engagement

As loyal Social Citizens readers know, we were all abuzz at the Case Foundation as we brought together more than 100 organizations across the country for a virtual summit on Millennial engagement, earlier this summer. Check out the exclusive behind-the-scenes video the Case Foundation interns created featuring insights from Geoff Livingston of Zoetica, Barbara Bush of Global Health Corps and Erica Williams of the Citizen Engagement Lab!

While Millennials are known for being a tech-savvy and entrepreneurial generation, they are less well known for being one of the most active generations when it comes to volunteering and donating. For many organizations that strive to reach this skilled and passionate generation, figuring out how to tap into this passion for service and philanthropy remains a mystery.

In addition to the video we wanted to share some key highlights and takeaways we heard during MDS11:

• Social Media: Non-profits should use social media to interact with Millennials—don’t just make “announcement” posts, but ask questions, respond to comments and tweets, and keep people informed about your organization’s work. It might be a “virtual” relationship, but it’s still a relationship.
• Volunteers and Donors: Advanced technology and increased internet access have empowered the Millennial generation. Satisfy their desire to be influential—give your volunteers and donors legitimate decision making power about how their time is spent and where their money is going. 
• Cross-generational Communication: It’s simple—embrace dialogue between generations! Be open to teaching and learning.
• Non-profit Leadership: The entrepreneurial spirit of the Millennial generation should be harnessed in the non-profit sector—don’t be afraid to try a new method or idea just because it isn’t a standard operating procedure.

If you attended MDS11, what did you find interesting or exciting? If you missed out and want to learn more, register for post-Summit access to the videos at www.mdsummit11.com.

Special thanks to Kate Newman and Kathryn Beard, interns at the Case Foundation, who created this video piece and blog post.

When Deloitte released it's Volunteer IMPACT study last month, the response was overwhelmingly positive. The study showed that Millennial workers who frequently volunteer through or with their jobs are overall happier with their own careers, more loyal to their employers and generally maintain a more positive perception of corporate culture than those who do not participate in volunteer programs. All of this is yet one more way that Millennials are shifting the dynamic in the workplace - but are companies keeping up and what might they take away from Deloitte's findings to help them do so?  

Using indicators such as workplace satisfaction, pride and loyalty, Deloitte compared the responses of employed Millennials, ages 21 to 35, who regularly volunteer against those who volunteer less frequently. Based on survey results, volunteerism is a critical factor for successful engagement of the Millennial generation in the work place. With approximately one-third of Millennial employees considering a career/job shift, increasing on-the-job engagement and satisfaction is becoming increasingly important for both employers and employees.

According to the survey, "Millennials who frequently participate in their company’s volunteer activities are:

• Two times more likely to rate their corporate culture as very positive as compared to Millennials who rarely or never volunteer (56 percent versus 28 percent)
• More likely to be very proud to work for their company (55 percent versus 36 percent)
• More likely to feel very loyal toward their company (52 percent versus 33 percent)
• Nearly twice as likely to be very satisfied with the progression of their career (37 percent versus 21 percent)"

- 2011 Deloitte Volunteer IMPACT Survey

“The data shows that, on many levels, employees who regularly volunteer are much more connected than those who do not volunteer,” said Joseph Echevarria, chief executive officer, Deloitte LLP. “This is a strong argument for making volunteerism a business priority, because employee engagement and organizational culture are inextricably linked to organizational performance. What’s more, engagement and a sense of ownership are essential to leadership, and we recognize the need to cultivate leadership qualities in all our people, and celebrate responsible leadership.

So what can you as an employer or an employee do to maximize your workplace volunteer situation? Deloitte synthesized the survey findings and provided a few suggestions:

• Take an inventory of your volunteer opportunities. Review your existing volunteer program and ask yourself whether your corporate culture places a value on volunteerism. Not sure? Consider the following questions: Are the activities being offered ones in which employees want to participate? Do they produce a meaningful return for the community and is their purpose well-communicated? How are people encouraged to participate? Do senior leaders get involved? Do employees receive any time during the workday to participate, or must they volunteer after hours? Are there rewards or recognition in return for participation?

• Tie volunteerism efforts to another strategic corporate initiative. The data show that Millennials who frequently volunteer are more engaged than those who do not, so look for opportunities to align volunteer initiatives with other business priorities, such as recruiting, leadership development and training. Invite the community involvement staff and the talent managers to the same strategic planning table so together they can explore how to use volunteerism options to achieve other top business goals.

• Create policies that match business philosophy, when it comes to encouraging volunteerism. Explore pro bono service and skilled volunteerism, contributed by the company. Deloitte created a new volunteerism model in 2008—establishing the procedures that treat pro bono engagements just like paid client engagements. This means the professionals who are selected for and staffed on the engagements complete the projects during the work day. This is just one way we respond to the number one barrier to millennial volunteer participation—lack of time.

We want to hear from you - do you agree with the survey results? Does your workplace offer volunteer programs and opportunities? If so, do you take advantage of them or do issues such as “lack of time” prevent you from engaging?

Welcome to our special guest blog post series -"Millennial Perspectives: Voices of a Giving Generation." We hope you will join us each week until the Millennial Donor Summit on June 22, 2011, as we explore Millennial engagement with a variety of leading experts and practitioners.

This week, we've invited Daniel Kaufman, Co-Founder of the One Percent Foundation as well as Co-Founder of Third Plateau Social Impact Strategies, a consulting firm that helps nonprofits develop and implement Millennial engagement strategies, to provide his take on how to tackle engagement barriers when it comes to fundraising, engagement and advocacy.

If you are reading this, you likely fall into one of two categories: either you work at a nonprofit or you are a Millennial (I’m hoping a large percentage of you are both!). As such, I’m guessing one of the following two scenarios sounds familiar:

If you are a nonprofit: You are sitting around a conference room table trying to figure out how to make your budget for the year. You and your dedicated, underpaid coworkers are trying to figure out the quickest, most effective fundraising strategy so that your organization can focus on changing the world. Inevitably you realize that you can get the most bang for your buck by focusing on major donors and large foundations. It certainly doesn’t make sense to invest time cultivating Millennials who might write a $50 check.

If you are a Millennial: You care about giving back, but you either don’t think you can afford to make a donation, don’t know which organizations are effective, and/or you don’t think you can achieve impact with your small donation. Most importantly, organizations that you might care about aren’t asking you to engage in a meaningful way. As a result, much of your giving tends to be in response to friends asking you to sponsor them in a race or support them at a fundraiser.

If we were on Craigslist, both sides would be posting under the category of Nonprofit-Millennial Missed Connections. Most nonprofits need operating funds now and can’t justify investing in Millennial donor cultivation that pays off over the long-term. Most Millennials take this lack of communication as meaning that nonprofits don’t value their engagement. The two parties seek each other but don’t actually talk to one another.

The findings in the Millennial Donors Report underscore the opportunity if we can change this reality. Millennials are eager to engage, so long as they have a trustworthy partner—whether that trust comes from the endorsement of their social networks, organizational transparency, or access to organizational leadership. This begs the question: How do Millennials and nonprofits work together to build and leverage trust?

Enter the One Percent Foundation (OPF), a Millennial-driven solution to the Missed Connection problem, one that seeks to empower Millennials to give in a sustained, generous, and strategic manner. OPF runs a network of online giving circles that engage Millennials earning an income for the first time. We seek to train, educate and engage our participants to use their limited resources to fund the ideas, organizations, and innovation that they are passionate about. Ultimately, OPF is building a broad-based movement of Millennial philanthropists that challenges the status quo by democratizing giving.

OPF’s giving circle model is relatively straightforward. Participants register online, commit to give at least one percent of their annual income to philanthropic causes, and establish monthly recurring donations through our website. We aggregate participants’ giving and facilitate a crowd-sourced, participatory grantmaking program whereby participants identify, assess, and ultimately select grant recipients. The One Percent Foundation program tackles the three key barriers to meaningful Millennial participation (affordability, knowledge, and impact). 

Embedded in OPF’s grantmaking process is the notion that our process breeds trust and thereby reinforces engagement. The first step of an OPF grant cycle is a nomination period whereby anyone in the OPF community (Millennials giving 1%) can recommend an organization to the circle. During the second phase, a small group of volunteers from the OPF community are trained to conduct due diligence on the nominated organizations. This “working group” speaks to staff members of the nominated nonprofits, examines theories of change, vets the organizations’ financials, and conducts independent research. OPF facilitates a conversation with the working group to narrow all of the nominees to five finalists. During the final phase, OPF educates the entire community about the finalists and asks them to vote online. The two organizations that receive the most votes receive a grant from OPF.

OPF’s grantmaking process tackles the three fundamental trust concerns of Millennials: organizations are only considered after they are endorsed by someone in the social network, nominees are vetted by the community, and participants get access to organizational leaders.

Ultimately, OPF is nothing more than a design solution to the Nonprofit-Millennial Missed Connection problem. We have created the conditions for Millennials to be able to easily access information and interact with nonprofits so they feel comfortable giving proactively.

I invite you to join me for my session at the Millennial Donor Summit on June 22 to learn more about the One Percent Foundation and how OPF and other creative solutions can enable nonprofits to better engage Millennials.

Welcome to our special guest blog post series - "Millennial Perspectives: Voices of a Giving Generation." We hope you will join us each week until the Millennial Donor Summit on June 22, 2011, as we explore Millennial engagement with a variety of leading experts and practitioners.

To launch the series, we've invited Susan Gordon, Director of Nonprofit Services for Causes.com to share her reflections on the Millennial Donor Survey report released earlier this spring. As a leader in the online fundraising and engagement arena, Susan shares with us her insights on trends related to Millennial donors.

As a Millennial and a professional focused on online fundraising for nonprofits, I couldn’t help myself from nodding my head vigorously throughout most of the Millennial Donor Survey. Congratulations to the writers for a job well done. Here at Causes, we’ve done a lot of donor surveys, focus groups, and data collection that has provided many of the same findings. We also started building tools to help your nonprofit capitalize on these trends so I’d like to share some of those tools and how they can help your nonprofit put this survey into practice. 

If you work for a nonprofit, read the survey and are now thinking, “I understand what Millennials are looking for, but how can I do it?” you’re in luck. The survey pointed out two notable statistics:

• 82% of Millennials said they would be very or somewhat likely to donate to organizations that describe the specific purpose for which the money will be used
• 32% were very likely and 45% were somewhat likely to stop donating if they “didn’t know how the donation was making an impact”

These numbers are staggering in a world of general fundraising drives. Causes has built a Fundraising Projects tool that will help you give Millennial donors a picture of how their money makes an impact. If you go to www.causes.com/donate, you’ll find the Causes Fundraising Project directory. Since late 2010, over $3 million has been donated to Causes Fundraising Projects. Nonprofits of all sizes and budgets are taking advantage of this tool, from Homeward Trails Animal Rescue to the Humane Society of the United States, and succeeding at funding their projects through social media.

The other statistic that struck me was that “59% of Millennials gave in response to a personal ask.” Peer-to-peer fundraising, especially through social media, is a hot topic right now (just look at mycharitywater.org) but many nonprofits don’t have custom tools to take advantage of this trend. This is why Causes built out our Wishes feature. Birthday Wishes help Millennials fundraise from their friends and family by asking them to donate to a nonprofit as a birthday present. Birthday Wishes solicited by Causes (we ask everyone to start one when their birthday is approaching) raise an average of $100/wish, but when a nonprofit asks their supporters to set one up from their website with a Causes Birthday Wish widget, Wishes raise an average of $150/wish. This statistic reinforces the study’s findings that Millennials want a relationship with the nonprofits they are supporting.

Something I’d like to see from this study in the future is a more precise definition of “donating on Facebook.” That term can refer to everything from clicking from a Facebook Page to a nonprofit’s website, to donating through a custom tab on a Page, to donating on the Causes application. This distinction may not be as important for this survey, but for the benefit of nonprofits trying to make decisions about these very different methods, I think it’s important to clarify this term in future studies.

This distinction would also help in analyzing the finding that only 4% of Millennials have donated on Facebook. For now, I see this number as a sign of potential and disagree with the conclusion that “while social media and text remains a favorite of Millennials for communicating, they do not seem ready to jump into donating via those methods.” I believe that Millennials are ready to donate through social media but they are not solicited in the right way, or at all, through Facebook. How many of the respondents received a fundraising ask from a nonprofit through Facebook? I know I’m biased but as Facebook blows past the 500 million user mark and the average person spends over 55 minutes a day on the site, I see it as a huge opportunity for nonprofits. As with any new technology, figuring out fundraising through Facebook will take time and experimentation but the potential of this growing community is worth the growing pains.

If your nonprofit is interested in using Causes as a tool to do that, email our Nonprofit Services team at and we can help you get started.