Donor Demographics

I recently read a stat that 70 percent of U.S. disposable income is controlled by baby boomers. Taken together with the stat from Blackbaud’s “Next Generation of American Giving” report that boomers contribute 43 precent of all charitable giving, one thing is clear: Baby boomers should be at the top of every nonprofit professional’s mind.
 
But how do we reach them, and what’s the best offer? How do they compare to the older generation of people who are currently giving? And can we really just lump 70 million people into one segment?

Each generation living today has come of age with profoundly different experiences concerning mass communication, and these differences directly impact how each generation gives to nonprofits. Seniors still prefer print communications and charitable giving. The same is mostly true of baby boomers, however, they are young enough to be experiencing the rise of new media in their daily lives, which impacts their lifelong giving habits. Gen X and Gen Y increasingly shun print communications and fundraising while adapting quickly to new trends in mobile and social giving.

Ever wonder what your colleagues are learning about the hearts, minds and habits of today’s donors? Wonder no more. At the DMA Nonprofit Federation 2014 Washington Nonprofit Conference, direct marketers generously shared their donor insights gleaned from careful testing and successful campaigns. Here are the top 10 insights about donors learned from the conference.

New donors are the lifeblood of nonprofit organizations. However, the challenge of finding, engaging and retaining them has only increased. Given all of this, we need to be thinking carefully about how we acquire donors and what we do to get them excited about our missions in order to retain them. This holds true for both traditional older donors and the younger ones who all organizations have been tasked with finding, but it’s particularly true with younger donors.

If most donors are 60-something, what does this mean for millennial philanthropy? Should we ignore these 75 million younger Americans until they come of “donor age”? Or should we take a different approach to millennial cultivation and giving? And if so, how should we proceed?

You should not eschew small-gift fundraising, even if the lion’s share of your funding comes from major donors. So let’s take a mini-break from thinking about major-gift fundraising (of which I’m a huge proponent). Whenever you can get a donor in the door, one with affinity for your cause, you should. Let’s look at 10 ways to succeed with small gift fundraising: …

Is this about new donors? Just about the cash? Raising awareness?

Those aging baby boomers want what you have to offer. And there are a lot of boomers. But if you really want to tap in to this incredible reservoir of people seeking meaning, you have to fulfill boomers' search for meaning. That means: giving them great fundraising offers, being thankful and reporting back.

Chances are, the average age of your donors is startlingly high. And because of that, I'll bet you or someone in your organization has said: "Our donors are dying! We've got to replace them!" That's absolutely correct. The next panicked statement is usually: "We need to find young donors!" That's also correct. But the whole thing goes off the rails when someone interprets that to mean: "Let's focus on Gen Y donors!"

Recently, the New York chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals hosted a terrific event focusing on the younger donor pipeline. Each of the three panelists bared all of the details of their young patrons' programs — from strategies, budgets (very low!) and staffing to the databases and e-mail systems they use. Here are a few takeaways: Younger donor programs are a long-range strategy. While each of the three organizations featured have specific income and membership targets for their young donor programs, they are a fraction of the organization’s overall operating budget.