Grants given to families should be made to women, not men, because they make better decisions on how to spend the money, a visiting philanthropist says.

Helen LaKelly Hunt, the daughter of an American oil tycoon, is the co-founder of Women Moving Millions, an organisation set up to encourage wealthy women to donate money to women in need.

Hunt, who was in New Zealand last week, believes women look to fix the whole problem, while men tend to reinvest in other men.

"I just know that women's hearts are all about a healthy community for their children to be held by. They want the whole community to be healthy," she said.

"There is some research out that money in a man's hands goes to what interests the man. But when it gets into a woman's hands, if she gets educated, she wants her family to get educated and the whole community to get educated. Once women get access to resources, they want to spread them through the community."

"Women and girls have the solutions to so many of community problems, but only recently have women and men begun writing cheques to women and girls."

Her mantra is: If you want to invest wisely, invest in a woman. She says that is the secret to turning around struggling communities.

"Around the world, less than 10% of foundation grants go to women and girls, but they have requirements that shouldn't be overlooked."

Hunt says her point of view is starting to be backed by the United Nations and the World Bank, which last year documented the way women had transformed urban slums in Vietnam by borrowing to invest in toilets and water.

"The UN has started to emphasise if you want to help the world, stabilise the women in communities. If the women become stabilised, then they help their families, and the whole community gets stabilised.

"If you want to move into the poorest parts of the world and help financially, put money in the hands of a woman, because that is the smartest investment you can make."

Once a woman was helped financially, they often passed it on. "It's just their nature to make sure the giving keeps going."