Web 2.0: The Conversation between Women begins & We Support Each Other

What excites me about Web 2.0 is the increased ability that women around the world now have to connect to one another, to advocate for themselves and to support one another.

As a women who lives in the United States and works for a small nonprofit that was founded by a women and whose mission is to engage and empower women in development projects in the global south, I am thrilled by the prospect of women of many countries sharing their message and experiences directly with female donors here in the US.

I believe passionately that female philanthropists around the world should support causes that directly benefit women, organizations that include women in leadership roles at all levels and projects that respect, empower and seek the direct engagement of women. Web 2.0 allows for compelling, direct, detailed and unfiltered communication between those women who are supporting projects and those women who are the beneficiaries.

The significance of increased communication is not to be underestimated. Women not only control more and more of the United State's wealth, but they are much more likely to give to a cause that they feel connected to, with which they can interact and that they can share with their larger community. Web 2.0 makes all of this possible.

As projected by author Fara Warner, women in the United States currently own half of the private wealth in in the US (about $14 trillion) and that percentage will continue to increase at a steady rate.

It is clear that, as women control more and more of the hundreds of billions of dollars that Americans donate annually, (Americans gave more than 300 billion dollars in 2008 - 1), organizations such as the one for which I work can reach out to and connect women donors with women who are implementing projects, receiving funding and improving the lives of others in their own communities. The positive reciprocity that is created by Web 2.0 can be inspirational, powerful and can help bring about measurable change.

1: 'The Power of the Purse: How Smart Businesses Are Adapting to the World’s Most Important Consumer -- Women, (Pearson/Prentice Hall 2006)',Fara Warner
2 : www.philanthropy.iupui.edu/News/2009/docs/GivingReaches300billion_061020...