The Women & Girls Index 2022

What is the Women & Girls Index?

The only comprehensive data on charitable organizations dedicated to women and girls, the Women & Girls Index (WGI) tracks the landscape of women’s and girls’ organizations in the U.S., including the amount of philanthropic support they receive from individuals, foundations, and corporations.

You can download the full list of WGI organizations, as well as search for organizations by keyword, category, and geographic location at WomenAndGirlsIndex.org. You can also learn more about the Index and review the methodology used to create and update the WGI at this site.

Women & Girls Index 2022:

Measuring Giving to Women's and Girls' Causes

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What’s new in 2022?

The updated WGI adds information from 2019—the most recent year finalized IRS data on charitable organizations is available. This update expands the picture of charitable giving to women and girls from 2012 to 2019.

2019 saw philanthropic support for equal pay inspired by the U.S. women’s national soccer team winning the World Cup and ongoing charitable giving in response to the #MeToo movement.

The 2019 WGI data provide a baseline for charitable giving to women’s and girls’ organizations prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disproportionately impacted women in numerous ways.

What do the data show about women’s and girls’ organizations?

The updated WGI contains 48,395 charitable organizations, or 3.5% of total registered charitable organizations.
These organizations received $7.9 billion in philanthropic support in 2019—a fraction of that received by traditional nonprofit subsectors like education and health.
This amount made up 1.9% of overall charitable giving, remaining relatively unchanged from 2018.

Women’s and girls’ organizations can be found in all traditional nonprofit subsectors and further categorized based on mission focus.

Similar to previous years, reproductive health and family planning organizations (e.g., Planned Parenthood, Center for Reproductive Rights) received the greatest portion of philanthropic support for WGI organizations in 2019, at $1.5 billion.

Although they receive a smaller amount of charitable giving, gender equality and employment organizations (e.g., National Women’s Law Center, Catalyst) experienced the largest increase in philanthropic support for WGI organizations from 2012 to 2019, at 119.4%.

In addition to organizations that are primarily managed by professional staff, the WGI includes organizations in which groups of women volunteers and/or donors play a significant role. These organizations are categorized as collectives of women that either:

- Serve women and girls (e.g., women’s funds and foundations); or
- Serve the general population (e.g., Junior League, Impact 100).

Collectives of women serving women and girls receive greater philanthropic support ($0.7 billion in 2019) than those serving the general population ($0.4 billion in 2019).

Charitable giving to women’s collectives serving women and girls grew more than twice as quickly (58.6%) as those serving the general population (26.5%) from 2012 to 2019.

How can this information be applied?

Issues affecting women and girls (e.g., the gender pay gap, sexual harassment and assault) have received increased attention in recent years, but charitable giving to organizations addressing these issues remains very low.

Fundraisers and nonprofit leaders should use this as a central case for supporting their organizations. Prospective donors are likely aware of these issues, but may not have translated this awareness into actual giving to women’s and girls’ organizations.
Donors should consider how their values align with their current giving. If issues affecting women and girls are important to you, is this reflected in the organizations to which you contribute your financial and other resources?

The numbers presented here provide a pre-pandemic baseline for charitable giving to women’s and girls’ organizations. Research has shown the pandemic reversed progress on gender equity, which could inspire greater giving to these organizations.

Fundraisers and nonprofit leaders should communicate that donors’ support is even more urgent now, since women and girls will need additional resources to make gains coming out of the pandemic.
Those who want to support women and girls should consider upping their giving to WGI organizations. If you already give to these organizations, find out how they have fared during COVID and what additional support they may need (financial or otherwise).

The resources on GiveToWomenAndGirls.Day and WomenAndGirlsIndex.org can assist in raising funds for women’s and girls’ organizations and researching these organizations.

Fundraisers and nonprofit leaders should visit GiveToWomenAndGirls.Day to find user-friendly tools and messaging to encourage giving to their organizations on International Day of the Girl (October 11, 2022)—and every day!
Current and prospective donors should visit WomenAndGirlsIndex.org to find a women’s and girl’s organization that aligns with their interests—you can search by keyword, category, and geographic location.
Researchers should visit WomenAndGirlsIndex.org to download the WGI dataset and incorporate it into their own research on nonprofits and philanthropy.