This isn’t a new story, but the tools women are creating to overcome that issue – including resetting their self-value, learning skills to deal with money in relationships, educating each other about the tricks of the trade – have a home on Daily Worth very much worth checking out.

Women are already a powerful force behind charitable donations.  They donate twice as much to charities as men do, and make 80% of all household purchasing decisions.  With more financial know-how and the empowerment that comes from realizing a higher worth, women can make more money, and have an even greater affect on change – of all kinds.

Check out Daily Worth for newsletter updates and information on budgeting, debt, retirement, credit, and all the other personal finance questions you never asked.

Have you heard of Shoes of Prey?  The custom shoe design site had an explosive experience last week – thanks to a 16-year-old’s YouTube site.  Juicysatr07’s had 450,000 viewers, and combined with a giveaway prize from the company, lured 200,000 to Shoes of Prey’s site, according to PSFK.

How are you adapting to and including new voices in your online marketing?  How do you find the right influencers?

You can learn how to apply every kind of makeup, reorganize your closet, sketch a portrait, and a million other things thanks to the force of young women on YouTube. The tone of the video, the number of YouTube subscribers, and their comments can help you figure out which YouTube lady is the best to help your product, company or organization.  If you have an evening, watch their videos!

Women research their purchases and the young woman on YouTube — with hundred of thousands of followers — can help you whether you have a product or a non-profit to market.  They have built a reputation sharing the good, bad, and ugly about the products, and you need to be ready for their frankness.  Be frank yourself, and built trust with them. They are game-changers if you do it right.

Women seek an in-depth understanding of what they choose – whether it’s when they buy a product or take a bite of a pie.  How do they know what they are getting?

Two non-profits organizations are making detailed info available at the snap of a camera-phone.  Consumers simply take an iPhone to the grocery store with the GoodGuide app or the (soon to launch) Citizen’s Market app, and scan item barcodes.  From home they can search deep databases online.  Profiles for the product and company pop up with ratings and descriptions for them.  On Citizens Market, consumers can upload reviews, and companies can join the conversation, too.

GoodGuide helps consumers “find safe, healthy, and green products” with a rating system that accounts for ingredients, production, and the behavior of the company that makes or harvests the products.  They use a combination of science, widely sourced documents, and algorithms to rate products and companies.  Environmental, social, labor practices, and health performance are measured.  Ratings are available for food, personal care, and household products ranging from baby food to frozen food, from shampoo to sunscreen, and beyond.  And the company is always adding to their list.

GoodGuide also offers tips for feeding kids veggies, reducing your carbon footprint, and news about health issues.

Citizens Market offers insight and an open-source conversation on the issues that companies support.  They empower consumers to shop their values – and vote on issues with their dollars.  Environmental practices, a company’s stance on gay marriage, animal rights policies, and more can be reviewed on the site.

Women who seek a deep understanding of what they are buying, and are loyal to brands that have credibly cultivated relationships with them, will find these sites useful.

For marketers and companies themselves, these sites present opportunity and challenges.  Bad reviews will clearly have negative consequences, but joining and following the conversation here will help build those real relationships through awareness and action. Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with women who could become loyal consumers.

Both sites are still in beta and are welcoming feedback and questions.

Lisa and I meet regularly with many nonprofits who tell us that increasing the number of 20-something donors — the next generation of philanthropists — is a major priority.

But how to reach them? A report by Radar Research and PopSugar Media that delves into the influence and consumer habits of Gen Y women sheds some light.

Many of the findings reinforce other research we’ve seen on why women are the #1 target audience, whether you’re selling a product or promoting a cause. Once Gen Y women believe in a brand, for example, 61% report they “share it with as many friends as possible.”

Gen Y women are also big on authenticity. They’re less likely be persuade by celebrities and “experts” and more inclined to trust friends, families, bloggers and others within their networked community (this may include tweeters they’ve never met) to be more unbiased and honest. In the words of one survey subject, “I like to see what everyday people like.”

Little wonder then, that:

• 2 in 5 Gen Y women rely on online user reviews to learn more about a brand.
• Gen Y women are twice as likely to use online social networks to share their recommendations than Gen X women.
• Twice as many Gen Y women say they discovered a new brand from a friend’s status update, compared to Gen X women.
• Gen Y women are twice as likely to rely on blogs to help them decide what to buy.

Establishing a dynamic presence on Facebook and connecting with influential bloggers are certainly ways for cause-driven organizations to walk the millennial walk. But even your web site can also be a place to showcase the voices and faces of funders who can provide real ‘yelp’-style testimonials about the work you do. (If you’re wondering if a yelp for nonprofit actually exists, it does: Greatnonprofits).

Is there an outreach tactic or campaign you’ve done that has successfully connected with Gen Y women? We’ve love to know about it.

Forget “Supermom.” Meet the “Real Mom.” That’s the message behind a recent white paper by Advertising Age and ad giant JWT.

According to authors Marissa Miley and Ann Make, today’s younger generation of Real Moms (Gen Xers and millennials) are similar to their have-it-all Super Mom predecessors insofar as they’re just as busy in their roles as “chief operating officer of the home.” The difference is, they’re more realistic about the push-and-pull dynamic of their multi-tasking lives and less beholden to perfection. Call it the New Pragmatism.

While the paper, which is based on a survey of 870 men and women, is ostensibly geared to consumer marketing, it has important insights for cause-driven communicators, too. Take, for example, these findings into What Real Moms Want:

Put family first: In today’s overscheduled world, Real Moms feel responsibility to create family time. Next time you want a mom to give money or take action for your cause, think about how you can turn your “ask” into an teaching moment for her children by creating kid-friendly content on your web site. That way she can do double duty: do good and pass along values while spending time with her kids.

The New York Times recently reported a recession-related lifestyle trend: Americans are buying less stuff—and doing more stuff together with their families. For nonprofits have an experiential activity they can offer as an entry point to their issue, this represents a big opportunity.

Be more than just mom: Real Moms want to be good caretakers. But they want to have an identity outside that, too. I have a 30something friend and new mom of twins who is hyperconscious about not becoming “one of those moms” who talks about her kids to the exclusion of all else. She also relies on Facebook to stay connected with friends.

For nonprofits, this is a reminder that the causes we support are one way we project our unique identity: they are an extension of our personal brand because they show the world what we care about (think Leonardo DiCaprio and the environment or Lance Armstrong and cancer). Social networking sites are ideal places to connect with Real Moms and encourage them to share their causes with others.

Permission to indulge/be imperfect. The new, pragmatic mom is open to brands that give her permission to be imperfect without feeling guilty. Frit-O Lay has cashed in on this phenom (which they dub “permissible indulgences”) with its 100-calorie-a-pack snacks.

I’m from a family of immigrants that derives intense pleasure from saving money by spending less. My mom practically levitated off the ground when she found a pair of pants discounted from $138 to $21 at an after-holiday sale a few weeks ago. Bargain hunting is our excuse to indulge our inner clothes horse.
The edge that nonprofits have on all this is that they can offer permission to indulge through giving back.My mom, for example, would never buy expensive chocolates for herself: too extravagant. But if I get them for her for Mother’s Day and part of the proceeds go to the Global Fund for Women, it’s all good.

The author, Jocelyn Harmon, Director of NonProfit Services at Care2.com, riffs on a radio spot she hears  featuring Smart Cookies, five women who got their finances in gear thanks to American Express:

“Call American Express self-serving.  Call them insincere.  But also call them smart.  By fueling a full-scale marketing campaign with women, for women, Amex is transforming a traditionally male-focused industry – financial services – into an accessible arena for women. And they’re likely to see their profits increase from connecting with one of the biggest consumer markets in the U.S. – women.”

Nonprofits need to learn to do the same, Jocelyn points out, along with some eye-opening stats and best practices from The She Spot and Marti Barletta’s  book, Big Economic Opportunity in Marketing to Women (Marti was a huge source of inspiration and wisdom for Lisa Witter and me when we were writing our book).

We’re looking forward to Part 2!

While the campaign didn’t target women explicitly, it did tap into two truths: One, men generally hate going to the doctor. Two, when it comes to health matters, women are usually the ones driving the train forward, whether it’s for themselves or their loved ones.

In fact, women make more than 80 percent of all health-related decisions. That goes for what kind of cold medicine to buy to determining whether a doctor’s visit in is order. What this means for health-related nonprofit organizations, foundations and social marketing campaigns  is the subject of Fenton’s forthcoming guide: “She Decides: The Secret to Effective Health Campaigns.”

The guide spotlights ideas and best practices for reaching this critical audience, whether it’s to shape policy or inspire healthy behaviors. Stay tuned for the official release later this month!

Fr. Left to right: Alex McCord and Simon van Kempen (“The Real Housewives of New York City”); Brooklyn Borough President Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and Deputy Borough President Yvonne Graham; and Nicole Brewer and Damien Gurganious (“Biggest Loser: Couples”)

(Thanks to brooklynheightsblog.com for the foto!)

The campaign, which invited the public to nominate and vote for the “small business story that most inspires them,” wrapped today with the announcement of the winner: Sacred Wind Communications, a telecommunications outfit based in Albuquerque that is working to wire Navajo lands with telephone and Internet access. The company will receive with $100,000 in grant and marketing support.

“Shine the Light” is a great example of a campaign that was not overtly marketed to women as the target audience, but nonetheless capitalized on a number of marketing principles and tactics that appeal to them:

1. You decide: The entire contest was driven by public input, from nominations to voting for the winner – the principle of putting women in CONTROL in action.

2. iVillage: This women-oriented online entity, which NBC acquired in 2006, was responsible for creating the online community platform; it also hosted the campaign web site (http://shinealight.ivillage.com) and promoted the campaign heavily.

3. All-female judging panel: Coincidence or not, all three judges were women: Talk Show Host and Entrepreneur Ellen DeGeneres, Fashion Designer and Entrepreneur Diane von Furstenberg, and MSNBC’s Small Business Expert JJ Ramberg. They winnowed the nominees to three finalists.

4. Social media: The corporate sponsors of the contest offered promotional tools like widgets and badges on the campaign web site that people could easily use them to CONNECT and spread word of mouth through their networks on Facebook and MySpace.

The campaign smartly tapped into the growing trend among women entrepreneurs, who make up the fastest-growing segment of U.S. small businesses. What’s more, businesses owned by women of color are growing three times faster than all U.S. firms, according Center for Women’s Business Research.

When Lisa and I were promoting The She Spot, one perceptual hurdles we had to overcome was the notion that, if a campaign doesn’t hang out a big banner marked “women”, it somehow doesn’t “count.”

Shine a Light proves that you don’t need to call out your target audience in boldface to hit the mark. In fact, there are many instances when doing so isn’t the strategic thing to do. The winner of the contest, for example, wasn’t a woman. That wasn’t the point. It was about getting brand exposure among the audiences that mattered most.

Sandwiched between the East River and freeway traffic on FDR Drive, I joined a crowd of 100+ people to watch a series of eclectic PowerPoint presentations on a giant outdoor projection screen. The topics ranged from sustainable underwear to Nauru, a tiny island in the South Pacific on the verge of environmental collapse.

According to the Pecha Kucha web site Pecha Kucha Night, now a worldwide phenomenon, was founded in 2003 by architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham as a public forum for young designers to network and share their work. The catch: Presenters are only allowed 20 images, each of which is displayed for 20 seconds.

This presentation format, given before a very broad audience (as much as an NYC audience inclined to see something called ‘Pecha Kucha’ can be), yielded some great best practices:

Plug in: A good idea becomes great when people can make it their own. Presenter Ken Tanabe spoke about the multicultural holiday he founded, Loving Day, which celebrates the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Loving v. Virginia, that made interracial marriages legal. He devoted a good chunk of his presentation to photos from the annual June 12 Loving Day celebration and giving people many, many options for getting involved and spreading the word.

Connect emotionally: Jason Kibbey’s “Briefs on Boxers,” was an entertaining rap about his sustainable underwear company, PACT. Kibbey covered the basics from organic cotton to responsible labor practices. But it was the photos submitted by real-life satisfied (male) customers that stuck. The photos, silly yet endearing (which might be said of most pictures of men in their underwear. Hm.), conveyed an authentic and enthusiastic experience of the brand. Gold.

Tell a story: There is much flagellating (and very useful) advice out there about keeping PowerPoints brief and to the point (see Guy Kawasaki’s “10/20/30″ rule). Certainly, Pecha Kucha’s six-minute time limit plays no small part in its mass appeal. But equally important is the structure and pace of the story that’s told. In the best presentations I saw, the narrative drove and linked the slides, not vice versa.

Andy Goodman has written a great treatise, Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes, on this topic. Do you have a good PowerPoint rule?