From the comprehensive Bank of America Study of Philanthropy: Charitable Giving by Affluent Households, we know a lot about the relationship between nonprofits and prosperous, charitable women:
- Significantly more affluent women volunteer compared to affluent men.
- Significantly fewer affluent women who volunteer serve on nonprofit boards.
When you couple this disconnect with the fact that 85% of household charitable giving decisions are made or influenced by affluent women, it begs the question: With so many capable, philanthropic, and financially successful women serving organizations as volunteers, why are women still so underrepresented in the nonprofit board room?
The Business Case for More Women on Boards
So, why is it important that we have more women on boards? It is unfortunate to have to begin by answering this question in 2025, but the current political climate stands counter to the evidence: that policies of inclusion and board diversity, particularly around gender, truly help nonprofits maximize mission impact.
The business case is also clear: There is definitive evidence that policies that build board diversity—particularly as it relates to gender—truly help nonprofits maximize mission impact. Consider the business case for commercial enterprises:
- Higher annual returns. The Credit Suisse Institute has found that companies with the highest representation of women on their boards have generated higher compound annual returns in their share price since 2010, compared to those with the lowest board diversity.
- Financial outperformance. McKinsey found top-quartile organizations with the most executive-level gender diversity worldwide had 39% greater likelihood of financial outperformance vs. their peers.
- Higher credit quality. Moody’s reports that companies with higher proportions of women on their boards achieve higher credit ratings than those with lower representation by women.
Why Nonprofits Need to Pay Attention
Nonprofits employ significantly more women than men—an estimated 70-75% of workers in the nonprofit sector are women. Do those statistics align with the percentage of women serving on nonprofit boards? No. In fact, Harvard Business Review reports that only 52% of nonprofit board members are women. In larger organizations with budgets of more than $25 million, that percentage drops to only 44% of board seats occupied by women.
So, let’s dig deeper into the specific numbers reported by Bank of America:
- 42% of affluent women volunteer vs. 33% of affluent men
- 16% of those women volunteers serve on boards vs. 30% of the men
Missing the mark on board diversity can damage a nonprofit’s credibility and even cause mission impact to suffer. Diversity is closely related to ideals of fairness, according to DEI strategist Sahar Andrade: “When nonprofit boards do not reflect the diverse communities they serve, it creates a disconnect and can sew mistrust.”
A diverse board asks different questions and approaches challenges from a range of perspectives.
When organizations miss the mark on board diversity, their credibility and mission impact is likely to suffer. Sahar Andrade points out in this Forbes piece that, “When nonprofit boards do not reflect the diverse communities they serve, it creates a disconnect and can sew mistrust.”
Don Kramer illustrates this point in an article where he highlights Jane Scaccetti’s experience on a board discussing the features it could provide and promote for a 24-hour towing service for stranded motorists.
While the male board members focused on company repair and towing capabilities, Scaccetti was able to bring her lived experience to the table and point out that most women would consider their safety first in the case of a broken-down vehicle and then prioritize factors such as a well-lit lot, security cameras and transportation to get home while her car was being repaired.
The Reality of Our Shared Experience as Women
My 7-year-old daughter recently asked me, “Why does the school nurse only call mommies and not any daddies?” (She has already figured out that being the first to volunteer to escort her germ-filled friends to the nurse’s office gets her out of class very often!😄)
I share that because, even at a school with majority two-parent households and high parent engagement, the Lionshare of housework, emotional labor, and child rearing still falls mostly on women who are also working full-time.
And sorry (not sorry) to have to bring up the viral TikTok #manvsbear video where seven out of eight women said they’d rather run into a BEAR in the woods than a MAN…but it’s the quickest way to make an important point.
This sounds a bit odd at first until you realize that 30 per cent of women aged 15 and older have been subjected to physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both at least once in our lives, according to UN Women. (Note: This figure does not even include sexual harassment!)
The woman’s perspective is unique (sometimes due to unfortunate experiences) and needed more than ever on nonprofit boards, as emphasized by the BoA statistics. But this is not limited to safety or security.
To share a brief personal anecdote, as a member of the board of Hunger Solutions New York (HSNY), I am proud to have played a small part in helping get statewide universal free school meals passed in NYS in January 2025.
But for me, as a single working mother, this achievement was just as much about the additional morning childcare (that many working parents need desperately) as well as the additional nourishment that will benefit children throughout the state.
I was able to share this sentiment and my perspective with my fellow board members as well as on LinkedIn more broadly to get more buy-in and grow awareness of HSNY’s important mission.
How to Be Intentional in Recruiting More Women for Your Board
Companies have learned that if they explore options for flexible work arrangements, they can retain top talent among women (without compromising quality or productivity). Nonprofit organizations need to do the same, reimagining how they can build a governance pipeline that includes more women.
Just as we prioritize keeping women in the workforce, re-engaging women in the workforce, and supporting women in leadership roles, we must do the same when considering how to better attract affluent, educated, well-connected women to nonprofit board service.
4 Action Steps Your Nonprofit Can Take
The good news is that we know the pool of potential women board members is a big one. The challenging part is connecting the dots to your organization and its mission. Here’s what your organization can do.
1. Develop an Active Board Matrix
A proven best practice in overall board development is to conduct consistent board matrix exercises to ensure that your organization has a current and comprehensive understanding of your members’ skill sets, experience, social capital, leadership styles, giving preferences, representation and more.
2. Know What Causes Resonate
The Bank of America study offers a roadmap to connect your organization to potential women board candidates.
- Women are more likely than men (24% and 17%, respectively) to support women’s and girls’ causes and/or organizations; this extends to reproductive health and rights, in particular.
- Women are significantly more likely to say they sometimes or always give because they want to support racial justice compared to men (50% and 38%, respectively).
- Women are significantly more likely to indicate that they, or their advisor/staff, monitor or evaluate the impact of their giving compared to men (24% and 18%, respectively).
So, if your mission relates to women’s and girls’ causes, reproductive health, or racial justice, you have an even greater opportunity to appeal to prospective women volunteers in your existing pipeline or to engage new ones by telling your impact story in new ways.
3. Professionalize the Perception of Your Board
Your potential board members—the affluent women we’re missing in leadership—are busy people, with multiple responsibilities and obligations. Anything that can save them time and increase their efficiency will be seen as a benefit. Two suggestions:
- Improve your recruitment process. Offer an intuitive board portal and mobile app for ease of connectivity, communication and engagement.
- Recommit to creating a culture of inclusion. Make new board members feel a sense of belonging through a welcoming, organized, and informative onboarding process.
4. Be Relationship-Focused, Not Just Fundraising-Focused
When it comes to strategic relationship-building and donor engagement, board members are usually underutilized. At board retreats, I often introduce a relationship-building worksheet that asks board and committee members to list their “top three social circles” and “top three possible partner company introductions.” This exercise also prompts members to remember “their why” regarding why the nonprofit’s mission initially resonated with them and why it still does now.
The result is typically a plethora of excitement around the untapped connections and networks with the potential to help the organization grow its fundraising, visibility, and impact.
The Time is Now
If your organization has been kicking the can down the road or struggling to crack the code on building a board that is engaged and is representative of the communities you serve, let this be an additional nudge to prioritize your efforts to include well-qualified women on your board.
It’s worth noting that the overall face of America is rapidly changing. The United States is expected to have a majority minority population by 2044, according to U.S. Census Bureau projections. Couple that with Gen Z in the workforce (and serving on junior boards), plus five generations interacting daily, and it’s clear the workplace is growing more diverse every year.
When I was in business school, I learned a pertinent takeaway: It might take slightly longer to reach a decision but having a more diverse group of perspectives and expertise results in a more thorough and thoughtful consensus.