You’re probably tired of hearing about Millennials and how you should communicate with them and how you can reach them and what they really want from you...but we promise this will be worth your time. Why? Because we’re talking about generous GIVING and MILLENNIALS.
Yes, those two words can be used in the same sentence. AND they can even work together!
As a matter of fact, Millennials are an increasingly charitable generation with hearts that desire to make a difference. They want to give and they want to help…all you have to do is convince them to do it with your organization.
Motivating Millennials
The Fact: In 2013 alone, 79% of Millennials volunteered for a cause they were passionate about and 69% gave because a nonprofit inspired them, according to a recent trend study from ACHIEVE. The key in those statistics is to note the passion and inspiration underlying the end result of giving. Millennials don’t give the way their parents do—because of long-standing habit and tradition—Millennials give because an organization or an event or a social media post has inspired them to do so
The Solution: You can take advantage of this by being outright about what you do. Don’t try to dumb down your message or only vaguely mention your mission in a bland effort to appeal to the masses. Be bright, speak loud, and don’t back down. Approaching campaigns and communications with this kind of confidence will ensure that the people you DO attract to your nonprofit are actually there for the right reasons. Trying to mold your specifically wonderful mission into something so vague so that it appeals to everyone mildly rather than appealing to just a few people strongly is the wrong approach. And the people that you’ll end up snagging won’t actually know what they’re giving to fully.
Attracting Millennials
The Fact: ACHIEVE also found that “majority of Millennials volunteered and gave charitably in modest amounts to multiple nonprofits.” In a similar vein, another study from World Vision found 60% of Millennials gave on average about $481 a year, spread across 3.3 charities.
Here’s the important thing to note: These youngsters aren’t just picking one top-notch nonprofit and putting all their eggs in that one basket, so to speak. Because Millennials have so many deep-founded passions, they’re eager to invest smaller amounts in more nonprofits in order to satisfy all those different passions.
The Solution: Be okay with just getting a smaller section of someone’s charitable giving rather than ALL of it. A millennial giving you a small amount on a consistent basis right now can translate into a lifetime giver whereas a millennial who is asked to give $100 every month might get exhausted and drop off after a few donations.
Help these people get to know you and give them an easy on-ramp to your organization by lowering your ask arrays. Instead of asking for $50, ask for $25. Instead of asking someone to volunteer an entire day, ask them to share a social media graphic with their online community. Start Millennials slow and give them the chance to learn more about you before you ask them to hand over their entire savings.
Retaining Millennials
The Fact: Millennials are so very different from all the generations that came before them. They require more from you than their parents did in order to be convinced that they should support you. But even beyond that, they don’t just require more, they require different. As Forbes cited, Millennials don’t just give or support an organization because they’re passionate about the cause or because that’s what everyone else is doing, instead “they are participating to make a memory.”
The Solution: If you can, give Millennials an experience, a memory. Rather than asking for a mediocre transaction separated by screens, go for something tangible and real. For instance, if you’re an organization dedicated to clothing and feeding the homeless, rather than asking people just to donate clothes, food or money for those items, ask people to join you in the kitchen or out on the street as you build relationships with homeless people. Open the door for Millennials to experience, really experience your mission in action and once they trust you, they’ll open their wallets.
Millennials are here, they want to give their dollars. They’re just desperate for an organization like you to bring something different to the table and inspire them to action.
