International Women’s Day this year carries a theme that highlights the power of giving in the broadest sense. As such it’s a valuable and inspiring reminder to fundraisers of how to understand supporters and to try to meet their needs.
Sunday 8th March marks International Women’s Day (IWD), which is being marked in its 115th year.
This year’s official campaign theme is Give to Gain, and it frames giving not as a sacrifice but as an act of intentional multiplication. For fundraisers this framing will feel immediately familiar, and might even expand their view on the power of giving.
The IWD website puts it plainly: “Giving is not a subtraction, it’s intentional multiplication. When women thrive, we all rise.”
When we give, we gain.
International Women’s Day 2026
A vision of giving that goes beyond donations
The IWD campaign defines “giving” broadly. Financial donations matter of course, and the campaign makes a specific call for nonprofits advancing women and girls to be supported. But the Give to Gain framework encompasses a much wider range of contributions.
The IWD campaign lists 27 ways to give, including: give respect. Give visibility. Give knowledge. Give funding. Give justice. Give a voice. Give protection. Give equal pay. Give sponsorship. Give mentoring. Give credit. Give opportunities. Give safety. Give time.
This expansive vision of generosity, spanning money, skills, platforms, introductions, and advocacy, reflects something fundraisers and charity leaders have long understood: that the most transformative relationships between organisations and their supporters involve far more than a financial transaction.
A global call to “support the supporters”
The IWD campaign includes a direct call to action for nonprofits and the challenges that they are tackling. The campaign urges event organisers to invite nonprofit speakers, exhibit nonprofit displays, distribute resources, and establish ongoing giving relationships, framing IWD events as part of a wider “giving ecosystem.”
Specifically the campaign invites groups and individuals to take action: “Let’s actively ‘Support the Supporters‘ and elevate the visibility of their impact.”
For fundraisers and campaigners this is a global opportunity. Charities working to advance women and girls — whether large international organisations or local grassroots groups — are being actively invited into the conversation. This is a moment to make the case for their work, build relationships, and ask for support.
What fundraisers can learn from the Give to Gain mindset
The IWD Give to Gain campaign is, at its core, an exercise in communicating the case for giving in a way that resonates with donors and supporters. It does several things well that fundraisers can learn from:
- It reframes giving as gain. Rather than asking people to sacrifice or donate out of guilt, the campaign positions generosity as something that returns value — to individuals, to communities, to society. The campaign’s message is clear: gender equality is not a concession, but a collective benefit. Giving compounds.
- It widens the door. By defining giving to include time, mentoring, introductions, visibility, and advocacy, the campaign makes participation accessible to people who may not feel they have money to give. Once people are engaged as givers in any sense, deeper relationships, including financial ones, can follow.
- It is built on reciprocity. The Give to Gain theme highlights the power of reciprocity: when individuals, organisations and communities invest in women, opportunities expand, systems strengthen and societies thrive. That principle of mutual benefit is a powerful motivational frame for any fundraising ask.
- It connects individual action to collective impact. The IWD campaign makes every act of giving feel part of something larger. As the IWD website says: “IWD is a movement. This special day of impact belongs to all groups, everywhere.”
If you are looking for a fresh way to articulate the case for giving in your own fundraising communications, the Give to Gain message is valuable exercise in reframing generosity as investment.
- Women’s Forever Fund aims to be UK’s first endowment fund for women’s charities (9 February 20206)
- Fundraising appeal in memory of Jo Cox MP raises £400k in one day (18 June 2016)
- International Women’s Day 2019: the fundraising round-up (8 March 2019)
