Millennial Donors Report on Nonprofit Fundraising Trends Part 2

Working in the nonprofit fundraising sector, I frequently write about the latest trending from reports such as the Blackbaud Index on Charitable and Online Giving and the Millennial Donors Report 2011. The Millennial Donors Report 2011, which I just wrote about yesterday, focuses specifically on the Millennial donor (between 20-35 years of age) and what influences their giving and volunteering decisions. Today I am continuing to feature this report and its results which lend greater insight into this important (and growing) demographic and digs deeper into how to motivate, reach and engage them.

Millennial Donors Report image courtesy of millennialdonors.com

According to the Millennial Donors Report 2011, trust (especially in this age of transparency) is the biggest motivating factor when giving for the Millennial donor.  90% of respondents said they would stop giving if trust was somehow compromised. Strategic networking is required from the nonprofit to gain and build on this trust.  Engaging them through family and friends, ensuring financial responsibility and accountability as well as providing accessibility to the leadership are all excellent ways for a nonprofit to build trust with the Millennial donor.

71% of Millennial donors research the charities online as part of their due diligence prior to donating money. They want to learn details on the nonprofits history, mission, allocation of funds, how it supports the cause and the financial stability of the organization.  Email and peer endorsement factor in 2nd and 3rd as preferred ways of learning about an organization, while social media outlets have still not gained much popularity at the moment.

The frequency of communication is of equal importance as the method. Most respondents preferred monthly or quarterly communications including updates on programs and services, information on volunteering opportunities, fundraising events and activities.

Volunteerism is still strong among this group of donors. 79% of those surveyed volunteered their time to a cause and of this group almost 90% volunteered more than once.  Interesting to note is that those who made the most cash donations also donated more of their time.  Those who didn’t volunteer cited the number one reason is not having enough time, followed closely by not being asked to volunteer.  The largest preference for volunteering time amongst Millennials is the desire to volunteer along with family and friends or as part of an organized group, with a compelling mission or cause as the number one motivator.

Millennial Donors Report Infographic courtesy of millennialdonors.com

Overall the findings in this report is great for nonprofits, as identifying Millennial donors giving patterns will help to increase the frequency and size of gift as they age and grow older.  Nonprofits have to engage and nurture this donor segment to see stronger results in the future.  To do this the report highlights some key recommendations including:

• Work to establish, build and maintain the trust of their donors
• Work to win and protect donors’ trust
• Develop personal relationships and opportunities for donors to connect with their peers and with people from the organization
• Focus on the way the organization appears in search engines, specifically Google
• Help those donors who find them to understand the organization thoroughly, appreciate how a gift would help, and know how to give
• Pursue a multi-channel approach to attracting Millennial donors, mixing traditional with technologically approaches
• Focus on personal connections over virtual ones, personal contact is valued over high-tech approaches
• Be patient as “entry-level” Millennial givers focus on small gifts to multiple organizations and more mature donors give larger gifts
• Embrace and offer Millennials the giving methods and tools they would prefer
• Make your messages as compelling as possible and be specific as to how donations will be used
• Study and sharpen your search-engine results
• Gather information from donors about their preferences for receiving information
• Creating meaningful and convenient volunteering opportunities and experiences

The Millennial Donors Report 2011 and it’s Data Details are definitely worth a read to gain a better understanding on reaching, engaging and relating to this key supporter demographic. I was surprised social media interaction wasn’t more of an influence on this demographic but I imagine that will change with each report release. While reports like this can definitely help with nonprofit fundraising planning, it can also help the for-profit sector to motivate employee participation in company CSR business policies involving group volunteering.

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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery services, donation caging, donation processing and other donor management services. We are committed to our CSR business values and advancing the missions of the non-profits we proudly serve.