Charities Dedicated to Women and Girls Receive 1.6% of All Donations, Study Finds

Only 3.3 percent of all nonprofits in the United States are dedicated to helping women and girls, according to a new study. Those organization received $6.3 billion from individuals, foundations, and corporations in 2016, or about 1.6 percent of all charitable giving that year.

Of that amount, the greatest share, $1.2 billion, went to nonprofits dedicated to women’s and girls’ general health. Reproductive health and family planning followed, with $1 billion in donations.

The study by the Women’s Philanthropy Institute, titled Women & Girls Index: Measuring Giving to Women’s and Girls’ Causes, identified 45,000 U.S. nonprofits that are dedicated to women and girls.

Additional findings:

• Organizations dedicated to women and girls tend to be smaller than other charities in terms of finances and human resources.
• Such charities receive about 3.1 percent of all donor-advised-fund dollars given from 2012 to 2015.
• The top women’s and girls’ organization was the Johns Hopkins University Jhpiego Corporation, which received nearly $333.5 million in 2016. It was followed by Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which got $226.8 million that year.

Maria Di Mento directs the annual Philanthropy 50 , a comprehensive report on America’s top donors. She writes about wealthy philanthropists, arts organizations, key trends, and insights related to ultra-high-net-worth donors, among other topics. She recently wrote about a $100 million commitment from Nicole Shanahan for reproductive research and other causes.