This book explores the complex questions facing funding agencies and foundations as they grapple to understand and define gender equity in education. It covers different approaches funders use to define gender equity, target limited resources, and create collaborative relationships that will ultimately make schools equitable and engaging for all.

This book illuminates the philanthropic impulse that has influenced women's education and its place in the broader history of philanthropy in America. Contributing to the history of women, education, and philanthropy, the book shows how voluntary activity and home-grown educational enterprise were as important as big donors in the development of philanthropy. The essays in Women and Philanthropy in Education are generally concerned with local rather than national effects of philanthropy, and the giving of time rather than monetary support. Many of the essays focus on the individual lives of female philanthropists (Olivia Sage, Martha Berry) and teachers (Tsuda Umeko, Catharine Beecher), offering personal portraits of philanthropy in the 19th and 20th centuries. These stories provide evidence of the key role played by women in the development of philanthropy and its importance to the education of women. Philanthropic and Nonprofit Studies -- Dwight F. Burlingame and David C. Hammack, editors

Women & Philanthropy Women's philanthropy has led the way in virtually reinventing the world of fundraising and ways of giving. When women make a gift, are in a leadership position, or volunteer their time to a nonprofit or charitable organization, they tend to base their efforts on solid principles such as compassion, values, vision, and responsibility. Women are increasingly engaged in giving circles, global giving, transformative gifts, entrepreneurial giving, faith-based giving, family and couple giving, and social change gifts. Based on extensive interviews and the authors' combined half century of experience, Women and Philanthropy shares new ways to better engage women in giving, as well as insights into developing women leaders in the nonprofit arena, and advises women seeking to develop as philanthropic leaders and shape the future for the better. Women and Philanthropy explores women's philanthropic endeavors, offering a wealth of information on key topics such as how and why women give, what it takes to develop a gender-sensitive fundraising program, how to develop a strategic plan to involve women as leaders and donors, and suggestions for working with women of wealth.

The cost of public higher education is steadily increasing, with state and federal government cutting its support year after year. Students are having to pay more out of pocket for classes and tuition, and institutions rely on private funding support to provide educational opportunities to students in need. Historically, fundraising operations in higher education have focused on a traditional solicitation model, focusing on fundraising from men in households, but savvy institutions have begun to focus on philanthropy from specific populations, including women, to increase dollars raised. Research shows women are more philanthropically generous than their male counterparts, especially when giving to education. The main purpose of this qualitative case study was to highlight the successes of a women and philanthropy program at William and Mary, a public college in Virginia, as it is the first and only women and philanthropy program in the country where the funds donated are given back to benefit women, as well as add to the growing body of literature on women and philanthropy, and the lack of literature that exists on women giving to women in higher education. The alumnae initiatives endowment funded by the Society of 1918 offers alumnae leadership development, networking opportunities, continuing education, empowerment, and more. Private funding in this case is enabling a social justice program to exist that otherwise would not be funded through tuition and state and federal funding. Interviews, observations, and document analysis were utilized to examine contextual factors contributing to the development of the Society of 1918 and motivations for members joining the Society at a $10,000 level. A feminist standpoint theoretical framework helped to develop meaning-making of alumnae's motivations for joining the Society of 1918. Utilizing portraiture as a qualitative method, findings showed how gender and timely social justice movements played a role in influencing alumnae motivations to join the Society of 1918. Finally, best practices are shared for institutions considering a comprehensive women and philanthropy program whose private gifts benefit women.

Policy Patrons offers a rare behind-the-scenes view of decision making inside four influential education philanthropies: the Ford Foundation, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. The outcome is an intriguing, thought-provoking look at the impact of current philanthropic efforts on education. Over a period of several years, Megan E. Tompkins-Stange gained the trust of key players and outside observers of these four organizations. Through a series of confidential interviews, she began to explore the values, ideas, and beliefs that inform these foundations’ strategies and practices. The picture that emerges reveals important differences in the strategies and values of the more established foundations vis-à-vis the newer, more activist foundations—differences that have a significant impact on education policy and practice, and have important implications for democratic decision making. In recent years, the philanthropic sector has played an increasing role in championing and financing education reform. Policy Patrons makes an original and invaluable contribution to contemporary discussions about the appropriate role of foundations in public policy and the future direction of education reform.

A work that can truly be described as an underground masterpiece, Sears' Philanthropy in the History of American Higher Education was written as a dissertation seventy years ago, and subsequently published as a "Bulletin" by the United States Bureau of Education in 1922. It has been much spoken of and little read since then. As Roger L. Geiger points out in his new opening essay, this volume can still be read with wide interest and great profit. This is a tribute to the quality of mind and diligence of its author. The special quality of this volume is its close connection of educational philosophies of the past linked firmly to the educational philanthropies of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The scope of coverage is broad-ranging: from the great universities to the manual labor colleges. But it is more than quantitative research that the reader will find. For Sears, from start to finish, while appreciating the benefits which foundations bestow, fully appreciated the continuing risks of such outside support. For Sears, the overwhelming impulse of philanthropy has been the encouragement of the public good, or at least the support of a healthy notoriety for the donors and recipients alike. But he also notes that a democratic society must never be expected to take massive gifts on faith. He urged that even a "grain of danger" should be weeded out if it carries with it the potential for the bias and special interest. This edition is graced by a fine essay that gives a deep background to the life and work of Jesse Brundage Sears. It covers his origins in rural Missouri, his move to Stanford University and work for Ellwood P. Cubberly, and his later work on the history of philanthropy. For individuals interested in the history of education, the structure of financing higher education, and the data on which social policy has been made, this will be indispensable reading. Roger L. Geiger, author of the recently published work, To Advance Knowledge: The Growth of American Research Universities, 1900-1940 and other works in education at The Pennsylvania State University. This volume is the twelfth volume in the Transaction Studies in Philanthropy and Society edited by Richard Magat of The Foundation Center.

"This volume, which grows out of a research project on women and philanthropy sponsored by the Center for the Study of Philanthropy at the City University of New York, expands our understanding of female beneficence in shaping diverse political cultures ... As in the United States, this activity often enabled women to create parallel power structures that resembled, but rarely replicated, the commercial and political arenas of men. From nuns who managed charitable and educational institutions to political activists demanding an end ot discriminatory practices against women and children, many of the women whose lives are documented in these pages claimed distinctive public roles through the nonprofit sphere. The authors are from Europe, the United States, Latin America, the Middle East, Egypt, India, and Asia. Their essays cover nations on every continent, representing a variety of political and religious systems ... The essays in this book illustrate the extent to which government, the market, and religion have shaped the role of female philanthropy and philanthropists in different national settings. By shifting the focus from organizations to donors and volunteers, they begin to assess the relative importance of each of these factors in creating opportunities for citizen participation, as well as the role of female philanthropy in opening a space for women in the public sphere"--From publisher's description.

Gender Gaps - Where Schools Still Fail Our Children directly addresses the conflict between the standards movement and the pursuit to educational equity - the most hotly debated topic in schools today and of concern to all parents of school-aged children. On the eve of the 21st century, what progress have we made? What gaps still need to be addressed? How are technological advances and profound shifts in school demographics changing the way we teach? Most importantly, do new approaches to teaching and learning benefits both girls and boys? Gender Gaps confirms that public schools are making progress toward equitable treatment of boys and girls. Nevertheless, high academic standards for all students cannot be realized without equity. Equity differs from equality in asking not whether girls and boys receive the same education but whether they receive the right education to achieve a shared standard of excellence.

Shows how foundations, nonprofits, and organizations in other sectors can be more effective by institutionalizing deeper understanding of diversity and gender.

This volume centers on the lives and experiences of female and African American leaders of foundations and nonprofits. Contributors to the volume examine race and gender as constructs and provide a theoretical background for understanding their effect on the psycho-social development of the individuals.