Generational Marketing

We’ve been running research with children and young people for years at nfpSynergy, but in the last few months we launched "Families Insight," expanding this research to include parents. This allows us to examine how exactly families interact and engage with charities. Our findings have revealed some interesting dynamics within the family unit, underscoring why…

Every day, it seems like there is a new, shiny thing to play with in the nonprofit space. Some of them will stand the test of time. Others will not. But rumors of the death of “X” (where “X” is direct mail, unrestricted giving, segmentation, corporate philanthropy or whatever else is tried, true and boring) are greatly exaggerated. Highly effective nonprofits are doubling down, improving on what they know works, has worked and will work, regardless of whether their stories make for great dinner party anecdotes...

Don’t have any Millennials on your nonprofit board yet? Your future might be tough. There are a whole heck of a lot of good reasons to target Millennial visitors and supporters. They are not visiting cultural organizations at representative rates, they aren’t magically “aging into” increased care for arts and culture, and–perhaps most importantly–data suggests…

Hall and Oates, peanut butter and jelly, Tommy and Gina, Millennials and the Internet: Some things just go together. But while Millennials have become nearly synonymous with social networks and the Internet, it turns out they aren’t the most likely to use them for giving...

Nonprofits have two goals: to win supporters to their cause, and to convert those supporters to donors or members to support their work. To achieve both in 2016, marketers will need to become more savvy than ever. But where should you start? The first step is to take a look at the marketing landscape at large…

A group of 20-somethings flew from Vancouver, British Columbia to El Salvador earlier this month to build new homes for agricultural families displaced by flooding. Their materials included wood, fiber cement and, most importantly, Snapchat. The Millennials used the popular video-messaging app to record heartfelt donation requests, and then fanned them out to their social…

Move over, Millennials. There’s a new generation in town and they are eager to innovate in our communities. Generation Z was recently named the Founders generation by MTV. No matter whether you refer to them as Gen Z, iGen, Post-Millennials or Founders, they’re moving into the workplace and will be a valuable asset to nonprofits.…

Millennials, understandably, are the source of much anxiety for nonprofits. How do you connect with them? What makes them tick? How do they give? Are they worth all the trouble? The latest study to tackle those questions examines the Giving Tuesday strategies of nine nonprofits to provide a cross-section of organizations' Millennial engagement efforts and determine Millennials' Giving Tuesday habits...

Dozens of young people from all over New Jersey arrived in Newark Saturday to participate in a charitable event entitled #TakeCareOfNewark #Feed500. The idea was simple enough—gather together enough food and supplies to feed 500 needy people. But the phenomenal outcome was not the result of an established charity with scores of volunteers, “old money”…

A recent study about donor engagement and nonprofit marketing shows there are critical areas where what nonprofits are doing is not what is optimal for donors.