The New Face of Donors

The New Face of Donors

July 19, 2005

By Judith E. Nichols, CFRE

Increasingly, our donor and prospect bases will be dominated by individuals born after, rather than before, World War II. They are very different from the men and women who came of age during the Depression and lived through that war. The new face of donors includes Baby Boomers, Generation Xers and the first wave of Generation Net, and whether you are approaching them for annual or major gifts, it will behoove you to know a little more about them, their values and their perspectives.

BABY BOOMERS

Middle-aged baby boomers have very different psychographics than the older, civic-minded audiences that nonprofits have historically depended on. Our society's adult idealists (born between 1946 and 1964) have been hard for the world to swallow. Boomers were told they could do anything. For them, life is a voyage of self-discovery. They display a bent toward inner absorption, perfectionism and individual self-esteem. Taught from birth that they were special, boomers believe in changing the world, not changing to fit it. In midlife, they will see virtue in austerity and a well-ordered inner life. Also, they will demand a new assertion of community values over individual wants.

* Preferred Message Style: mediative and principled, with an undertone of pessimism.

* Financial Style: Having always lived in a world of inflation and having no memories of the Depression, they have a different understanding of money. This is the generation that saw money lose clout. More is worth less. Financial planning is viewed as a sign of status in its own right. However, they are coming out of the free-spending l980s to focus on non-materialistic values. They tend to buy first, pay later and like monthly payment plans and using credit cards.

* Key Life Events: the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy; worldwide rock music; the Red Brigade and other campus/youth-based terrorism.