ARTICLE

Strategies For Connecting With Younger Donors

Engaging Millennials And Gen Z

Gaining new donors and maintaining those relationships long term is essential to the success of your nonprofit and its projects. It’s important to recognize that the next generation of donors has arrived with their own set of expectations, values, and perspectives. To attract them to your cause, you can’t rely on the same strategies you may have used for Gen X or Baby Boomers.

So, let’s take a moment to explore these generations and what strategies work in connecting with younger donors. How can you incorporate their needs and expectations to develop meaningful connections with them?

Get to know Millennials and Gen Z

It’s a mistake to make assumptions about how donors behave. Millennials and Gen Z are both nuanced demographics. Thinking that TikTok dances or other superficial trends will sway them is too simplistic an approach and does them a disservice. Instead, by getting to know them better, you can gain a more relevant understanding of how you can meaningfully connect with them, and perhaps even gain a greater appreciation of what they can offer your organization beyond their money.

There are various areas to dig deeper into, but some things worth exploring about these demographics include the following.

Their attitudes to money

Understanding Millennials’ and Zoomers’ relationships with finances can give you insights into how you can engage with them as donors. Looking at Millennial and Gen Z money trends is an excellent place to start. Firstly, they can have a pretty bleak outlook on the economy, having seen some financially rough periods and dealing with a higher cost of living. As a result, they can be pretty fiscally conservative, which means they need to feel their donation is a worthwhile investment. They also show a preference for non-traditional banking and online spending processes. As a result, leaning into donation methods that mimic and leverage these aspects can be critical.

Their values

Millennials and Gen Z’ers often have strong values and adhere to them. There are some pretty distinct elements that these generations prioritize. Sustainability is an important consideration given the climate crisis. Both groups also maintain high social justice and inclusivity standards. Even going as far as choosing which organizations they interact with based on employee mental wellness and fair treatment. No matter what the core of your cause is, understanding the values these demographics prioritize is key to meaningful financial and practical relationships with them.

Align fundraising with ideals

Once you’ve got a good grasp of the values of Millennials and Gen Z’ers, the next challenge is understanding how to align your operations with them in ways that lead to donations and engagement. While your cause may be the main reason for the donation, reflecting their other ideals is likely to be influential, too.

You can start by linking your donation approach to the practical methods younger people can use to spend money according to their values. This begins with considering whether what they’re spending money on matters to them. This is a relatively simple point to leverage, as your outreach should be driven by the importance of the cause and the impact donors can have. Another key tenet of values-driven spending is considering wants vs. needs; is it necessary for them to choose to donate to you? You need to establish why making a donation could positively affect their lives.

Beyond this, look at how the actions of your organization reflect the values of Gen Z’ers and Millennials. For instance, authenticity is one of the main points of focus. As a result, being consistently transparent about everything, from where you use donations to how their personal data is leveraged, is critical to gaining their trust and loyalty. Even providing social media content from your workers’ perspectives about how they sustainably pursue projects can demonstrate alignment with these potential donors’ ideals.

Build relationships effectively

Connecting with younger donors isn’t about finding the right single-time marketing tactic. Not only is it in the best interests of your nonprofit to develop meaningful relationships that involve long-term engagement, but this also chimes with the authentic interactions that Millennials and Gen Z’ers value.

Some of the steps you can take to do this include the following:

Personalization

Personalization is not just a nice touch in marketing, but is actually an essential part of the younger generations’ online experience. Therefore, you must provide personalized communications that reflect donors’ interests and even their donation history. You can use data analytics platforms to segment your target demographics into personas, allowing you to tailor general outreach to be more relevant. You should also leverage your donor management platforms to assess data about younger donors and adapt your emails, event invitations, and website components to their personal preferences.

Maintaining a dialog

A strong donor relationship with younger generations must be built on two-way conversations. Show that you don’t just want their money, but genuinely value their perspectives and insights. Regularly reach out to them with surveys and polls. Arrange for online and in-person discussion sessions about your organization, where they can make suggestions and raise issues. Doing so helps them feel like an integral part of your organization.

Conclusion

Connecting with younger donors is vital for the long-term success of your organization. You need to understand and reflect on their unique values, financial perspectives, and donation motivations, among other factors. Wherever possible, bring representatives of these demographics onto your full-time staff. They’ll have insights about their peer group that can help you gain new donors and perhaps introduce innovations into your organization.

Does your organization focus on connecting with younger donors? Let us know in the comments.