NTC Roundup: The Generational Divide of American Giving
If you currently work at a nonprofit organization, or in the corporate world for that matter, you've no doubt had a conversation in the past year about "generational differences." Researchers, executives and pundits of all industries are realizing and analyzing the shift in the current work and media landscape after the advent of the Internet and great fragmentation of media outlets.
How do you reach Generation Y folks with the many different outlets they use? What motivates them in the workplace? How likely is it that someone in Generation X is going to donate to my organization? And how do you run programs to reach baby boomers and matures while still reaching the up-and-coming 20- and 30-somethings?
In the session The Generational Divide of American Giving at the Nonprofit Technology Conference held in Atlanta earlier this month, nonprofit consultants Andrew Magnuson and Matthew Mielcarek discussed recent research published by Convio, Edge Research and Sea Change Strategies on "The Next Generation of American Giving."
As Magnuson said in the panel, while many of the findings could be seen as "captain obvious" data points, the sum of all this data paints a truly imperative picture for nonprofit organizations to study. My main takeaway? Multichannel, multichannel, multichannel communications!
Many nonprofit staffs are led by boomers and matures, so the focus is often put on these groups for fundraising. But, of course, the donor universe spans across all generations, so it's interesting to delve in to the findings of the research to see where the opportunities reside and how best to reach these groups. Here were some of the high points Magnuson and Mielcarek shared:
Dollars and cents
- The relative size of each generational cohort shows that matures are one of the smaller groups and are declining (79 percent give). On average, they give $1,066 a year.
- Though Gen Y is the least "giving" group, 56 percent actually donate to charitable causes. On average, Gen Yers give $341 a year.
- Boomers and Gen X give $901 a year and $796 a year, respectively.
Whooo are you? (or more importantly, what you need to know about who these cohorts are)
Gen Y
- Less likely to give BUT far more likely to talk about it with others.
- They will advocate and evangelize for nonprofit organizations.
- They think it's time to give back, see change needs to be made.
- Oriented with "what's in it for me?"
- Half of these people have mobile Internet.
- Facebook really is the killer app, with 70 percent regularly using, compared to 49 percent YouTube.
- The Internet is a thing they expect to access and use 24/7. If they can't upload it, share it or see it, it's not real. If they can't find it online, it doesn't exist.
- KEY: It's all about leveraging this group to get the word out and evangelize.
Gen X
- First generation having the Internet entire adult life.
- Motivated by their peers.
- More likely to respond to something spontaneous.
- Just as likely to give to a peer-motivated event as they are to participate — great group for run/walk/ride events.
- Looking for affordable, easy way to give.
- More likely to respond to an integrated approach.
- Physically incapable of writing a check (lol).
- High level of engagement with social media — especially to help advance their professional careers.
Boomers
- Represent significant giving capacity.
- Super-duper fearless adopters of technology.
- Starting to become more planned-giving oriented.
- E-mail is STILL the killer app with this group.
- This is the next big focus for nonprofit organizations.
- Newsletters, newsletter, newsletters!
Matures
- Actually like to be called and reached out to personally.
- Pre-plan their giving.
- Still send everything through mail for donations.
- Want to guard their investments.
- Will self-identify with organizations and want to feel like their dollars are being given to support the mission.
- They are very scrutinizing of donations.
- Smallest cohort and shrinking.
- Less open to new appeals.
So what does this all mean? Noteworthy points everyone should make note of …
- Gen Y giving equally across check by mail, gift shop, Web site, fundraising events, third-party vendor.
- Gen X completely multichannel across all channels.
- Boomers and matures are more concentrated in giving habits on fewer channels.
- Peer-to-peer is still seen as "the most appropriate" channel for solicitation.
- The need to remove silos within organizations is here with a true multichannel environment.
- Traditional donor databases are dead — there's an ever-growing need to better track complex actions, relationships and interactions that we've never seen before.
- Social networks are important and ever-important.
- Word-of-mouth is critical.
- Direct mail is still key, but it needs to evolve.
- Mobile's time is coming.
There's still much more work and conversations to be had in digging in to the implications of all the above. With all the lively conversation and feedback in this session, I have no doubt more nonprofits have opinions, questions and realize their own implications from this data.
Jordan Viator is the interactive communications manager at Convio. You can read her full posting about this session on the Convio Connection Cafe blog. Click here to view the slideshow from this session and here for more on NTC.
