Nonprofit Leadership Podcast · Dr. Rob Harter

Rethinking Philanthropy: Women Shaping Global Giving

·41 min·2 clips

Suzanne Ehlers compares donor impatience with a refugee's limited control, using a snowstorm and a closed grocery store.

1. The Nonprofit Leadership Podcast episode "Rethinking Philanthropy: Women Shaping Global Giving" examines a $15 million women-led campaign for refugee women's education, launched in September of the previous year. 2. Host Rob Harder interviews Suzanne Ehlers, Executive Director and CEO of USA for UNHCR, which is one of 11 national partners raising funds for the UN Refugee Agency and works in the U.S. market. 3. Ehlers' thesis is that women drive 85% of philanthropic decisions and are set to inherit 70% of global wealth, but fundraising models were not built with them in mind, so her team built the campaign around women from "soup to nuts." 4. She says USA for UNHCR formed a Women's Advisory Committee that brainstormed with "no idea is a bad idea" and settled on education, choosing the DAFI scholarship program, which has supported more than 26,300 refugee students over 32 years. 5. Ehlers says the campaign rests on relationships and "shared purpose" rather than transactional giving, and that she met women refugee scholars at the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva in December, within about four or five months of launch. 6. Harder cites the fall in DAFI scholars from about 9,300 in 2023 to 7,800 in 2024, and Ehlers responds that "we could fund 10,000" if resources existed, adding that educated mothers raise healthier, wealthier families. 7. On the gap of 7 refugee girls enrolled for every 10 boys in secondary school, Ehlers says the numbers do not mean girls are less interested, citing limited family school fees, violence in emergencies, teen pregnancy, and parents keeping girls home for safety. 8. She argues that data alone does not move donors and that authentic voices do, citing Monica, who fled conflict in South Sudan, faced pressure to marry young, and earned a DAFI scholarship to study at the University of Nairobi, and Krista, a youth advocate from Nicaragua. 9. Ehlers describes flexible access, including Syrian refugee scholars who study in Jordan near the camps where they grew up, university partners who support scholars arriving in places like Germany, and digital learning options, and compares donor impatience to a snowstorm derailing a grocery trip. 10. Nonprofit fundraisers and development staff interested in women-led giving and refugee education will find this useful.

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