“What I would really like to do is make people more aware of what heart disease is and how easy it is to begin to change it,” Ms. Soter said. “I want people to realize it is the No. 1 killer of women, and the younger you are to learn this the better.”
The Advisers
Certain organizations support women’s needs generally, but it is still better to lay out your wishes.
“If you’re giving money to food pantries — the hungry, the poor, the working poor — it’s primarily women and children who benefit,” Ms. Searing of Deloitte Tax said. “In the arts, if you want to fund women artists, you’re going to have to designate that.”
Some donors may need to look more closely to find where a large organization is spending its money, said Julie Neitzel, partner and adviser at WE Family Offices, which advises wealthy families. She pointed to the Miami Foundation, which makes grants in the community to organizations that support equity, including initiatives targeted at women, and the National Association of Corporate Directors, which is helping to add more women to corporate boards.
“It’s all about raising awareness and understanding in allocating resources to women and girls — on the individual, community and national level,” Ms. Neitzel said. “It makes us better communities and corporate organizations.”
Jennifer Buczek Ezring of New Canaan, Conn., a partner at the law firm Cahill Gordon & Reindel, had been supporting her alma mater and Multiplying Good, a nonprofit organization that promotes community service.
When her daughter, now 12, was entering middle school, Ms. Ezring reached out to LiveGirl to learn more and ended up becoming a donor and sitting on its board.