Traditionally, most women contributed to charitable causes through volunteering. And we still make up the majority of volunteers in this country.

But as we celebrate Women's History month, we celebrate the fact that, for the first time in our history, women earn and control large amounts of wealth and can choose to make substantial financial contributions to improve their communities and the world.

With this opportunity come choices about ways to give. Here are some options:

Make a Direct Gift to a Nonprofit Organization

A direct gift includes giving to charitable organizations such as churches, educational institutions or other nonprofit organization working in health care, education, the environment, human services, arts and others.

Finding a charity that provides programs and services that reflect values similar to your own is usually not difficult – you probably know of some already.

If you have questions about the reliability of a particular national nonprofit, the BBB Wise Giving Alliance is a source of information on larger, well-established nonprofit organizations (www.give.org).

In addition to writing a check, you can also give gifts of property to charity, including real estate, mutual funds, stocks and other securities. These gifts mean different deductions for tax purposes.

Make a "Planned Gift" to Charity

As I discussed in this column in October 2003, there are a number of ways to incorporate charitable giving into your estate plan. “Planned giving” is a term commonly used to describe a wide variety of giving vehicles that allow you to give to charity during your lifetime and/or after your death, while meeting your current income needs and providing for your heirs.

Give to or Through a Community or Public Foundation

Community and public foundations allow you to establish charitable funds without incurring the costs of starting and administering a private foundation. You can make gifts to a community or public foundation to create or support several different types of charitable funds, including ones where you designate issue areas or specific charitable organizations to support. You can also set up a Donor Advised Fund, through which you advise the foundation how the funds should be distributed. Maryland has ten community foundations around the state – learn more at www.mdcommunityfoundations.org. Our region also has several public foundations – learn more at www.abc-md.org, www.associated.org or www.archbalt.org.

Join or Start a Woman's Fund or Foundation

A women's fund or foundation can channel women's philanthropy to primarily support programs that benefit women and girls (though sometimes the money may be distributed to other causes). Organizations focusing on females are traditionally under-funded, and it is estimated that less than 5% of foundation dollars go to them.

Explore Your Local Women's Initiatives

Over the past decade, an increasing number of nonprofits have identified the need for special programming designed to reach and involve more women as donors.

Women's philanthropy initiatives are up and running in nonprofits as diverse as universities, private schools, YWCAs, environmental organizations and United Ways. These programs provide a wonderful opportunity to learn more about philanthropy and support your favorite charity, and learn more about how women give.

Locally, the United Way of Central Maryland's Women's Initiative was created in 2000, and is now one of the fasting growing United Way Women's Initiatives in the country. Their mission is to create a powerful leadership network of women who strengthen our community through a focused investment of their time, talent and treasure. The initiative was created as part of the Alexis de Tocqueville Society, with individual gifts of $10,000 of more, to highlight and recognize women leaders who invest in our community. In 2002, the Women's Initiative membership totaled 75 raising $831,387 and in 2003 membership increased by 20% to 90 members. “Women's Initiative members do more than make a financial commitment. They are part of a network of women who use their heads, their hands and their hearts to make sure women and children in central Maryland have the support they need to succeed,” says P.J. Mitchell, UWWI 2004 Chair. For further information contact Holly Joyce at holly.joyce@uwcm.org or (410) 895-1406.

Start a Private Foundation

Private foundations are a popular, long-standing form of philanthropy in the United States. They are generally founded by an individual, a family or a group of individuals, and are organized either as a nonprofit corporation (giving the foundation the same tax-exempt status as a charitable organization) or as a charitable trust. You can appoint yourself, as well as other family members or friends, to sit on the foundation's governing board, which is charged with fiscal oversight and ensuring the allocation of funds.

Private foundations are flexible in terms of who starts one and why. Families sometimes use a family foundation as a forum in which family members can work toward common goals, or as a way to instill the value of charitable giving in future generations of the family.

Start or Join a Giving Circle

Giving Circles, a kind of social investment club, are an enormously powerful way to impact social change and pave the way for a new frontier in philanthropy. Giving circles enable a wide-range of people to give voice to their values. Joining or forming a giving circle provides you with a hands-on opportunity to explore and collaborate with others who share the desire to make focused, social investments with impact. A giving circle gives you a hands-on opportunity to collaborate with others to practice giving in a supportive environment.

Giving circles vary in structure, size and charitable focus. Some giving circles are very informal, nothing more than a group of friends with a bank account who meet in each others' homes to discuss and decide on where their funds will go. Other giving circles have hundreds of members and governing boards, and may use a community foundation to manage the financial aspects of their giving.

The Baltimore Women's Giving Circle at the Baltimore Community Foundation, which was formed in 2001, supports organizations in Baltimore City and its five surrounding counties with projects that focus on promoting the self-sufficiency of women and their families. Currently, the circle has 150 members, each of whom contribute $1,000 per year, for at least two years. To date, the circle has awarded 20 grants totaling $152,554. “It has been incredibly rewarding for the many women involved in the giving circle,” says Pam Corckran, co-chair of the BWGC. “We are each leveraging our thousand dollar contribution into $150,000, and making an enormous impact on the programs that are important to us,” tells Corckran. For further information on the Baltimore Women's Giving Circle contact Ann Daniels at bwgc@bcf.org or (410) 332-4172. For further information on giving circles, please visit www.abagmd.org

How about incorporating one of these ways of giving into your giving plan for 2004? For information about any of these options, visit www.abagmd.org for details, resources, and contact information.

Buffy Beaudoin-Schwartz is the Director of the Baltimore Giving Project (BGP), an initiative promoting philanthropy in the region. BGP is a project of the Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers, a membership association of foundations and corporate giving programs. Her column appears every month. She can be reached at bgp@abagmd.org or www.baltimoregivingproject.org