Women are winning attention for giving billions, but top honours are elusive

She Gives is an initiative backed by a who’s who of Australia’s philanthropic foundations and leaders, and for two years has been pushing hard to increase recognition of women's giving in Australia.

Speaking ahead of the Philanthropy Australia conference in Brisbane this week, She Gives founder Melissa Smith said generous women were getting noticed.

"Women are already leading many of Australia's largest philanthropic organisations, they're driving the growth of collective giving across the country, and they're becoming increasingly visible in public conversations about philanthropy," Smith said.

Tax data shows women gave nearly $3.6 billion a year in deductible donations at last count – with earlier figures showing they gave a larger slice of their income than men. That doesn’t include the funds given by the country’s many women-controlled philanthropic funds.

Pulse Check: The Visibility of Women's Giving, released early this month, found women-led stories accounted for 32 per cent of the 100 highest-reach Australian philanthropy media articles in the past financial year, up from 14 per cent in 2023–24. It was the first time in three years of analysis that women-led stories outnumbered men-led stories.

Yet at the same time, women's representation in the Order of Australia honours lists – used by the campaigners as a proxy for philanthropic recognition – fell from 50.7 per cent on Australia Day 2024 to just 27.5 per cent this year. The decline was steeper for the highest honours.

Pulse Check comes several months after the landmark She Gives report Growing Women's Giving in Australia, launched in February by Governor-General Sam Mostyn. That called for more recognition of women's giving through storytelling and honours, and this latest report shows recognition has increased.

The latest rise in media coverage has coincided with the campaign to publicise hundreds of stories of women's giving, with several of those stories published by Community Directors.

Women lead many of Australia's largest philanthropic organisations and are driving the growth of collective giving, the report found.

They hold 14 of 22 chief executive positions and almost half of chair roles (13 of 30) in the Australian Financial Review’s (AFR’s) “Philanthropy 50” entities. One in five of those entities had a majority women executive team.

Women also make up 81 per cent of collective giving participants in Australia, giving millions each year, according to Philanthropy Australia research cited in the report.

The latest She Gives findings were the focus of a panel discussion at the Philanthropy Australia conference this week, where Smith was joined by JBWere's John McLeod, who first produced the AFR Philanthropy 50 list; Tracy Norman, chair of the Ian & Shirley Norman Foundation; and Tanya Hosch AM, a member of the She Gives Advisory Group. More than 1000 funders and sector leaders attended the conference to discuss how to increase giving in Australia.

Smith said work was needed to bring more attention to women’s giving, stressing "there remains a gap between who is leading and who is publicly recognised”.

She said the Pulse Check findings came at a crucial time for the philanthropic sector, as Australian women were on track to inherit almost two-thirds of the projected $5.4 trillion intergenerational wealth transfer over the next 20 years.

"As women prepare to inherit a significant share of Australia's intergenerational wealth transfer, we need a more visible and inclusive culture of giving that recognises the many ways women are already creating change," she said.

"Our research has consistently shown that when women see themselves reflected in giving – as leaders, decision-makers and changemakers – we create the conditions for even more women to participate."

McLeod told the panel his analysis suggested that more women were set to be added to the list as women rose up the ranks on the back of the predicted wealth transfer.

The latest report pointed to naming conventions as another barrier to the visibility of women’s giving, with only a fraction of the AFR Philanthropy 50 entities named after women.

Pulse Check also flagged a persistent gap in diversity. First Nations women, women from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds and women of colour remained under-represented in media reports and honours, it noted, citing Per Capita’s analysis of the 2026 Australia Day honours list.

Hosch, who led the 'Recognise' campaign for Indigenous constitutional recognition and was involved in the Uluru Statement from the Heart, said more voices needed to be included in conversations about giving.

"We need to include First Nations women and women of colour in conversations and leadership in and about giving and sharing," she said. "These contributions are critical to ensure a genuine inclusion in the diversity of voices to enrich the representation of women in philanthropy."

She told the panel philanthropy could be crucial to “nation building”, but only with the help of Indigenous women. “It’s so important that our First Nations women, who have always led, [are] seen as equals.

“We need to be at the decision-making tables … because we have so much to contribute. Relationships are incredibly powerful when you commit."

The report recommends increased nomination of women for national honours, more diverse storytelling in media coverage, and better data on the diversity of women's giving.

More information

Pulse Check: The Visibility of Women’s Giving