He said, she said

WHICKER Some might remember the 1991 movie titled "He Said, She Said" with Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth Perkins. The two lead characters are journalists who are vying for their newspaper's open column-writing position. To exploit their diametrically opposed and often gender-stereotyped views on newsworthy subjects, their boss gives them both the job and prints their columns side-by-side. Wackiness ensues as characters Dan and Lori are propelled to local stardom, graduate up to their own television show and eventually fall for each other despite their opposing views.

The film creatively includes segments showing some of the characters' life events as seen from both characters' perspectives, so the audience has a chance to see what happened from both Dan and Lori's points of view and sort it out for themselves. It's a great film, especially for fans of Kevin Bacon and of the fun style of late-1980s filmmaking.

What brought this to mind recently was my colleague's article that appeared here on March 18. Our Southwest Florida Community Foundation Director of Relationships Arlene Knox wrote a great piece that included information from a study on the giving habits of women. In the study, it was found that there are real differences in how men and women approach philanthropic giving. Arlene's article moved me to investigate this further, and some of the things that I found would provide months of material for a "He Said, She Said" column, if it existed. Suffice it to say that the research on giving based on sex doesn't bode well for men on the surface in some studies.

Two facts that you may not know are that women today own 50 percent of investment wealth in the U.S. and that because of that women could soon overtake men in their philanthropic giving. Research on this subject is inconclusive. Some studies state that women are bigger givers than men, but others show that there is little difference. The best studies show that there is not so much a difference in amounts as in motivations in giving, and that is what Arlene's March 18 article brought out very well.

Interestingly, another study published in 2001 titled "Which is the Fair Sex? Gender Differences in Altruism" by James Andreoni and Lise Vesterlund found that, "depending on the price of giving, either sex can be found to be more altruistic. When the price of giving is low, men appear more altruistic, and when the price is high, women are more generous.

Stated differently, men are more likely to be either perfectly selfish or perfectly selfless, whereas women care more about equalizing payoffs. This leads to demand curves for altruism that cross and those for men are more

price-elastic."

What does this all mean? There are definite differences in motivations for giving between the sexes and there are some differences that are dependent upon the cost. We can see that men and women give differently, which you would expect since we are wired differently. The studies actually have broader implications for nonprofits in their appeals for support and for the future of philanthropy in general.

As Arlene and I both found, there is some interesting research being done in this area. I did, however, come across some self-serving and sexist studies in circulation as well. To those that are using such sex differences to pit women against men, I quote the fictional Dan from the movie, "There you go again, Lori, overanalyzing again." The important idea is that we all do give, and there is little to be gained from turning philanthropy into a "battle of the sexes," or into a He Said, She Said show. That being said, I do have to encourage my male readers out there to examine their giving practices. After all, you don't want these women to outgive us do you?

The Southwest Florida Community Foundation has been supporting the communities of Lee, Charlotte, Collier, Glades and Hendry through endowed funds for 33 years and during that time has provided more than $39.5 million in grants and scholarships to the communities it serves. For more information, please call 274-5900, or visit our web site at www.floridacommunity.com.