10 key findings to help nonprofits reach Millennials

Successful nonprofit fundraising activities are extremely reliant on planning, forecasting and research and every charity is keen to ensure best practices are in place for today, tomorrow and much deeper into the future. So much of what we read and research directly impacts today and tomorrow but we may be overlooking the future at times and when it comes to the donors of tomorrow your audience will be the ‘millennials’.

Millennials is the word used to define the demographic of today’s youth and young adults much as we previously had baby boomers or Generation X and Y. In short, most researchers define millennials as those born between 1981 and 2000. Today that places the group anywhere between age 13 and 33 with about 75% now into adulthood and naturally this group are the future of your nonprofit fundraising success.

A recent report does a wonderful job of helping you to pinpoint exactly how Millennials tend to support, volunteer for and engage with nonprofits. How this generation will interact with your organization is not only worth knowing about but it might be the most important report you’ve read when it comes to planning some of your future strategies. The report was created by The Case Foundation/Achieve and specifically poses questions about how Millennials interact with nonprofits via their workplace.

You can download the report after email registration via this link.

Research shows that the origin of much nonprofit giving is deeply linked to choices and awareness within the workplace, especially for those who work for medium to large sized companies. Speaking from the personal experience of having worked many years for a large Fortune 500 company – the efforts and success of that company to build a culture of diverse giving was something positive to behold, employee engagement in terms of both giving and volunteerism was an important part of employee satisfaction based both on surveys and the funds raised/time given.

Capturing the donor and volunteer support of Millennials is critical for the future of nonprofits

The study demonstrates just how important employers can be in forming that lasting link between Millenials and nonprofit organizations. In addition to the obvious fundraising benefits the workplace also offers convenience and a social element which are key concerns for this age group.

I’d encourage a review of the entire report but below are ten of the key findings.

1. How Millennials learn about a company’s cause work: Company website: 93% Google search: 61% Current or past employees: 36% Facebook: 22%, LinkedIn: 12%, Twitter: 11%
2. A company’s involvement with causes ranked as the 3rd most important factor when applying for a job
3. 87% of Millennials feel encouraged to volunteer and participate in their company’s cause work
4. 88% of Millennial employees donated to a nonprofit organization in 2013
5. 28% of Millennial employees made $100-$500 gifts to nonprofits in 2013
6. A company’s involvement with causes ranked as the 3rd most important factor when applying for a job
7. 55% of Millennials were influenced to take their job after discussing cause work in their interview
8. 63% of female Millennials were influenced to accept a job based on the company’s cause work
9. 78% of Millennial employees prefer doing cause work with a group of co-workers rather than individually
10. Millennials most appreciate cause initiatives that help their surrounding community

I’m sure you’ll agree that the data above is very interesting and may help you drive forward your nonprofit’s appeal to Millenials via the workplace immediately.

All data by kind courtesy of The Case Foundation/Achieve.

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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including inbound telephone fundraising, outbound telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery fundraising services, donation processing and receipting and direct mail fundraising services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all our business decisions  and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.