A new study called “Women Give 2010: New Research about Women and Giving” says women are more generous charitable givers than men.

Evidence clearly shows that married couples give more and are more likely to give than singles, in large part because married people tend to be more connected socially, which is linked to philanthropic giving. But it’s hard to separate out a wife’s giving from a husband’s. So for this study, Debra J. Mesch, Ph.D., Director of the Women’s Philanthropy Institute at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, looked at only male and female households which included never marrieds, divorced/separated, and widows/widowers.

What she found was very interesting: In each of the five different income groups analyzed, female-headed households are more likely to give to charity than male-headed households. In every income group except for one, women give more than men.

We now have the proof that all women, even those at the lower end of the pay scale, are actively supporting nonprofit causes and giving more money than their male counterparts.

So what does that mean for your marketing and fundraising?

Make sure that your communications are appealing to women! Sure, you may have specific campaigns that are directed to men, but if you are reaching out to a more general list and need to make stylistic decisions, I’d lean toward stories, images, colors, and metaphors that are more appealing to women.

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Sometime very soon, I am going to launch an experiment where I donate to 20-30 nonprofits that I currently have no contact with and then see what kind of communications I get back from them over time. I’d like your help in shaping this project.

I’m especially interested in the frequency and content of the communication. How personalized will it be? Will they attempt to learn more about me? Will they encourage me to do more? What will they highlight in their communications to me? What format will the communications take?

I’m still thinking about the right mix of nonprofits and donation levels and methods and would love to hear your thoughts. I’m not looking for a statistically accurate methodology, just a really interesting one.

– Who should I give to and what should the mix look like? I’d like the list to include some nonprofits that I currently know nothing about (although I won’t give to any group whose mission I completely oppose — let’s save that for another experiment). Should I go for a random mix of sizes, age, and missions? Or should I give to some similar organizations to see how they compare?

– I’ll spend $500 upfront on donations, with more to come later in the year, depending how this all turns out. Should I give $20 to 25 groups? Or should I go with $10 to 20 and $100 to 3 groups? Or some other combination?

– I’d like to give in a variety of ways, e.g. snail mail, online, through Facebook Causes, etc. What other methods should I include? Should I give to the same nonprofit in a couple of different ways to see if I’m treated differently?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on all of this over the next week. Naturally, I’ll let you know what happens over the next several months as the results come in.

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I just got a sneak peek at the slides that Jeff Brooks of Donor Power Blog will be sharing during this Thursday’s (5/1/08, 3:00 ET) webinar: What Do Baby Boomer Donors Want from Your Nonprofit?

Jeff says the good news is that Baby Boomers are the wealthiest and largest generation in U.S. history. The bad news is they are much more demanding than their parents’ generation. So what do they want from you? Control over their relationship with your nonprofit, for one thing.

And what does that really mean and what do you do about it? What impact does it have on the way you communicate with your donors? You’ll have to get those answers straight from Jeff. Register for the webinar ($35 for whoever can fit around the monitor and speaker phone) and you can ask all the questions you want about Baby Boomers and your nonprofit. Jeff will answer as many as he can during the hour.

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