The Millennial Generation Puzzle

Welcome to our special guest blog post series -"Millennial Perspectives: Voices of a Giving Generation." We have been exploring Millennial engagement with a variety of leading experts and practitioners in lead-up to today's Millennial Donor Summit.

Today, we've invited Maya Enista, Chief Executive Officer of Mobilize.org to provide her thoughts on the take on how the Millennial generation can apply their strengths towards social good.

I spend most of my day working to decode the Millennial Generation puzzle; my generation’s puzzle, and support and balance the tension (in the most positive of definitions) between our technological aptitude and relationship based existence, and how the two combine the most unique way to create unprecedented social good. I was able to sneak an advanced copy of Millennial Donors: A Study of Millennial Giving and Engagement Habits, and this important piece of research has left me perplexed about my generation, and hopeful that the current dating relationship that technological aptitude and relationship based existence have, will soon settle down, get married and stop being something noteworthy, but instead accepted as the Millennial way of life; the new toolkit of a generation who grew up expressing themselves, across multiple platforms, across boundaries of all types. I was glad to see the Millennial Donors report make that argument, explore that tension and identify areas of growth for both Millennials and the organizations and causes that serve us, and which we serve.

I have the privilege of serving as Chief Executive Officer of Mobilize.org, an amazing Millennial organization who aims to empower and invest in Millennials to create and implement solutions to social problems. Our work bridges the online and offline Millennial community, and challenges both to get involved in addressing the most pressing issues they face. Mobilize.org convenes Millennials to discuss the challenges and obstacles that they face, provides an opportunity for them to work collaboratively to propose solutions to those problems and then invests (financially and otherwise) in the Millennials as they work hard to implement those solutions on their campuses and in their communities. We’ve funded 31 Millennial-led solutions to date, ranging from projects focused on returning young veterans and their reintegration into their communities, to the financial literacy of first generation Millennials.

The values of this report very much resonated with me, and with the work that the amazing Mobilize.org team has been doing for the past nine years. Most importantly, authentic Millennial engagement at all levels is the secret sauce for building movements, sustaining organizations and changing policy. We’ve seen it time and time again in our country, both in terms of what happens when this generation is empowered, and what happens when this generation is ignored. Authentic Millennail engagement includes recognizing the communication tools that this generation is pioneering and appreciating our ability to balance this innovation, with our appreciation for the “old-fashioned” way of getting things done.

I once heard Sean Stannard-Stockton from Tactical Philanthropy masterfully answer a question about whether or not online engagement, particularly in the donor arena, was a passing fad. He sat back, as if this was his favorite question to answer, and said the following:

Some of you remember when the telephone came along, and everyone said – there’s no way you’re going to have time to make any phone calls in the office, you’re so busy typing letters, sealing envelopes and licking stamps. And then, you started making phone calls. Then the fax machine came along and everyone said – there’s no way you’re going to have time to send faxes when you’re in the office, you’re so busy typing letters, sealing envelopes, licking stamps and making phone calls. Then, email happened and it was viewed as a short-term nuisance. There’s no way you’re going to have time to send emails in the office, you’re so busy typing letters, sealing envelopes, licking stamps and making phone calls.

He stopped there, and without even answering the question – he had made his point, because we all know what happened to email. Online engagement is here to stay; and many institutions (non-profits, funders, academic institutions) are behind the times accepting that fact. I’m also happy to report that Millennials have NOT lost their ability engage on a peer to peer level, in fact, technology has enhanced our ability to do so. For the past two years, I’ve set up a Birthday Wish on Causes.com (October 11th, incase you’re pre-planning your donations for the end of the year). I asked my 1,110 friends to donate money to Mobilize.org in celebration of my birthday. My birthday wishes have raised over $3,000 for Mobilize.org. Why? Because I asked the people I know, some in real life and some in Facebook lore only, online, to donate to something that I cared about deeply (online and offline). They did; because I asked, and because technology made it easy for me to ask.

That’s just one example of the unique balance that my generation is navigating as we redefine community, communication and access to information. I have a lot more to learn about this Millennial Generation Puzzle, and I suspect you do too. If that’s true, make sure you join me on Wednesdya, June 22nd for the Millennial Donor Summit, sponsored by the Case Foundation. Here’s the link to register, and tell them I sent you.