What Makes Millennials Give to Charity?

Time to get out your checkbook. Wait—what’s a checkbook again?

That thousand-dollar-a-plate charity gala may seem hopelessly out of touch, not to mention financially out of reach, to your average debt-ridden, tech-savvy millennial. But that doesn’t mean that Boston-area nonprofits aren’t devising new ways to win this generation’s philanthropic hearts. This cohort—the 75 million or so Americans born between the early 1980s and late 1990s—already gives in a far different way: Witness the rise of #GivingTuesday, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and Livestrong crowd-sourced funding campaigns. Young donors want to be inspired, and they want to be actively involved, whether that means pedaling for a purpose or swinging a hammer.