Millennial's & Philanthropy, Why Even Bother? | re: charity

Posted by bradyjosephson on Jun 14, 2012 | 2 comments

This was a guest post on the Peer Giving Ideas blog and can be read in full here.

Another study focused on Millennial?s, philanthropy, giving and charitable activities was released recently and had some good insights into what Millenial?s say they want. Before we get to some of the insights, the first question you should ask yourself is ?why should I even bother??.

Sure they are the next generation of givers but why should you care now? 58% of those in this study said they didn?t make a single gift over $100 and only 54% said they would prefer to give money as a way to support an organization so it?s not like they as a group are ?profitable? in the short term. So, again, why care?

84% of those asked have or would raise money for your organization if given the opportunity.?71% said they had and another 13% said they would if they could. If for no other reason that?s why you should care.

Peer-to-Peer fundraising or social fundraising is still a very new concept and not widely adopted, especially outside of the ?thon? world of bikeathons, walkathons and marathons, but when used in the right context this approach can potentially be a gold mine as it can solve three major issues facing almost all nonprofit organizations:

1. How do we acquire new donors?

Donor acquisition is very costly, takes a lot of resources and with increased competition and more donors moving to the web only getting harder to do. Social fundraising allows your ?Champions? to solicit gifts in a relational context with people you, as an organization, would potentially never be able to reach. They may be smaller more ?token? gifts of $50 but it is an opportunity for you to start building a relationship with that supporter and grow the connection to your cause, and their gift, over time.?84% said they ask their friends and 80% said they ask their family.

2. How do we reach new audiences?

The inherent sharing that must occur in social fundraising raises the profile of your organization by putting you in newsfeeds, timelines, emails, Tweets, blogs and more. Even if people don?t give your name and message begins to permeate into platforms and groups you, potentially, would not be on at all. This ?branding from the bottom up? is valuable as in the web context, almost anyone can give to you at any moment for any reason so why wouldn?t you want more of your name and message out there??55% of Millennial?s said they wanted to learn about organizations on social media.

3. How do we involve people in our work in more ways than giving?

I?ve spent most of my career in the international development realm and while I knew people who volunteered and were involved gave more money and had a higher life-time value I found it extremely difficult to find meaningful ways for people to engage with our work. We raised money here, North America, but did the charitable work there, Africa, Asia and Latin America primarily. Providing opportunities for people to use their talents, skills, abilities, activities and even networks for your cause can be very meangingful and a way to engage people in your work in more ways than just busting out the Credit Card, beacuse honestly, who writes cheques any more (not Millennial?s, 70% made their donations online).

Some of the other findings I found useful were:

• Only 16% of Millennial?s said helping raise money for causes ?wasn?t their thing?
• The need to know how their donation was making a difference was the biggest ?pet peeve? standing in the way of donating
• 42% said the give to ?what inspires them in the moment?
• 63% of Millennial?s volunteered in 2011 and 90% said they would volunteer the same amount or more in 2012
• 90% look for the ?About Us? section of a website as the first thing they visit
• 55% said they prefer to learn about nonprofit organizations on social media

You can read the full report?here?or get a good summary from Katya?s Nonprofit Marketing Blog?here.

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