2021 is shaping up to be a year of momentous change for gender equality movements. Here at Philanthropy Women, we’re taking a moment to look back at 2020 — a tumultuous year, to say the least, but one in which we realized the true impact of our organization and our work around the world.
The 2020 Philanthropy Women Media Impact Report offers a look into a year of incredible growth, progress, and partnership. Based on 12 months of publishing, this report breaks down our successes as a news outlet from a variety of perspectives, and offers an excellent look not just at our impact, but our role as a connector and facilitator for networks, campaigns, and conversations within the feminist philanthropy sphere.
Let’s start with where we’ve come from as a news outlet and an organization. We’re delighted to have shared this journey with you so far, and look forward to many more years of stellar coverage, partnerships, conversations, and more.
The Rising Value of Philanthropy Women Content
In 2020, when so many feminist media outlets faced budget cuts and closures due to COVID-19, we were actually able to grow our coverage and media impact. We doubled our weekly output of content and added more stories, articles, and profiles than in any previous year.
We also started to research about the value of our content in terms of its online authority and contribution to the share of voice on the subject of women’s giving. What we learned from researching the value of our content is that Philanthropy Women amplifies leaders with some of the highest credibility in the nonprofit sector, and the topics we discuss are some of the most valuable for humanity.
The data speaks for itself. In 2020, Philanthropy Women achieved:
- A Domain Authority score of 40.
- Top 3 rankings for 44 keywords and search terms in the feminist funding sphere.
- Top 4-20 rankings for 455 additional keywords.
- High global search term rankings compared to other organizations in our sphere, including significantly higher rankings than many women’s media and advocacy organizations around the world.
So, what does this mean for our readers, donors, and sponsors? Our statistics show that Philanthropy Women remains one of the most authoritative media sites on philanthropy and gender equality. It’s also one of the most cost-effective advertising, marketing, and public relations options for women’s funds, foundations, and advocacy organizations.
According to Semrush, a site online that provides marketing data on websites, the estimated price of our share of organic traffic would cost around $1,100 a month in a comparable Google Ads campaign.
In other words, by being featured on PW, you are getting organic results for keywords around feminist giving and gender equality — the same results other organizations are paying an estimated $13,000 or more per year to achieve.
New Offerings in 2020 from Philanthropy Women
In addition to our statistics growth, Philanthropy Women also significantly increased its products. In 2020, we:
- Expanded the PW Knowledgebase: Introduced in September of 2019, the PW Knowledgebase is the world’s first ever funder database dedicated to gender equality funders. As of December 2020, the Knowledgebase expanded to more than 675 listings of foundations, funds, and grantmakers committed to gender equality work. (Plus, we created a “Knowledgebase Only” subscription to the site, offering access to the Knowledgebase at a discounted rate for industry professionals!)
- PW Responded to COVID-19: When the COVID-19 pandemic rocked the world, Philanthropy Women responded in kind. We introduced the COVID-19 Special Edition, a group of outstanding feminist leadership perspectives. We were very early in the game, so to speak, of recognizing and articulating the narrative that women’s leadership differential is more evident in COVID, and contributed to the media’s recognition of how key gender lens thinking is to ending the pandemic and moving forward.
- Launched our First ABOUT WOMEN Art Contest: 2020 also saw our first-ever ABOUT WOMEN art contest, which offered three microgrants to feminist artists submitting to the contest. To our surprise and delight, all three winners created art featuring women of color, and all three winners came from abroad.
- Increased our Subscriber and Advertiser Revenue: In 2020, we introduced new sources of advertiser and subscriber revenue, including improvements to our Premium Subscription service and our limited Super Subscriber service. This allowed us to explore new partnerships and growth opportunities with organizations and leaders across the industry.
Who We Are, Where We’ve Been, and Where We’re Going
In looking back at the past year, we’re so proud of how far we’ve come. Since our founding in 2017, Philanthropy Women has grown to make a name for itself in the annals of feminist funding media.
What we do here is unique. No other domain is exclusively dedicated to providing media on gender equality philanthropy. This area of knowledge needs further public discourse, because new evidence is uncovered all the time about gender bias in philanthropy and all other sectors of society, as well as how this negatively impacts women and girls.
Philanthropy Women provides a place for gender equality funders to share concerns, strategies, and hope for the future. We also send an important signal to the rest of philanthropy and journalism: that stories of feminist giving add unique value to the conversation on social change, opening up new options for everyone.
We want to continue to grow as a hub for thought leadership on philanthropy supporting gender equality. In the next five years, we plan to significantly increase our subscriber base in order to reduce our need for donor support. At our current trajectory, we hope to become fully self-sustaining by January of 2024. In the meantime, we look forward to creating new partnerships and continuing to grow with the assistance, celebration, and support of our incredible community.
The Philanthropy Women 2020 Media Impact report shows where we’ve been and where we’re going — and we’re so glad to have you along for the ride. Thank you to our subscribers, donors, sponsors, partners, writers, and readers for being a part of our wonderful and forward-thinking community. We can’t wait to see where we go next!
For access to the full Media Impact report, information on partnerships, donations, and sponsorships, and to otherwise share your thoughts on the last four years, contact Kiersten Marek at kiersten.marek@gmail.com.
Related:
PW Update: Where We’re Going from Here
Philanthropy Women Responds to COVID by Going FREE
Pat Mitchell: How To Wield Power through Women’s Media
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