Women are the fastest-growing philanthropic group earning more educational degrees than men do, holding a majority of the managerial and professional jobs in the workplace, and making the majority of consumer decisions in the home. Yet, most nonprofits, schools, and universities have not adapted their fundraising practices to reflect this new reality.

"In short, gender matters in philanthropy," writes Kathleen Loehr, the principal of Kathleen Loehr & Associates, a philanthropy and leadership practice, in the September/October issue of Currents. "Men and women have different motivations for giving and different patterns of giving. By not embracing gendered differences, we are looking for resources for our critical societal issues with one hand tied behind our backs."

Loehr recommends a four-part process—based on a well-researched, effective design model called Appreciative Inquiry—to change up fundraising practices and grow support from women.

1. Discover: What do you know and what do you need to know? Focus on the facts about women's giving based on national research, explore your own data and survey your women donors and stakeholders, and then look at your current fundraising behaviors. 
2. Dream: Review what you learned during discovery and create a practical action plan for change. "Changing behaviors and best practices will be awkward at best...only with a clear and compelling vision of the desired outcomes can we cut through the natural human resistance that occurs," writes Loehr.
3. Design: Begin implementation by breaking each goal of your overall vision into small, actionable steps. "If your focus is on growing the number of women in your prospect portfolios," writes Loehr, "how might adapting your research impact new ways of finding, connecting to, and soliciting women prospects?"
4. Destiny: At this point, the focus on women should be infused into all fundraising processes and practices, and it is critical that these processes and practices are continually changed and updated as more is learned. 

Read more in "How and Why You Should Grow Support From Women" in the September/October issue of Currents and read Loehr's new book, Gender Matters: A Guide to Women's Philanthropy, now available at the CASE Store. 

This article is from the September 2018 BriefCASE issue.