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Women Who Give: New analysis reveals the growing visibility of women in Australian philanthropy

She Gives

Key Facts:

Key Insights from the Pulse Check:

·         Women’s giving is becoming significantly more visible in Australian philanthropy media coverage. Women-led stories of giving more than doubled from 14% to 32% of the highest-reach Australian philanthropy media coverage between FY24 and FY26.[i]

·         How women’s giving is represented in the media is different from how men’s giving is represented. Women’s giving is more often told through personal and emotive narratives,^[ii] reflective of how women described their motivations for giving in the She Gives research.[iii]

·         There is still a gap in the diversity of women represented in Australian philanthropy media coverage and better data is needed to track representation over time.

·         Based on a small sample size of publicly available data in the AFR Philanthropy 50 list, women hold significant leadership roles in Australia’s largest philanthropic entities,[iv] but that leadership is not always visible in public measures and media narratives of major philanthropy within mainstream media.[v]

·         Women’s representation in the Order of Australia honours lists has declined between 2024-2026.[vi]

·         The decline in women’s representation is more significant at the highest levels of recognition in the honours lists.[vii]

·         Gender and cultural diversity intersect with women from CALD (culturally and linguistically diverse) backgrounds and women of colour even less proportionately represented in the honours lists.[viii]

·         To sustain parity in national recognition, Australians need to nominate more women and particularly more First Nations women, more women from CALD backgrounds and more women of colour.

·         Collective giving is an area of growth within Australian philanthropy. Women make up 81% of collective giving participants in Australia[ix] and play a significant and increasingly visible role within this model of giving.

The Pulse Check and Research Report can be accessed here: ·         Pulse Check: She Gives Pulse Check: The Visibility of Women’s Giving (September 2026) ·         Research Report: She Gives: Growing Women’s Giving in Australia (February 2026)

Australian philanthropy is at a turning point, with new national analysis highlighting the increasing

visibility of women’s giving and the depth of female leadership in the sector — but many of the ways women create social impact are still not fully reflected in how philanthropy is publicly recognised and understood.

She Gives began as a campaign to celebrate, share and inspire women’s giving. It is now a movement

mobilising women who give at any scale, to any cause, that accelerates positive social change.

Earlier this year, She Gives released the landmark She Gives: Growing Women’s Giving in Australia (February 2026)ⁱ research, the largest mixed-methods study of women’s giving ever undertaken in Australia (with academic partner, Centre for Social Impact, University of Western Australia), launched by the Governor-General, Her Excellency the Honourable Sam Mostyn AC. The report made three recommendations to grow women’s giving in Australia. The first recommendation was to recognise women’s crucial role in giving through storytelling and formal public recognition.

On 3^rd September, She Gives is releasing the She Gives Pulse Check: The Visibility of Women’s Giving (September 2026)ⁱⁱ to examine whether visibility is beginning to shift through representation in the media and through recognition in the Order of Australia honours lists. Media is a key channel for storytelling, shaping which stories about giving are shared and amplified to public audiences, and how they are represented. The Australian honours system is one of the highest levels of public honour, recognising people whose contributions are deemed to have made a significant impact.

The She Gives Pulse Check: The Visibility of Women’s Giving (September 2026) echoes the recommendations of the She Gives: Growing Women’s Giving in Australia (February 2026) to strive for gender parity and increased diversity in philanthropy media and stories of giving, as well as in national honours (both in number and level of award) by nominating more women that contribute to philanthropy, volunteering and community leadership.

The Pulse Check finds the visibility of women’s giving in mainstream media has more than doubled over the past three years.ⁱⁱⁱ This increasing representation is attributed to the willingness of women to share their lived experience, together with the strategic focus of the She Gives movement to bring more than 140 stories of women’s giving to light, and push them as far and wide as possible, including through mainstream media.

Whilst measures such as the Australian Financial Review (AFR) Philanthropy 50 list^iv profile significant giving, women’s visibility within major philanthropy is limited, in part due to the complexity of naming conventions.^v When examining leadership gender composition for the philanthropic entities in the Top 50, a more nuanced story emerges. Assessing the current AFR Top 50 CEO and Chair positions that are publicly available, (in and of itself, a small sample size), women hold almost half of the Chair roles and 14 of 22 CEO positions,^vi significantly higher than the 10% women CEO rate reported in the ASX 300,^vii placing, based upon these measures, women’s leadership in philanthropy ahead of corporate Australia.

Women’s representation in the Order of Australia honours lists has declined over the past three years, with women only recognised in 27.5% of the Australia Day honours awards in 2026.^viii This decline is more significant at the highest levels of recognition.^ix Gender and cultural diversity intersect, with women from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds and women of colour even less proportionately represented in the honours lists.^x

First Nations women, women from CALD backgrounds and women of colour remain under-represented across media and national recognition,^xi highlighting an opportunity for Australia’s public representation of philanthropy to better reflect the diversity of women driving social change.

She Gives Founder Melissa Smith said the findings marked an important milestone for both the campaign and the broader philanthropic sector, as Australian women prepare to inherit almost 65 per cent of the projected $5.4 trillion intergenerational wealth transfer over the next twenty years.^xii

“When we launched She Gives in 2024, we asked a simple question: how visible is women’s giving in Australia? Visibility is critically important as it determines whose contributions are valued, remembered and celebrated. What we see shapes what we believe is possible. When women see other women giving, they are more likely to give, lead and inspire others,” Ms Smith said.

“Visibility also normalises giving and directly challenges the tall poppy culture that many women see as a barrier to giving.

“This Pulse Check shows meaningful progress, but there is still a lot of work to be done. A more inclusive picture of women's giving is needed to encourage greater participation across generations, cultures and communities."

This sentiment is echoed by Tanya Hosch AM, She Gives Advisory Group member: “We need to include First Nations women and women of colour in conversations and leadership in and about giving and sharing. These contributions are critical to ensure a genuine inclusion in the diversity of voices to enrich the representation of women in philanthropy.”

The Pulse Check is an opportunity to broaden how Australia understands, measures and celebrates philanthropy. Traditional indicators, including foundation names, major giving rankings and public recognition, do not adequately capture women’s significant contributions.

“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,” said She Gives Founder, Melissa Smith.

“But there remains a gap between who is leading and who is publicly recognised. We know change is possible. Near gender parity in the 2024 Order of Australia honours^xiii showed what can happen when communities actively identify and nominate women’s contributions.

"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. 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.^xiv”

Together, the She Gives Pulse Check: The Visibility of Women’s Giving (September 2026) and the She Gives: Growing Women’s Giving in Australia (February 2026) report suggest Australia’s next opportunity to grow giving is to broaden how philanthropy is recognised — celebrating leadership, collective action and diverse pathways into giving alongside major gifts and traditional structures.

ENDS

Supporting Partners

She Gives is grateful to its major supporting partners, Perpetual Limited, Fairground, Minderoo Foundation and Bell Family Foundation, to its supporting partners, Noble Ambition, McLean Foundation, The Snow Foundation, Ningana Trust and WeirAnderson Foundation, and to its advisory group for their wisdom and guidance:

• Clare Ainsworth Herschell, Co-Founder of Groundswell
• Georgina Byron AM, CEO and Executive Director of The Snow Foundation
• Natalie Egleton, CEO of the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal
• Caitriona Fay, Managing Partner, Community and Social Investment, Perpetual
• Tanya Hosch AM, Director of the Goodes O’Loughlin Foundation (GO Foundation) and Chair of the Advisory Committee for the Centre for Indigenous People and Work (UTS)
• Michelle Lin, CEO of Vermilion Foundation
• Paula McLean, a Founding Trustee of McLean Foundation
• Amanda Miller OAM, Co-Founder of Impact Generation Partners
• Professor Kristy Muir, CEO of Paul Ramsay Foundation
• Carol Schwartz AO, Founding Chair of the Women’s Leadership Institute Australia
• Melissa Smith, CEO of Noble Ambition and Founder of She Gives
• Deanne Weir, Founder of WeirAnderson

To view the full list of our sector partners, visit the She Gives website.

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Contact details:

Amy Price, 0437 027 156