There's a group of wealthy women that meets once a year to help its members decide how to more effectively give away some of their money.

At the group's meeting in 2000, which was organized by a female asset manager who controls more than $3 billion and sits on 14 corporate boards, some 50 women turned out. Each one of them controlled more than $100 million in assets.

Once upon a time, it was assumed that men owned all the money and were responsible for giving it away. But if this stereotype was ever really true, it's certainly much less accurate today.

We can see the change in our own work as "donor advocates." Many of the donors we're working with to develop charitable goals giving plans are women. Some are young and never-married. Others are older and widowed. Regardless, women like these are showing us how outmoded the old stereotypes can be.

Here are some of the key points about today's emerging new women donors:

- Even though a majority of women are married during at least part of their lives, 90% of all women are solely responsible for their own finances during some part of their lives.
- The average age of widowhood is 52.
- Women now control about half of the investment wealth in the U.S.

Many of us have heard about the tremendous intergenerational transfer of wealth that is currently underway and will continue for the next five decades.

But many of us are unaware that women are overseeing a majority of this transfer, which is valued at an estimated $41 to $136 trillion.

Behind the statistics are real women.

One young woman inherited a number of business as well as much accumulated wealth when her husband died. Today, she runs the businesses, supervises the philanthropic work, and keeps in touch with her children, who are now grown.

Another woman was a widow for less than a day when financial services telemarketers began cold-calling her and promising they knew how to help her control her life and finances.

Many charitable organizations haven't yet awakened to the fact that women run large parts of the nonprofit world. And frankly, some male-dominated organizations are embarrassingly sexist
in their practices and policies.

Furthermore, many organizations are blind to the fact that female donors often seek to establish more of a relationship with charities rather than just giving them money.

The world of philanthropy changes slowly, and some sectors haven't yet realized the huge impact women are having on giving today. Still, as women donors play an increasingly important role in the funding of nonprofits, we predict that charities will begin being more female-friendly.

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