Survey Says: A Whole Lotta Trust Goes a Long Way with Millennial Donors

Often characterized simply by their “me-centric,” constantly connected ways, if you can catch Millennials with enough time in between a text or tweet, you might find a great deal of encouraging news about this rising generation. Millennials not only give to causes they care about, but they give generously – and, they’ll even roll up their sleeves and volunteer too. This is according to the second annual Millennial Donors Survey conducted by Achieve and JGA, and released earlier today.

The Millennial Donor Survey finds that of the more than 3,000 people (ages 20 to 35) who responded, 93 percent gave to nonprofit organizations in 2010, with 10 percent giving $1,000 or more. What does this mean for nonprofits? Millennials are giving, they’re giving generously, and if organizations aren’t focused on how to most effectively engage with these new donors – they won’t just be falling behind, they’ll have a difficult time catching up.  

It’s All About Face to Face

While organizations are all a flutter trying to lock in their short codes for SMS and text-to-give programs, the survey showed that Millennials actually respond best when there is an authentic personal connection as opposed to a blast email or text soliciting support. Of course, given that a large majority of Millennials are known to actually sleep with their phones, there are many assumptions that can be made about how they want to be reached. Yet, just as the survey showed last year, Millennials value personal contact over high-tech approaches.

When it comes to method of payment, Millennials prefer to give online, with 58 percent citing this as their preferred method. What may be surprising however is the discrepancy in how they use social media for communicating versus how they use it to give. Only a small number of Millennials donated via text (6%), Facebook (4%), phone (10%), and mobile apps (1%) – but none of those was heavily preferred. 

Trust is a Must

When asked to describe what motivates them to give, 85 percent of Millennials pointed to a compelling mission or cause, and 56 percent cited a personal connection or trust in the leadership of an organization. Friends and peers followed just slightly behind at 52 percent. Perhaps one of the more telling statistics to come out of the report was centered around the issue of trust. In fact, when making decisions to give, Millennials put such a value on trust that 84 percent said they would be somewhat or very likely to donate to organizations they can fully trust, and 90 percent would stop giving to an organization they could not trust. Transparency is a key factor in trust, as 70 percent said they trust organizations that report how financial support makes a difference.

Givers still Google

The survey showed that givers quickly turn to the Web for information about an organization as their preferred method – so, make it easy to find your content. Not only should you make the information easily accessible, but give them what they want and reach out on their terms.  In other words, once they reach you they want basic information and tools to take action whether that be giving or volunteering.   A surprising 65 percent want to find giving guides on individual websites explaining how their support will make a difference and 52 percent want to learn about specific volunteer activities.

Millennials Who Give More Volunteer More

Sure, Millennials are busy, but they’re nothing if not multi-taskers. The study found that when searching for the greatest indicators of volunteerism, organizations should look to giving levels. While 93 percent of survey participants donated money to a nonprofit, only 79 percent gave of their time – however, the more money people gave, the more time they gave, as well.  Just as in giving, the most compelling motivator for volunteering is also a compelling mission or cause at 84 percent while 55 percent said a friend or family member motivated them to volunteer.

But Wait, There’s More…

Over the course of the next couple of months leading up to the June 22 Virtual Summit on Millennial Engagement, we will be exploring these findings, dissecting them and making sense of what they mean for the future of fundraising and the future of our nonprofit sector. We’ll be providing tools to help your organization take a few strategic steps to strengthen and maintain relationships with Millennial donors.

We hope you’ll join us as we continue to explore this important space and breakdown common generational assumptions. You can download a copy of the full report here or simply flip through this prezi presentation we’ve pulled together with a summary of the key facts and takeaways.