Earlier this week cause-focused research and marketing agency Achieve, with the support of the Case Foundation, released a retrospective report covering the past five years of their Millennial Impact Report data. The report signals an evolving understanding of how millennials support and get involved with cause-based efforts and the nonprofits working in those areas. Thus far the project has heard from more than 75,000 millennials (born 1980 to 2000), providing new insights into how the generation activates and engages with the causes they care about.
The retrospective focuses on common threads that showed themselves during previous reports—among them, the fact that millennials commonly donated time and small amounts of money to a wide variety of nonprofits. “The size and force of the millennial generation combined with social media and pivotal world events of the past five years require nonprofits to develop new ways of engaging audiences lest they risk being left behind as millennial preferences fundamentally alter cause engagement,” the report states.
Highlights from the retrospective include:
- Intrinsic passion for a cause is millennials’ primary motivator.
- Millennials volunteer and give modestly to multiple causes in early engagement.
- Among millennials, women give more money than men, older individuals give more than younger ones, and larger donations correlate with higher total volunteer hours.
- Interest in the use of digital technology to give and the drive to gain skills through philanthropy were among the factors that remained consistent.
Derrick Feldmann, Achieve president and lead researcher of the retrospective report , emphasized the position that technology holds for millennials in an emailed press release.
“Our research found digital technology is playing a vital role in how millennials engage with causes and influence each other to do so.” “As crowdfunding campaigns like #GivingTuesday continue to grow, it’s critical that organizations alter their approaches so they can engage this generation’s inherent desire to do good.”
Want to learn more? Download the full retrospective report or visit the Millennial Impact Project homepage to review all the available research reports on this rising generation and their cause engagement.
CFRE International is a promotional partner of the Millennial Impact Project’s annual MCON conference which brings together over 15,000 individuals for a combined virtual and in-person conference which gathers leaders, activists and social entrepreneurs to understand today’s social movements and how to turn interest in an issue into action.
