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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My recent presentation on “Message & Media: Marketing for Small Community-Based Nonprofits” is featured on the homepage of Slideshare.net today. It’s the same presentation that I shared with you in a post on Monday.

I’ve been meaning to talk a little bit about the value of Slideshare to nonprofit communicators, so this is a good chance to return the love.

Just like LinkedIn Answers, Slideshare.net has become a really good source of current thinking on various issues, including nonprofit marketing and especially social media. While you certainly can’t get a speaker’s complete message from her slides alone, you can usually get the gist of it, allowing you to follow up with the speaker directly if you want more detail on her point of view. And Slideshare does allow you to add audio to your slides, although I haven’t done that yet.

When I’m researching something new, whether for a client, a blog post, or a webinar, I’ve added a search on Slideshare to my must-check list. Googling is usually the first thing I do, but I quickly move on to other favorite sources now like Slideshare. I highly recommend that you do the same when doing online research for your nonprofit.

The presentations posted by Beth Kanter (queen of all that is social media for nonprofits) and Jonathon Coleman (Nature Conservancy social media genius) alone are worth your time. Beth has also blogged about how nonprofits can use Slideshare for advocacy so I won’t repeat her points here – go read them on her blog.

Are you using Slideshare in any capacity? Share what you are doing with it and your Slideshare link by leaving a comment. You can find all of my presentations at slideshare.net/kivilm.

Get all of our webinars and e-books for one price with the All-Access Pass! Get a full year for $465, or 90 days for $145.