Chapter 14
Fundraising Across the Generations: Millennials, Baby Boomers, and More

“If we do not plant knowledge when young, it will give us no shade when we are old.”

—Lord Chesterfield

Introduction

Today, over half the world’s population is under 30. Wherever you work around the globe, your successful long-term fundraising strategy depends on recognizing that there are generational differences in how people approach their philanthropy. Unfortunately, most nonprofits today are currently fundraising with a “one size fits all” or “cookie-cutter” approach, and not balancing their focus on younger and older donors. To maximize fundraising results, you need to know who your donors are and adjust your strategies accordingly. Your most generous donors today won’t be around forever, so you need to equally focus your efforts on developing relationships with the next generation of contributors.

Effectively fundraising across the generations requires a multi-pronged approach that balances a focus on retaining your older, more generous donors (Baby Boomers and Seniors), while also making a long-term investment in building new kinds of relationships and cultivating younger donors (Gen-Xers and Millennials), who will contribute more as they age into their prime giving years. This balance is the key to long-term sustainability. You don’t want to overvalue younger, newer donors at the expense of your loyal, older donors or vice versa.

To learn more about how to effectively engage different generations, I sat down with Alia McKee, principal of Sea Change Strategies, who was the primary research partner on the 2015 Next Generation of American Giving Report, and Derrick Feldmann, president of Achieve and lead researcher for the Millennial Impact Project. Before we dive into the seven tips and insights they shared on this crucial issue, let’s review a few facts for context.

Note that while the data shared in this chapter is U.S.-specific, the insights and ideas apply to NGOs and charities worldwide, as the generations tend to behave similarly around the globe.

Critical Skills and Competencies

1. Track the Age of Your Donors

Knowing how old or young your donors are is the first step in fundraising across generations. You can do this with data appends to your database or by collecting the information through offering incentives like birthday gifts, messages, or extra content. You can also send out a survey using a tool like SurveyMonkey to collect key demographic information, including age. Most importantly, you should be talking to your key donors and learning about them, and then capturing this information in your CRM or database so you can segment your donors and prospects accordingly. (See Chapter 6 for more information on databases and CRMs.)

2. Listen

American culture values talking and eloquence, but in fundraising, listening to your donors and prospects is more important. Take the time to find out what your generational cohorts are looking for, what kinds of messages are most compelling to them, which media and devices they want to use to communicate with you, how often they want to hear from you, and what they are willing to do besides donate. Again, you can collect this kind of information in a survey, and incentives always help. You can analyze your results by age group and compare your findings to third-party research to gain insights about how to best communicate with your donors (see studies listed in Resource Review).

3. Identify Goals for Each Generation

Having goals for each generational segment will allow you to create specific tactics to achieve them. For example, if you want to increase your Boomer donor retention rate by 15 percent, you need to know what messages are most compelling to them and create a strategy to achieve your goal. If your goal is to increase new Millennial and Gen-X donors by 10 percent, then you can look at donor recruitment strategies, such as robust online engagement and volunteer programs. (Read more in tip number 5 below.)

4. Diversify Your Giving Channels

As outlined in Chapter 10, direct mail is far from dead, but it won’t last forever. Millennials and Gen-Xers are far more likely to give online. According to the Next Generation of American Giving Report, as of 2013, for the first time Boomers are just as likely to give online versus via direct mail. Seniors are still more responsive to direct mail and telemarketing, while Millennials don’t respond well to fundraising phone calls.

Your investments in particular fundraising strategies will pay off better if you focus them on the appropriate generation. However, before thinking social media is the best fundraising tool, consider that only 6 percent of people across generations gave that way, versus making website and mobile contributions. Every chapter in Part 4 provides insights on these various channels, but for now, it suffices to say that social media is best utilized as an engagement tool. Rather than ask for money, you should be asking people to spread the word and promote your cause and organization.

5. Know What Your Donors Want

Different generations respond to different approaches. In general, Seniors want to hear from someone of high authority in the organization and are more likely to trust the nonprofit to direct funds as needed, rather than needing to know exactly where their gifts go. Nearly half of Seniors and Boomers say that monetary donations represent their most impactful contribution to a nonprofit, compared to just over one-fourth of younger donors according to the Next Generation report.

Younger donors, especially Millennials, want to see their impact clearly. A young donor once told McKee: “It’s not enough to tell me you are doing something good. I want to see it.” They believe they can make the biggest difference by volunteering and by spreading the word to their networks. So it’s critical that you give younger donors and prospects meaningful things to do besides donating, and have robust online engagement and volunteer strategies. And remember: regardless of age or generation, no donor ever stops giving because he’s thanked too much. Make sure you clearly communicate how all donations map to impact. Millennials in particular want more updates throughout a campaign, rather than only at the end, so be sure to leverage email and social media to share these frequently.

6. Recognize the Power of Peers

If you want to engage younger donors, incorporating social media into your fundraising strategy is key. If they donate, they will likely tell their networks, creating an opportunity to not only enlist a donor, but also an evangelist, advocate, and fundraiser. The Next Generation of American Giving study found that 70 percent of Millennials and 62 percent of Gen-Xers feel more excited about a product or cause when their friends agree with them about it, as compared with 45 percent of Boomers and 40 percent of Seniors. Younger donors are extraordinarily connected to their friends and are influenced by what their friends like. You can employ social media and crowdfunding to harness the power of peer influence, simply by showcasing how many other young people are involved with what you’re doing.

As outlined in Chapter 17, crowdfunding campaigns can be a particularly great way to engage and excite Millennials. In fact, according to the Millennial Impact Report 78 percent of Millennials have participated in peer fundraising campaigns, and many have actually run one themselves. Moreover, it’s typically their first exposure to fundraising, so you’re leaving an indelible mark on future donors, plus their personal connections and stories help other new donors emotionally connect with your impact and work.

7. Create a Ladder of Engagement

Donor relationships are a journey, not a destination; your goal is to guide people from inaction to action, and that happens over time in myriad ways. Think of a ladder: you start at the bottom where your donor just learned about you, and then you move them up a rung by persuading them to visit your website. You move them further up when they share content on social media, come to an event, and then perhaps make a donation. Map out the desired touch points and contributions you seek from supporters, and create a strategy for moving people from one rung to the next, engaging them further at each step. Fundraising should only be one part of your goal; devote equal focus to getting them to take action, including signing petitions and telling their peers and social networks about you. Just like the donor pyramid discussed in many other chapters, the bigger the base, the more support is generated. This strategy will help you identify your strongest community ambassadors, who are ripe to move up the ladder and support you in other ways.

Conclusion

The long-term viability of your organization—in particular its fundraising success down the road—is dependent on your next generation of donors. Think of the major donors you have today. Will they be your major donors 20 or 30 years from now? By implementing the tips above you can balance your efforts between retaining your older, loyal donors and recruiting and engaging younger ones. Fundraising is a time-consuming and challenging task, and fundraising across generations may seem overwhelming. But if tackled over time, it doesn’t have to be. Take it step by step. Start with collecting the necessary data, and ease into customizing your communications and approaches. Set goals and create strategies and tactics that you know you can implement, and hold yourself accountable to those goals. You’ll gather critical insights that will help you to better create relationships and raise more money from all donors, ensuring your organization continues to thrive and deliver the impact you know to be possible.

Do’s and Don’ts

  • Do. . .
  • . . . balance your desire to recruit tomorrow’s donors with your need to maintain healthy relationships with today’s loyal supporters.
  • . . . survey your donor base and find out how old they are, how they want to hear from you, and what they’re willing to do besides donate.
  • . . . showcase peer involvement with social media and crowdfunding campaigns, especially when looking to recruit younger donors.
  • . . . make an effort to communicate more regularly with younger donors.
  • Don’t. . .
  • . . . expect that the boom in online giving means that social media is a great place to raise money; think of it more as an engagement tool.
  • . . . quit sending direct mail or doing telemarketing, especially to Seniors.
  • . . . bother using telemarketing on younger donors.
  • . . . limit the ways people can contribute to your organization to only making a monetary donation.
  • . . . assume one message will work for all of your donors.

About the Experts

Alia McKee is a veteran online communications and fundraising strategist and principal of Sea Change Strategies, a boutique research and fundraising strategy consultancy that helps nonprofits transform their approach to fundraising by building deep relationships with donors and prospects, and the primary research partner for the 2015 Next Generation of American Giving Report. Alia is a noted speaker, author, and blogger, and her work has been featured in Forbes, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, on NPR, and more.

Derrick Feldmann is president and founder of Achieve, a research agency that helps causes and companies address their most pressing issues through research and data-driven awareness and fundraising campaigns. Feldmann is a sought-after speaker, researcher, and advisor and is the lead researcher for the Millennial Impact Project, a multi-year study of how the next generation supports causes.

Resource Review

  1. The Next Generation of American Giving Report (www.blackbaud.com/nonprofit-resources/generational-giving-report)
    1. This study shares a lot of practical tips for maximizing fundraising results across the generations.
  2. The Millennial Impact Report (www.themillennialimpact.com/research)
    1. This annual study looks on how Millennials engage with causes directly, at the workplace, and with peers. With more than five years’ of research, this is the most comprehensive study offering great insights for nonprofits looking to engage younger donors and allies.
  3. MCON (www.mcon.events)
    1. This annual conference is affiliated with The Millennial Impact Report and provides a broad array of tips and tools for collaborating with next generation donors and supporters to create movements.
  4. The Millennial Alumni Study (www.themillennialimpact.com/research)
    1. This study, done for The Chronicle of Philanthropy in 2014, looks at how Millennial alumni engage, work with, and view donating to their alma maters. The findings of this study help university fundraisers lay the groundwork for post-graduate relationships.
  5. Sea Change Strategies (http://seachangestrategies.com)
    1. A consulting firm focused on helping nonprofits maximize fundraising results by getting to better know their donors and build deep relationships with them. Check out their whitepaper The Missing Middle: Why Neglecting Middle Donors Is Costing Non-Profits Millions.
  6. Blackbaud BBCon (http://bbconference.com)
    1. Blackbaud’s annual user conference frequently offers sessions on generational giving.
  7. The Bridge Conference (www.bridgeconf.org)
    1. This annual direct marketing conference features discussions around generational giving and philanthropy.
  8. Non Profit Crowdfunding Bill of Rights (www.kimbia.com/need-feedback-crowdfunder-bill-rights)
    1. This is an effort to define a set of standard expectations that legitimate crowdfunding and peer-to-peer campaigns should adhere to in order to ensure a well-managed, transparent, and effective experience.
  9. Pew Research Center (www.pewresearch.org/topics/millennials)
    1. Find a wealth of data and research done on the Millennial generation.
  10. Saratovsky, Kari Dunn, and Derrick Feldmann. Cause for Change: The Why and How of Nonprofit Millennial Engagement. Jossey-Bass, 2013.
    1. Written by Millennials about Millennials, this book examines strategies for engaging Millennials as constituents, volunteers, and donors and focuses on how organizations can realign themselves to better respond to this group of 80 million current and future supporters.
  11. Case Study: LiNK (Liberty in North Korea).
    1. This human rights organization raised over $500,000 from Millennials—learn about it at www.achieveguidance.com/2015/03/12/peerfundraising/
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