What Millennials Want

I recently tried to download a report about millennial donors, but, being a millennial, I couldn’t afford the $199 price tag.  *sigh*

There seems to be a lot of talk these days about what millennials want, how nonprofits should engage them, and how to get them to donate.

As a 34 year old in the nonprofit sector with a lot of 25-40 year old friends that are not in the sector, I can shed some light on the subject. And I won’t even charge you.

We have no money. But that won’t always be the case.

It’s true that millennials want to spend their time doing meaningful things. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of one friend who is in some Office space type situation where they are just punching the clock. The trade-off is that no one makes very much money. Donations to your cause will be small, if you get anything at all. We are super excited to give you our $25 though. Maybe next year we’ll ask a few of our friends to give you $25 too, although they will only give $10. We’re talking chump change here. But, we won’t always be young and poor and that’s the thing to remember. Take the time to get to know us, to thank us for what we are able to do and give, and stay in touch. It’s a long game, but we are your future major donors if you treat us right.

We need to be educated on how to be philanthropists.

My parents always tithed, regardless of how little they had. I grew up seeing that, and as a result have been cognizant of how much I give and who I give to. Because I am in the nonprofit sector, I have decided to be more focused in my giving. I don’t often give to my friends who are trying to raise money to run a marathon (because I know they are excited about the marathon, not the cause they are running for), but I try to give increasing, or at least consistent, amounts to causes that I am passionate about.

But most millennials don’t spend their time thinking about that stuff. They are happy to give if someone asks them and they have the money available, but they aren’t necessarily being strategic or thoughtful about their gifts. We need to be educated on what that looks like. We also need to be educated on overhead and how to truly tell if an organization is using our money wisely.

We don’t want your doom and gloom.

I have to change the channel every time Sarah McLachlan starts telling me about abused puppies. I just can’t. Because everything sucks for young people right now. It costs a billion dollars to go to school, and then we graduate and there are no jobs, rent keeps skyrocketing so we live with our parents, and all we want is some good news. So we buy the newest gadgets to keep ourselves distracted and we watch lots of television and we send cat videos to everyone we know.

But honestly we’re just scared for our future. Politicians are all old, white men that are completely out of touch with our lives. Our bosses won’t let us lead. We’re not sure how we’re ever going to retire. And on top of that, we’re all worried about if we’re ever going to get married or are we too old to have a baby and can we even afford that baby? The world is a completely different place than the one our parents grew up in so we have to forge our own path. And that’s scary. So sending us emails about how the world is going to end if we don’t donate is just adding to the sinking feeling we carry with us every day.

That’s not to say that we want things to be sugar coated or that we want to be lied to. We just want to know how we can help. And right now, it’s probably not with money. So tell us how we can help the cause using what we do have: free time, a voice on social media, computer skills, and a different perspective.

We want to be involved.

This goes for millennials that you are trying to get to donate and millennials that work in the nonprofit sector. We don’t have money and we don’t have power. But you have got to stop asking how we should engage millennials without engaging the millennials. Most of us love talking about ourselves. Just ask us what we want and how we can help. We want advice and mentorship from older generations and we want to have a voice.

Invite us to the party.