NEW REPORT: The results are in…Gen Z giving is on the rise! Are you ready?
Afraid you're missing the mark with Gen Z donors? You aren’t alone! Most nonprofit professionals say that they don’t effectively show up in Gen Z spaces or communicate why Gen Z should support their organizations. A new report from the Blackbaud Institute, Gen Z at the Table, asks Gen Zers themselves how they see their role in philanthropy. Through an extensive research study and in-depth interviews, this report gets to the heart of Gen Z’s motivations as donors, advocates, and volunteers.
Did you know?
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One third of Gen Z donors plan to increase their giving in the coming year.
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Gen Zers are generous, especially with their time and energy!
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Among those whose employers offer workplace giving programs 89% of Gen Zers take part!
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Show them the data! Nearly 70% say that impact reporting is likely to motivate increased giving.
The bottom line: Gen Z is generous—the trick is engaging with them on their own terms. Get the latest insights and recommendations now and let us know in the comments where your organization is succeeding in cultivating this next generation of supporters.
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Thanks for the report on GenZ giving! It was inspiring! I shared it with our board chair and executive director. I had a few take aways…
And I especially liked the quote from one of the GenZ participates, "I don’t have a ton of money, but if the message spreads, more people will be able to donate time/money to the cause.”
We all can do something for someone - big or small!
As with everything right now, paradigms are shifting rapidly. However, the power of a physical piece of mail (at least for recognition and thank yous) endures.
But how much has GenX donated? Sort of kidding not kidding. GenXer's kids are GenZ. “A special report by Giving USA found that in 2022, Gen Zers gave on average $747, compared with Millennials, who donated $1,323, or Baby Boomers, who donated $2,568.”
I found this interesting. Nearly 70% say that impact reporting is likely to motivate increased giving and 57% said the same about the thank-you letter. I recycle my letters without even opening them but it does make sense with email and texting being way overused.
I found the ways in which Gen Z's made donations in the last 12 months interesting indeed. The Donation at Checkout was particularly interesting, I wonder how many NFP's have access to that option?
I think the area we are missing out on the most in capturing Gen Z and young alumni at my org is the failure to show impact in specific, measurable ways. And when we do tell stories, we don't connect them to donor dollars.
I think this article is spot on to point out how critical that is to Gen z donors and honestly how it is essential to show impact for donors of all ages. We have lots of social media that highlights all the fun, extra, out-of-classroom activities, and cool hands-on projects our students do - and while we do post about them - we don't talk about how those are possible because of donor dollars. For example, we post about how students are tapping maple syrup trees and learning about the process of making syrup, with pictures and student interviews - but we don't mention that the project was funded by donors who wanted to enrich student experiences.
We've started to identify that most students, parents, and alumni think those types of things are funded through tuition alone. We have a focus project every year for senior students where we take pictures and show how that particular project looks on completion and get testimonies from the kids on how they were impacted by it. But that's the only one out of loads of projects that are donor-funded.
When we talk about the impact we are heavily focused on announcing if we met or exceeded say a Giving Day Goal - but then we don't take it that critical step and talk about or show what those dollars are going to. We imply they unlock student potential by providing great opportunities but don't really highlight what those opportunities are, and we have so many examples to use and it really does seem like you need to get that specific, real and measurable to encourage those younger donors to act.
A lot of this reminds me of the reports 15 years ago, when Millennials were the next young wave. (I am a Millennial). For some reason, people get surprised by the universal truisms: that young people possess altruism and want to give back. That fresh-out-of-college professionals don't have any money and chiefly give through volunteerism and social advocacy. And that youth of every generation crave to feel important and “listened to” through advisory roles.
That being said, I was taken by one quote: “Instead of trying to explain stuff in big terms … just say things simpler, in the way younger people can understand.” Considering that we've been encouraged to write copy at 5-7th grade reading level for years, this call creates a challenge in telling stories differently. I imagine this is a reflection of the increase in “picture-talk” that pervades social media and internet, and represents a call to express stories less through text and more through graphics. I would be interested in seeing some research done to dig into this area more on the generational level.
Glad to see desire to make a difference. I think we all want to know the impact of our giving - interesting like for a letter. Surprised at low # for monthly auto giving - seems like so much of world today is just automated. Am wondering about definition of giving - is that throwing change in at McD's or sending donation to non-profit.
I was quite surprised at how many were impacted by s physical letter, having seen how my own children (all of whom fall in this category) react to mail. I can understand their appreciation for the data on impact, though.
Remember that Gen Z is the group that made the news for going back to “dumbphones” because of the overstimulation of social media. The response to physical mail makes sense in that context.
What a great report - I can't wait to share this with my team only 1/6 of us belong to Gen Z! So much data - I'm surprised about how well the donation at checkout works for this group. Wouldn't work for our organization as an independent school and wow my least favorite way to give!
What a fascinating report! As a Xennial, I can't wait to read all the big takeaways.