Getting the Younger Donor to Say Yes

By Joe Boland

What it all boils down to is understanding who you are trying to engage and what it is they want from you. For peta2, that includes a variety of things:

Using celebrities, free prizes (such as stickers) and street team points (take so many actions, earn points, redeem them for a T-shirt)
Focusing on peer-to-peer communications
Fostering the community through blogs, user-generated content, social media
Featuring engaging, targeted content such as games, a PETA ad generator (where a peta2 member can place his or her likeness to a PETA ad), dynamic microsites, etc.

The best way to know what's right for your younger audience, whatever age range that may be, is to listen to it. Find out where those people are, what they are saying, what they want … then give it to them. And don't think about younger donors strictly in terms of dollars and cents. As Bartlett pointed out, "In regards to young donors, it's not about what you can squeeze out of them today, but about beginning and cultivating a lifetime of giving."