Jewish Women, Men Found to Differ in Philanthropy

Jewish women give differently to charity than do Jewish men, according to a study reported in the journal Lilith.

Susan Weidman Schneider, author of the article in the nonprofit independent Jewish women’s quarterly, said she found that the “male model” for giving to Jewish causes emphasizes competition--a desire to outdo one’s peers--while Jewish women interviewed said they give “to make a difference.”

Women, she said, enjoy giving to causes with which they identify, in particular those that help women and girls.

“Like most women,” Schneider said, “Jewish women prefer to write their checks to causes--to specific and often innovative programs--rather than to the kind of established institutions that their fathers or husbands or brothers would be likely to support.

“Because they tend to give differently from the way men always have, women’s potential as philanthropists is often overlooked.”

Schneider, who is also Lilith’s editor-in-chief, argued that Jewish women are the best educated women in the country today and are “uniquely positioned to earn more money and give away more than was ever the case before.”

Secular organizations, such as universities, are beginning to examine women’s patterns of charitable giving and looking for ways to bring women in as major donors, she said, but most Jewish organizations still aren’t paying attention.

Schneider’s research, including interviews with more than 150 women and men seeking to determine how male and female philanthropy differ, was financed with grants from the Sophia Fund and the Lilly Endowment.

She quoted Maddie Glazer of Des Moines, Iowa: “I don’t like to give to bricks and mortar. I don’t need to see my name on something. I give where I feel the money can do the most good.”

Jewish women tend to be modest about their giving and claim that receiving public recognition matters little. But Schneider said such modesty cuts both ways.

While admirable, she said, such modesty can also mean that these women “sometimes do not give as much as they are able to because they don’t want to be seen as richer than their friends.”

“We’re deprived of role models for other women who might be encouraged to make large contributions, too,” she said.

Schneider found that women and men also travel different paths to charitable giving.

A man usually makes a contribution and then becomes involved by serving on a board or committee, while a woman typically is first a volunteer, a consumer of the service or a participant in a program offered by the nonprofit agency.

“This means that women philanthropists are much more likely to be pro-active donors than men, because they have their fingers on the pulse of a community’s real need.”

Also separating women and men are the objects of their charity, with women giving less of their money to Jewish causes than to secular ones. And when they do give to Jewish causes, they are likely to direct it toward Jewish women’s organizations, “which historically have been the place where Jewish women expressed their Jewish identity, since so much of synagogue participation was closed off to them in the past.”