with Boards, executives and philanthropists across diverse sectors who share a common goal to create lasting change, is providing the foundational and organisational drive for the campaign. There are many women behind the campaign, and we’re grateful for those who have also shared their stories of giving with us to showcase the collective power of giving to all causes, at all levels, to deliver positive social change. We’re thankful for the support of Perpetual, the McLean Foundation and the Snow Foundation for helping to get She Gives off the ground, and we’re particularly grateful to our advisory group – an inspiring group of women with deep personal and professional knowledge of philanthropy, whose guidance is helping drive this movement forward.
We believe in the power of philanthropy to create lasting and powerful change to benefit our communities. At a time when Australia needs more support there is also enormous potential for more Australians to give, give more and give more impactfully. Greater work needs to be done to create a stronger philanthropic culture in Australia. She Gives is one part of the solution.
She Gives proudly sits within a broader agenda that seeks to create a stronger philanthropic culture in Australia which of course includes men. However, we have many reasons for creating a movement specifically for women. Women have always played a critical role in giving in Australia, with our data showing that more women give than men, and when they give, they give more. We also know from US data that based on life expectancy many women will inherit twice – once from their parents and once from their spouses – and are more likely to have an impact strategy behind their giving and spread their giving across causes. Despite this, women’s collective contribution to giving often exists in the shadows. As women come into greater economic power (inheriting up to $3.4 trillion or 2/3 of intergenerational wealth transfer in the next 10-15 years), we need more public stories and examples that celebrate women’s influence in philanthropy and the enormous potential for women to act as conduits for social change.
She Gives hopes to shine a light on the power and collective contribution of women’s giving in Australia. We’ll do this by sharing inspiring stories from 100 women who all believe in the power of giving to create positive social change. By increasing the visibility of female role models and showcasing the power of their collaborative and consistent giving over time, She Gives hopes to inspire more to give, give more, and give more impactfully.
One of our goals is to share inspiring stories from 100 women – a clear and measurable target. Another is to inspire women to get involved, to engage in more conversations around giving and recognise their contributions and potential as agents for positive social change. We will be able to measure how many women are engaging with and talking about She Gives through our website and social media channels.
Ultimately, we want to contribute to increasing women’s giving in Australia as part of growing giving overall. Measuring this is more difficult because of the limited availability of data, which is a challenge for the sector as a whole. We have basic tax data that tells us how many women give (as a percentage of women who file a tax return) and how much women give as a percentage of overall income. Our ability to measure how any single campaign or action contributes to shifting those data points requires more research and data to be made available. In the meantime, our focus is to contribute to shifting the conversation and the culture around giving by providing a national platform to celebrate, profile and share women’s experiences to collectively build the capacity of women’s giving.
She Gives collects data in the form of personal stories, names, and basic information about giving priorities for use on the She Gives website, social media channels and final research report. Information is provided to She Gives on a voluntary basis and we will only use and share that information with the consent of the individuals sharing the information. We collect summary demographic questions that will be helpful in ensuring diversity of storytelling. De-identified information will be used for research purposes. Individuals have the option to remain anonymous or opt-out of sharing their details at any time. We do not share data or sell information to third parties (other than in accordance with our Privacy Policy). We will continually update and monitor our IT systems to mitigate against any risk of data breaches.
She Gives is a campaign to celebrate women’s collective contribution to giving in Australia as part of a broader focus to grow giving in Australia overall. She Gives has prioritised reducing as many barriers to entry as possible. This means encouraging giving at any scale, to any cause, that accelerates positive social change including causes that empower women and girls. We also know from international research that women tend to give with a gender lens, therefore as more women give, they are likely to naturally give to women and girls.
She Gives seeks to share 100 stories of women’s giving over a 12-month period. Ending the campaign after 12 months means we can move onto the next phase which is to prepare a national research report to contribute further insights about the power and potential for women’s giving in Australia.