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)