why millennials matter | upleaf
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Nonprofit Resource
WHY MILLENNIALS MATTER
Authored by Francesca DeAnda (/about/staff/francesca-deanda) - Last Updated: Dec
16th, 2014
Since 2009, the annual Millennial Impact Report
(http://www.themillennialimpact.com/2014-research) has consistently conveyed
that the millennial generation (born after 1980) is “eager to connect, get involved,
and give to causes they’re passionate about.”
But sometimes they seem so young and hip and tech savvy that we are
flummoxed by how to connect. Those floral prints, those thick-rimmed glasses,
those nimbly moving fingers! How might we approach them?
Start by reading the latest 2014 Millennial Impact Report
(http://www.themillennialimpact.com/2014-research), one of the most insightful
documents to come along for nonprofits in many moons. It’s chock full of specific
tips and keen recommendations, and sets clear guideposts for where nonprofits
should be heading if they hope to engage the younger generations.
Why?
It's important to start engaging millennials. Your older loyal donors won’t be
around forever. Millennials will be around for quite awhile and they can help spread
the word, generate enthusiasm for your cause, volunteer their time, and support
you through monthly giving.
And they genuinely want to get involved in the causes they care about.
Millennial Report Findings
We encourage every organization to read the full 2013 Millennial Impact Report
(http://www.themillennialimpact.com/2013RESEARCH) to understand why young
people might ‘like’ your organization, donate, or sign up for your email list. Read
the 2014 Millennial Impact Report (http://www.themillennialimpact.com/2014-
research) to gain insight into what inspires millennials in the workplace (perhaps
your nonprofit).
Report Highlights
1. Millennials prefer to connect through technology – social media and email are
key. 83% of millennials have smartphones.
2. They facilitate and rely on peer influence – peer involvement is a motivator to
attend events, volunteer, take advocacy action, and give.
3. Millennials volunteer along a continuum and need a variety of opportunities to
get more and more involved and build loyalty
4. Millennials give to charities. And they give to have an impact – they really wantto see tangible results of their giving.
87% of millennial survey respondents donated to an organization in thelast yearonly 18% gave less than $50
28% gave between $100 and $500
Top Takeaways
Millennials first support causes they’re passionate about, rather than ponying up
to institutions. This means it’s up to you to inspire them, vivify your work, and
show them that their support can make a concrete impact.
A few more tips based on the 2013 report findings:
1. Inspire your millennial followers based on their top motivators for getting
involved: Passion (79%); meeting people (56%); gaining expertise (46%)
2. Be completely transparent – it inspires trust
3. Get them involved through activism, professional groups, and leadership
opportunities
4. Build a strong and engaging social media presence
5. Inspire millennials to give by using photos, testimonies, video, and impact
reports
6. Encourage peer-to-peer engagement and fundraising
7. Make monthly giving easy
8. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly
More Great Tidbits
2013's Millennial Conference, MCon13
(http://www.themillennialimpact.com/mcon13), hosted a panel of social media
experts and offered some great tips on how to engage millennials through the
most popular social platforms.
In a nutshell? It all comes down to building relationships.
According to Twitter’s Jenna Golden (https://twitter.com/jigolden), 1 billion tweets
are shared every 2.5 days. And 42% of Twitter’s US online users are between the
ages of 18-34 years (i.e. millennials).
"Very Important Tweeters"—people with massive networks—are excellent for
getting millennials to become engaged in nonprofit causes. For example, actress
Jessica Biel tweeted #WorldWaterDay on her birthday and succeeded in getting
thousands of millennials to join her cause.
YouTube
YouTube attracts 1 billion unique users every month. More 18-34 year olds are on
YouTube than any other cable network. And YouTube’s millennials watch 6 billion
hours of video each month!
So get creative, and get your videos up on YouTube. Here are a few great examples
of how cause-related videos can get powerful results:
In her “Don’t Cover It Up” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-
XHPHRlWZk) campaign, actress Lauren Luke highlighted the seriousness of
domestic violence through a tutorial on how to cover up facial bruising with
makeup. It raised awareness (especially for millennial women) on the pervasiveness
of intimate partner violence in our country and highlighted society's tendency to
cover-up this devastating problem through its ironic casual/normalizing tone.
In Australia, Melbourne’s Metro Company created a train safety video with a dark
humored-edge called “Dumb Ways to Die.” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=v4A_18kf4PY) The video captured 5 million views within the first few days of its
posting, and $50 million in advertisement-value within the first few months of its
posting.
So that is the quick and dirty of millennial engagement. All these tips will not only
help sharpen appeal to millennials, it will make your organization more attractive
to every age group.
There’s no need to be intimidated. Meet millennials where they’re at and launch
right in. The future of your organization may depend on it.
Gail Guengerich also contributed to this article.
Thumbnail photo courtesy of Millennial 2020 (http://www.millennial2020.com)