Giving to women's and girls' groups tops $12 billion

Organizations dedicated to women and girls received a record $12.1 billion in philanthropic support in 2024, the first time the total has passed $12 billion, according to the Women & Girls Index 2026. The Women's Philanthropy Institute at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy released the index on October 8. Their share of all U.S. charitable giving rose from 2.02% in 2023 to 2.07% in 2024, the third year in a row above 2%.

The index covers 58,851 charitable organizations, or 3.6% of registered charities, and draws on IRS data; 2024 is the most recent year for which finalized IRS data are available, the report says. Giving to these groups rose 5.8% from $11.45 billion in 2023, or 2.8% after adjusting for inflation. Even so, inflation-adjusted giving remained 4.7% below the 2022 high of $12.71 billion in 2024 dollars.

Reproductive health cools as other causes gain

Reproductive health and family planning organizations remained the largest focus area, at $2.13 billion. That was down 4.5% from 2023 and about 13% below the 2022 peak in nominal dollars, but still above the 2021 level of $2.05 billion after adjusting for inflation. The report calls 2021 the last full year before the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision.

Other areas closed the gap. Giving to women's and girls' human services organizations rose 15.8% to $2.09 billion, and giving to women's health organizations rose 12.5% to $1.96 billion. That left reproductive health ahead of human services by only about $41 million.

The sector is still small by comparison. The $12.1 billion is a little over half of what went to environment and animals, the smallest of the traditional subsectors the report compares, and about 8% of what went to religion, the largest.

What the authors suggest

The report's authors, Jacqueline Ackerman and Jon Bergdoll, see a lesson in the swings. "The reproductive health data illustrate how giving can rise sharply around major events, then recede as the immediate sense of urgency subsides," they write. For donors, they add: "Multi-year and unrestricted support can also help organizations plan for the future and respond to shifts in need, costs, and public attention."

In our view, a women's or girls' organization can use these figures as a benchmark for its own 2024 results, and as evidence when it asks a donor who gave in a crisis year to keep giving. The report says figures from earlier editions were updated with additional contribution detail from Form 990 and 990-EZ returns, the same filings our guide to reading a Form 990 walks through. The report notes that this brief was funded by Google.org, and that the index was created in 2019 with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.