Did you know there are specific actions your nonprofit can take to motivate younger donors – particularly Millennials and Gen Z – to donate to your organization?
We know this because donors from those same generations said so in a recent report from the Wise Giving Alliance. The Donor Participation Report from give.org surveyed a wide array of donors from all five generations.
When asked about nine scenarios that might increase their likelihood of giving in the future, Millennials and Gen Zers responded more positively to eight of nine than all other generations. The only exception concerned making tax deductions easier, which isn’t surprising because younger donors are much less likely to itemize at this point in their lives.
If you’re looking for a way to attract more participation and donations from younger and mid-life donors, start addressing these eight issues in your fundraising and communications. This is what Millennials and Gen Z donors say they want from you. And fundraising is most effective when we give donors what they want.
Two Themes Stand Out
As you go through this list, you’ll notice two recurring ideas.
Easier
Younger donors want it to be easier to find and give to the charities they want to support. You’ll see the phrase “make it easier” show up over and over.
Alignment
Younger donors also seem to care much more about who is leading the nonprofits they want to support. They don’t want to give to organizations that don’t align with their preferences in a variety of areas that may have little to do with your cause.
Consider evaluating how visibly your organization is presenting these aspects of your leadership.
With these two themes in mind, here are the eight things younger donors want from nonprofits they will donate to.
Share How You Use Their Donations
31% of Millennials and 26% of Gen Zers say they want to know more about what your organization does with their money. In this area, other generations aren’t far behind, because most donors care about this.
In your fundraising communications, make sure you are consistently and effectively talking about how you use donations to further your mission.
Show outcomes. Share testimonials from beneficiaries of your work. Show your mission in action. Make clear the link between donations and progress. And do it often, and in all media channels – email, social media, direct mail, and any others you’re using.
This is about motivating people to keep giving. It’s also about trust – they want to know their money is being spent on the things they care about.
Make It Easier for Local Donors to Find You
Many donors like supporting organizations in their community. For those donors, they want to be able to find you, and they’re apparently struggling with this, because 29% of Millennials want it to be easier, as do 21% of Gen Zers, with 20% of Gen Xers feeling the same way. Again – this is something younger donors care about most.
How do you make it easier to be found locally?
Here are a few ways:
Improve your SEO
Being found online is a massive topic and we’re not going to get into the details here. But you can do a few simple things to be found more easily online.
First, have a web page with a title that makes it clear you have a local presence. Some examples of how this might look:
- Animal rescue charity in [City]
- [City] after-school tutoring programs
- Volunteer at [County] food bank
Create several web pages that feature locations and other local features of the communities where you operate, and people who are looking online will find you.
Also, use your social media pages more often, and link to local websites such as community resource pages, local government sites, and schools if relevant.
Use local media
There are two primary ways you can leverage local media.
- Advertise
- Get mentioned
Advertising in local media tends to cost a lot less than national media. And to be clear, ‘local media’ doesn’t have to mean expensive newspaper ads or local TV news channels. ‘Local’ can mean hyper-local, such as newsletters at retirement communities, or niche-specific publications such as local parks bulletins or community center media.
Getting mentioned might mean having a story done on your organization by the local newspaper. You can try to accomplish this with press releases when you have something newsworthy to share.
You can also reach out directly to reporters or heads of smaller local media outlets that are always looking for content. Look for locally based online news organizations, for starters.
You might also be able to leverage connections within your network, perhaps including your board.
Align with a local business
Donors like seeing charities allying with businesses. Find a few local businesses and see if you can forge a relationship with them. Even if they donate just 1% of revenue, or only on certain days, to your mission, their customers will see your name and know you exist.
You use this strategy more for the visibility – being found – than for what will likely result in relatively minor donations.
Be visible in the community – show up
Lastly, look for opportunities to show up in person.
Put booths at local community events. Find a way to get students from local schools volunteering or doing a project at your organization. Partner up with a local sports team. The great thing about this strategy is that you may also be able to use it to get a story done on you in the media – if the event you’re participating in is newsworthy enough.
Use Crowdfunding Sites
Younger donors like crowdfunding. For older donors, this doesn’t have much traction, and many charities are rightfully ambivalent about it because of the percentages you have to pay to the site.
But, 24% of Millennials want to be able to donate to charities through sites like these, as do 17% of Gen Zers. So consider making this a part of your fundraising strategy if the benefits outweigh the costs.
Make It Easier to Give Through Social Media
Younger donors also want to be able to give through social media, with 23% of Millennials and 21% of Gen Zers saying so. This one dominates with the younger generations, as only 6% of the two oldest ones express interest in this.
Which social media platforms are you actively engaging on with donors and supporters?
While it’s a lot of work to be active on too many platforms, you can have a basic presence on many of them without investing tons of ongoing time. That way, if a potential donor searches for your organization on their social media platform of choice, they can find you. Even if all you put on there is a little information and a way to give, that will be enough for a donor who wants to give through that platform.
Do what you can to get at least a basic presence on Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, and LinkedIn, and perhaps Snap and Pinterest. Then, make it as easy as possible in each platform for donors to make a gift. Or, if it’s not feasible, make it easy to find a link to your website’s donation page.
Make It Easier for People of Affiliated Religions to Find You
Younger religious donors want to support organizations that align with their faith, with 20% of Millennials wanting this, and 15% of Gen Zers. If your nonprofit has any alignment with particular religious beliefs, this needs to be easy to discover.
That means it should be prominently featured on your website – especially on your home and about pages. Someone visiting your page shouldn’t have to look far to find out if your mission aligns with their religion.
You’ll do even better using the strategy mentioned earlier for local SEO. As with that example, write a web page with a title like ‘Christian homeless ministries in [City]’, or ‘Catholic food banks in [County].’
Make It Easier to Determine the Race, Ethnicity and Gender of Your Leaders
Combining two scenarios from the study, younger donors want to support organizations with leaders of particular ethnic backgrounds or genders.
22% of Millennials want to be able to find charities that are led by people of their race or ethnicity, as do 19% of Gen Zers. Regarding gender, 20% of Millennials want this same thing, and again so do 19% of Gen Zers. Hardly anyone from the older three generations cares about this.
The simplest way to address both of these scenarios is to feature photographs of your leadership on your key web pages – especially your staff page but also your about page.
If you want to make a strong push toward donors looking for this type of alignment, you once again could create a whole web page devoted to your leaders, and you could feature it consistently in your social media posting. By using photos, you can make it clear who is leading your organization without having to be overbearing regarding their identity. The photo will speak for itself, and in many cases so will their name.
Also, this might provide a way to ‘show up’ locally, as mentioned earlier.
For example, suppose there’s a town hall addressing an issue relevant to a particular racial group or gender. Your nonprofit should show up, either by being part of the presentation, sponsoring the event, or volunteering in some way.
Make It Easier to Determine Your Charity’s Political Identity
Lastly, Millennials (18%) and Gen Zers (15%) want to support charities that align with their political identity.
You can see a fairly consistent percentage of these younger donors seem to be looking for alignment in these various categories. Like race, gender, and religion, if your organization aligns fairly well with particular political beliefs, you’re not likely to hurt yourself by making this clear.
Those who believe the same things will be more drawn to you because they’ll see you as a champion for their beliefs. You’re likely to inspire much more impassioned donor loyalty with this approach than you might turn off a handful of potential donors who disagree with you.
Give Younger Donors What They Want
You now have eight ways to appeal to some of the things younger donors say they want from nonprofits before they choose to support them.
Most of these are relatively simple to utilize. They may require a subtle shift in messaging, a slightly altered approach in how you describe your organization, or showing up in a few additional media channels.
Finding local avenues and media channels where you can be visible takes a little more effort, but it will pay off because you’ll find donors who are looking to be involved in something that affects the place they live.
Use as many of these ideas as you can, and you’ll attract more younger donors who will turn into lifelong supporters.