He who gives shall receive

Sorry guys!! I've been out of commission for a while. To make up for it, I'm going to give you a few great posts at once!

In the past week, the Women's Philanthropy Institute published a study called "Women Give 2010" where they offered data to suggest that women were more charitable than men. Although I will leave the data analysis to the WPI, their conclusion was hardly a surprise because I've noticed a marked imbalance between men and women at charitable events. To get a sense of the type of women who frequent the city's higher profile charity events, check out Boston.com's party photos by Bill Brett. Although the crowds can often be mixed, inevitably, there is an excess of (usually) single women dressed to the nines and looking hot at these events. If I had to theorize about why that would be, I'd guess that men see charity events as a way for groups to siphon money from them and that women see charity events as a appropriate price to pay for the right type of social interaction.

What is the "right type" of social interaction?

Although both types of events are essentially just cocktail parties, the difference between any night at a bar and a night at a charity event is that, at a charity event, a common element unifies everyone in the room. As I said in my introductory post, the trick to being more successful with women is your ability to relate to them while distinguishing yourself from other men. Charity events give you the opportunity to relate to women and start conversations more easily by providing commonality with women in attendance. You can either be that guy she met at the bar or you can be that guy she met last night who also likes aquariums or dogs or (fill in the blank) other cause du jour.

Picking the right event

If you are among the 30 or so percent of men that the WPI claim are not currently giving, you may wonder about how to pick a charity to support that will yield the best results. Considering that your goal is to create some sort of commonality with the women at the charity events, pick something you ACTUALLY care about!! This goes back to my post on self-assessment – talking naturally about something that actually interests you is a LOT easier than trying to impress a girl using whatever bullshit you think she wants to hear! Do you have a dog that you love? Go to a party to support the adoption of shelter dogs. Do you love the Red Sox? During the season, there are always Red Sox Foundation events around town. More of a tech nerd? How about Museum of Science events?

If you can't manage to find ANY cause that speaks to directly, there are a lot of organizations that take a more general approach to causes and will naturally have a large percentage of women. The first that comes to mind is the Junior League of Boston. This is a women's organization that provides volunteer support to other organizations in the community. They often have social events that include a lot of members where the public can go. Because the membership generally includes a LOT of single women, these events are a great way to meet attractive, successful, together women.

So do a quick self assessment and decide what kind of guy you are and what kind of women you want to find. Look in the Globe, Events.org, Going.com (this link is a GREAT ONE!), Yelp.com or any other event listing source. When all else fails, Google it! Whatever you do, run – don't walk, to make yourself one of the men for every one of the many women who are attending these events and hoping to meet a great guy like you!