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1 R Special Advertising Section | Sunday, April 25, 2021 33 GIVING GUIDE By Paul Sullivan The New York Times Interest in supporting nonprofit groups that help women and girls has grown in the last year, the groups’ leaders and philanthropic advisers say, some of it the result of a younger generation’s push for parents to focus on the cause. But because the biggest charities often use their money to help many interests, it can be hard to find those that can best accomplish what you want. I recently spoke with donors, advisers and orga- nizations about the factors that go into deciding which groups to support. And the common advice was to give to small nonprofit organi- zations that work directly with women or girls, or to look for ways to make sure bigger organizations spend the money in the ways you intended. “There’s a lot of pressure from the next generation to have a mission and to be intentional about where your funds are going,” said Kathryn George, chair of the Center for Women & Wealth at the private bank Brown Brothers Harri- man. “You can give to your alma mater, but instead of giving to the general-use fund, set up a scholarship for women. If you’re giving to a museum, why not give money to curate an exhibition on women or diversity?” The difficulty for donors who are trying to help a particular cause —wheth- er it be women, or children with reading difficulties — is that information about it is often lost in broader and long-established philan- thropic categories. To help struggling young readers, for instance, you could look at religious organizations, higher education or health and human services. All are probably doing something, but it may not be clear which would best reflect your interests. Sometimes, donations that help women and girls do not initially appear to do so. “In health and human services, the most impacted sector is women, but you’re not going to see data col- lection around women; it’s how much money is going into the human service area,” said Jane Searing, a managing director in De- loitte Tax’s private wealth group who sits on the board of the Washington Women’s Foundation, a Here’s how to give to help women and girls giving circle in Seattle. “But if you sliced and diced it, a large majority of funds goes to help women.” The Women’s Philan- thropy Institute, at Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, has tried to quantify dona- tions to groups focused on women and girls, but even its leaders admit that their efforts have limits. “It can be challenging to define this group, because many charitable organiza- tions have multiple arms, and some serve women and girls,” said Jeannie Sager, the institute’s direc- tor. Here are some specific experiences of donors, advisors and recipients of funds. The donors David Calhoun, presi- dent and chief executive of Boeing, said he had sup- ported diversity in all of his donations but was par- ticularly interested when he could find a grassroots organization to back. Calhoun said he sup- ported diversity initiatives at his alma mater, Vir- ginia Tech, but was also the largest donor to LiveGirl, a nonprofit organiza- tion focused on building confidence in middle and high school girls in Con- necticut. “The easy thing for me to do would be to find the biggest organization that does this and throw money at them,” he said. “I think the opportunity is big enough to seed organiza- tions like LiveGirl. We need a lot of folks at the grassroots level.” Calhoun got to know a founder, Sheri West, when both worked at General Electric many years ago, and that made it easier to give to a lesser-known group, he said. “She started really small and had a vision for it, and it blossomed because of her energy,” he said. “If I find another Sheri, I’ll do it again and again and again. It’s the best money you can spend. Giving to the big organizations isn’t the best way to do this. They’ve been around for a long time, and they’re still losing ground.” Large, long-standing or- ganizations generally work on a national level. Sarah Ross Soter, a philanthropist in Palm Beach, Florida, said she was frustrated by the lack of research into women’s heart health. Since heart disease runs in her family, she said, she approached the American Heart Association to set up a fund to support that research. She and her husband, Bill, gave $5.6 million to the campaign, bringing their total donations to the heart association to more than $16 million. The women’s cardiovascular research GABRIELA BHASKAR / THE NEW YORK TIMES Sheri West, of New Canaan, Connecticut, helped found LiveGirl, which helps girls in middle and high school build self-esteem. See Women, page 41 The Only Home for Chimpanzees in WA! Currently ten chimpanzees (and 4 bovines) full of personality call the sanctuary home, with six new chimps being rescued this summer. Learn more: ChimpsNW.org 509-699-0728 Ho p e , Lov e , Home . . . Sanctuary. Don’t let youth fall behind during this pandemic... givebigwa.org/youthcare GiveBIG to help youth experiencing homelessness move forward. OMON