Young givers: The giving needs of the future wealthy
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How can we better engage wealthy millennials in philanthropy?
While a considerable amount of research has been carried out on the general barriers to charitable giving, little has focused on the up-and-coming wealthy and their relationship with philanthropy. New research carried out by Beacon and Savanta has sought to address this gap in knowledge, carrying out in-depth qualitative research with a range of wealthy young givers.
Fundraisers, wealth advisors and charity sector professionals will find this research particularly valuable. The findings will help them to better understand the needs of wealthy millennials and develop long-standing and ultimately fruitful relationships with the next generation of wealth holders.
Our in-depth research provides insight into:
- the relationships millennials want with charities;
- how charitable organisations can connect with these millennials;
- how millennials currently give;
- millennial attitudes to philanthropy;
- how millennial givers self-identify.
Four types of wealthy young donor
Our report into wealthy millennials led us to identify the four personality types charities could consider in their fundraising approaches for the next generation.
Based on our learnings, we developed four key ‘drivers’ for wealthy young donors based on their giving profiles. These are:
- Good intentions, time poor,
- Locally-focussed, money & more,
- Giving together, experience seekers,
- Change makers, systemic outlook.
While these personalities are not intended to be exhaustive, they are a useful tool to encourage fundraisers and charities to broaden their thinking around interacting with different types of young donor. Some wealth creators may also straddle two or more groups.
If charities can learn to diversify their approach to engaging wealthy young donors, they can look forward to fruitful, life-long partnerships with the next generation of wealth holders.
You Say, We Say: Language to communicate better
A three-pager demonstrating how charities can align their language better with prospective young donors.
In April 2021, Beacon and Savanta published research into the attitudes wealthy millennials have to charitable giving. During the research, a critical finding showed that language used by charities and that used by our young participants meant different things.
A key example was ‘impact’. While charities and young people both use the term, they typically mean something different from one another when they use it. For charities, ‘impact’ means the long-term difference made by their operations, but our participants use the same word to refer to the specific improvements caused by their actions.
The meanings of these commonly used words are often formed by work and family environments. These wealthy young givers are generous but time poor; when we fail to properly engage them by using language that either does not mean anything to them or means something different, we miss out on harnessing this generosity.
Our You Say, We Say guidance offers a starting point for charities to change the way they engage based on language usage discovered in our #YoungGivers research.
Charities should use these new insights to create communications strategies to support wealthy young people to become major donors by creating trusted relationships that endure.
