The youngest generation is least familiar with #GivingTuesday. Baby Boomers want to hear from their charities most often and vastly prefer old-fashioned mail as opposed to digital channels.
All donors are different and a recent survey examined just how different they are by generation.
Lakeland, Fla.-based fundraising software technology company Qgiv released the “Generational Giving Report.” The survey, conducted in January, asked more than 1,300 people if they had made a donation in the past 12 months. About 60 percent made a gift and went on to complete the rest of the survey. The 37-page report portrays a profile for each generation and goes on to describe an engagement checklist for how nonprofits can best interact with them.
The top three verticals by generation were:
- Generation Z (<25): Environment, arts, youth development
- Millennials (25 to 34): Research and policy, international affairs, education
- Generation X (35 to 54): Environment, art, community development
- Boomers (55-plus): Religion, human services, health services
Donors were asked to specify whether ongoing support was given as tithes and offerings, as recurring gifts to nonprofits, or as gifts to both religious organizations and to nonprofits. Generation Z was most likely to give to nonprofits alone while almost one-third of Millennials said their gifts were “in the form of tithes and offerings,” the largest group of any to indicate that donations were exclusively religious. Boomers were most likely to donate both religious and nonprofit gifts.
Mature donors were most moved by a nonprofit’s reputation and word-of-month recommendations. Younger generations were more likely to look at testimonials and social media activity. Boomers and Gen X donors are most likely to look for financial reports and testimonials.
Boomers by far prefer to send donations in the mail and are least likely to donate by text or Facebook and other social channels. Gen X was most likely to be motivated by tax deductions.
After making a donation, Boomers largely wanted to receive updates on a quarterly basis while Generation Z donors were more like monthly.
There were 371 respondents who said they made a gift during Giving Tuesday while 488 did not. Almost 450 respondents were unfamiliar with Giving Tuesday. Millennials accounted for the majority of those who supported Giving Tuesday yet Gen Z donors were least familiar with the day. The average gift on #GivingTuesday ranged from $5 to $55 and most donors supported two to three organizations.
