Today’s woman is changing the traditional model of philanthropy.

Marie C WilsonMarie C. Wilson, founder and president of the White House Project says, “The boom generation is starting to realize it is leadership that you fund. We’ve been raising awareness in politics, business and media. You get them to see that if you want to make change in anybody’s leadership, you have to put money behind changes that show more women as leaders, more women in power and politics and more women in business. You have to make those kinds of connections.”

And while women are taking more risks in moving individual philanthropy, family philanthropy and community foundations in a positive direction, they are also finding ways to work together to have power to make more of the philanthropic decisions.

“We haven’t always loved and trusted each other but we’ve worked together because we wouldn’t have any power if we didn’t,” says Wilson.

In her work to get a critical mass of women into leadership, she sees boom-generation women beginning to realize that more grassroots women in leadership across the country really “lifts all boats.”