As a New Yorker, walking around New York City has become a real-life video game. From navigating the crowds to bumping into someone who is unaware of their surroundings or trying to take a picture, a simple walk to the corner store has become a game of duck and weave. Standing on the corner, I thought to myself, “What has changed, why has walking become such a difficult task?” Then I realized, every single person’s head was down, in their phones. Technology has reshaped the way we live day-to-day; we have the knowledge of the world at our fingertips at any given moment. How can we use this phenomenon for social good and philanthropic growth and not just cat videos?
Recently, I polled Blackbaud employees, and while not the largest sample set (44 respondents), it yielded some interesting results. Over 77% of the respondents noted they pick up their phones 2–5 times per hour. That is 2–5 times an hour that is available for potential donor engagement. While this poll spanned all age groups, it doesn’t take a poll to look around and see some of the heaviest users of phones and technology are millennials, those born between 1980 and 2000. Millennials are at the forefront of change, due to the globalization of our lives. At any point in time, we can have access to what is happening across the globe and we have a stronger understanding of what it means to be a global community. The lives of millennials have been shaped by the rapid growth of technology and this is now shaping our lives in philanthropy.
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As a New Yorker and a millennial, #GivingTuesday has been a part of my philanthropic DNA from the moment of its inception. A campaign started in 2012 by the 92nd Street Y and the United Nations, two organizations within walking distance of the school where I once worked, #GivingTuesday has continued to shape the conversation for online giving. With the growing success of this campaign across the globe, how can we as organizations optimize our philanthropic reach with the power of technology and the millennial drive for impacting the social good?
- Have a clear, concise mission/impact statement that can be summarized in a short social media post. Millennials are looking to invest their resources in organizations that can articulate a clear, concise mission/impact statement that is no longer than 1 or 2 sentences. There is a constant influx of information being pushed to our phones at any given moment. An organization must “catch” its readers with a mission or a movement that tugs at the heartstrings, and which millennials can easily rally behind. I’ve included impact with the mission statement because as a millennial, we don’t just want to know what you stand for, we want to know that your plan supports change for the betterment of all. Catch us, intrigue us, impact us.
Tip: Invite a small group of donors, volunteers, and community members to a roundtable and have them describe your mission and impact. They will be able to give you insight and passion behind the words you want to convey to millennial donors.
- Engage through social media. I know, obvious answer—but engage us the way WE want to be engaged. 39% of millennials worldwide are inspired to give because of what they saw on social media. Millennials are looking for instant access to visual engagement. We want to see the impact, not just read about it. Show us impact stories and tell us how a donation to your organization makes a difference. We want transparency. And just like you want engagement from us, we want it from you as well. Engage us, educate us, connect us.
Tip: Use Facebook Live or Instagram Stories to provide millennials with dynamic visuals of the impact of giving. Find someone directly impacted by your organization and have them speak about the difference your organization has made in their life or their community. For more static content, include a captivating visual using Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat. Include a link to your giving page and make us want to “click thru.”
- Embrace the Power of Two Simple Letters: RE. Encourage your donors and volunteers to REpost on Facebook, REgram on Instagram, REtweet on Twitter, and even REplay on Snapchat. As philanthropists, we want to embrace the power of the widest reach possible, through sharing our content. These donors and volunteers already “buy into” your mission and impact, so empower them to bring about a greater awareness to a cause they believe in. Not all millennials have the capacity to give money—empower them to be a part of the cause by promoting your organization through social media. Empower us, challenge us, influence us.
Tip: Find those individuals that already believe in your mission, to expand your reach within their social networks. Millennials are all looking to have a hand in impacting the social good, and sometimes we just don’t know how or where we can do that until it scrolls across our feeds.
Are you ready to engage the next generation of giving?
To learn more about engagement and creating a giving strategy for #GivingTuesday, make sure to check out Blackbaud University’s Organizational Best Practices classes.
Good thoughts to share with our team. Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed Cathy!
Thanks for the information on how to optimize our messaging to capture our communities attention.
You’re very welcome! It is always important to make sure we take into consideration how our donors get information and how we can express our goals and needs as concise as possible!
Great tips, especially for us since we are trying to get our development/annual programs into the new decade!
Technology is your best friend. People want instant access to everything at their finger tips, why not your giving page?!
The ‘head down’ issue is prevalent her in Chicago as well. I do my best to stop and move to the side, look at messages/internet and then move on once I am done. Are you seeing any success with other social media platforms due to Millenials abandoning Facebook?
We are all guilty of the head down! According to the 2018 Trends in Global Giving report linked in this article, 20% get inspired to give through Instagram, 13% through Twitter and 6% through YouTube. With the whole “cutting the cord” phenomenon with Millennials (no longer paying for cable), I anticipate the YouTube number to grow over the coming years. We go to YouTube for everything, why not a nice visual giving appeal!
The two letters made me chuckle. RE. Find them in RE and then RE-engage too.
Engagement and Re-engagement is always important!!
Thanks for the great post. I’ll be sharing this with our Annual Giving team! 🙂
Glad you enjoyed Donna!
Perfect timing for this post. Thank you!
Thanks for reading!
good tips to keep in mind
Interesting stuff. Thank you!
We are also wondering, if Facebook is not a primary way to reach younger people, what are the next most popular connections?
Instagram, Twitter, YouTube! Check out my previous reply with some key numbers.
Thanks for the reminder to keep it short! So many of us want to tell our whole story on every social post.
We believe in our missions and we want to share them, we just have to be strategic to keep potential donors engaged.
Great stuff. We are still struggling with easier payment options for this generation who just want to flash their Apple Pay and give a donation, without having to fill in any forms.
Try finding a card reader you can use with your payment processor that will allow you to accept Apple/Samsung pay to use at events. Also, consider looking into Venmo and if that is a viable option for your organization. Make sure you get your finance office involved in that conversation, due to compliance and tax receipting.
#Donationchallenge
I think the hashtag and challenge will get people to give.
Millennials, me included, love a good giving challenge. This is also one of the fastest ways of driving you social media reposts. Find those few heavy social media users that are really into the challenge and get them to challenge their peers.
Meet the donor where she or he is. Great advice. Thank you.
Great information. Millennials are very challenging to get involved and trying to meet them where they are is a great idea.
Thanks for the tips! We’re seriously thinking of using PayPal this year – we’ve used it very effectively at our annual fundraising dinner.
Great tips – thanks for the article
Interesting article. I’ll share this with others.
2-5 times an hour! Wow!
I appreciate your insight. I particularly liked the RE comment.
I’m sharing with the team
Thank you for the tips. I particularly like the Reposting components. We can all do our fair share of reposting and resharing.
Love the RE idea. We could definitely tie this into a “you’re the partners in our mission” theme. Thanks!
Great article, we are doing some of these.
The tips were great! I want to try the first tip right away!
I enjoyed the article. It was well done and I can see how each of those tips can make an impact.
Great tip and many thanks for sharing!
Thank you for excellent post. Good advice.
Thanks for the heads up on heads down! Good article!
“39% of millennials worldwide are inspired to give because of what they saw on social media.” Very compelling!
Good article. It’s important to meet millennial where they are at in order to gain their support. Its all about technology and social media.
Great information! Now to narrow down our focus to something that will intrigue them…
Thanks for sharing! I’ll continue lamenting the pre-screen days of ore but the engagement potential for our virtual reality seems very… real.
Great tips!
Great ideas, thanks!
Good ideas to work with! Thank you.
Good, simple ideas.
Nice post, thanks!
Thanks!
Thank you for putting this info in one place. Great tips not only for Giving Tuesday, but for our social media plan in general!
Timely tips, will share with the team!
Some great tips, loved the two letters RE.