Robyn Mendez

Does your organization look to Gen Y for support? This guest post by Convio’s Robyn Mendez explains why and how you should get thier attention.  ~Kivi

Guest Post by Robyn Mendez, Marketing Manager for Convio

Can your donor have a real lifetime value if they aren’t with you for life?

While it’s no secret that Gen Y doesn’t have much giving power today, the important thing to recognize is that they will soon. If your organization wants to benefit from the true potential of a Gen Y’s lifetime value, you need to be cultivating relationships with them today.

You can start by learning who they are, what matters to them and then connecting with them their way.

Who is Gen Y?

Gen Y is loosely defined as people born between 1981 and 1991, which today would make them between the ages of 20 and 30. They often delay traditional milestones, like moving out of their parents’ home, marriage and children.  They also are more educated and more technologically dependent than previous generations.

What’s important to Gen Y?

• The Internet:  One of every three college students and young professionals surveyed globally believes the Internet is a fundamental resource for the human race – as important as air, water, food and shelter.   (Note to self:  take daughter on humanitarian visit where people are starving before her college graduation.)
• Mobile Devices:  Two-thirds of students and young professionals cite a mobile device (laptop, smartphone, tablet) as “the most important technology in their lives.”
• Social Media:  Nine out of ten young adults have a Facebook account – of those, 73% check their Facebook page at least once a day. *

How do they connect to charities?

The Next Generation of American Giving Report shows that Gen Y-ers are very comfortable with both peer-to-peer solicitations (87% say it’s appropriate) and social media solicitations (69% say it’s appropriate). Further, we know that the most common first engagements Gen Y has are visiting your website (27%) or attending an event (19%). And as always, making a good first impression is critical to retaining their interest (talent & treasure) in future years.

What do we do with them?

Now that we know a little more about who they are, what matters to them and how they are connecting to organizations, let’s discuss some ideas to better engage them.

1. Optimize your website for viewing from a mobile device

It probably didn’t take reading this post for you to know that young people are addicted to their cell phones.  And with the increase of mobile use, the demand for mobile-friendly websites also strengthens. If your website is not equipped to provide a positive experience for mobile users, you are ignoring the important trends and needs of your younger participants and risking losing valuable donors from your organization. Our Guide to the Mobile Web can help get you started.

2. Make online fundraising tools easy to use and interactive

Many online fundraising tools have added new features helping make the fundraising experience much more interactive.  Displaying badges, sending trigger emails at fundraising milestones and integrating with social media sites are just a few features to look for.

3. Add Google+ into your organization’s social media mix

Generation Y is hanging out on social media and your organization and event should be there too. On Nov. 7, Google opened the ability to create a Google+ Page to the world.  This is the Google+ version of the Facebook Fan Page.

(Note:  like all social media platforms, be sure you have the resources to maintain a Google+ page before creating one.)

4. Add social sharing icons to your website

These easy-to-add tools help your participants and donors promote your website to their friends on the various social networks.  The easier you make this, the more frequently that your visitors will promote your site leading to more visitors to your site… it’s a wonderful cycle!

5. Pepper your print advertising & communications with QR codes

QR codes are barcode-like images that can be scanned with a smartphone camera.  Once scanned, these images typically point to a page on the internet.

A recent study by comScore noted QR codes have increased popularity among young, affluent adults like those we are trying to attract to our fundraising events.  The study noted that in June 2011, 14 million mobile users in the US scanned a QR code, 53.5% of them were between the ages of 18-34 and a third of users had a household income of $100K or greater.  If our target audience is using QR codes, we should be using them too.

6. Recruit a young, hip social media volunteer

A great way to attract a younger crowd to your event is to showcase one of their peers who feel passionately about your cause.  The youth of today know what’s exciting to them and can bring new ideas to the table.  Don’t be afraid to allow this person to assist you with crafting your event’s social media strategy and owning specific pieces of that plan.

*“What’s important to Gen Y?” data from the 2011 Cisco Connected World Technology Report.

Robyn Mendez has an extensive background in fundraising and nonprofit marketing and is currently a marketing manager for Convio, a leading provider of technology solutions for nonprofits. Convio has two solutions perfect for peer-to-peer fundraising, TeamRaiser and Common Ground Social.

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Volunteering is a significant part of the identity of Generation Y – people in their 20s – because they grew up doing it. Service learning has been fully integrated into many high schools and college-bound teens know that admissions officers love community service.

Volunteering is so well ingrained in the Gen Y culture that a recent Deloitte Volunteer IMPACT survey found that more than half of workers in their 20s prefer employment at companies that provide volunteer opportunities and 70% believe that companies should use volunteering as a professional development tool.

If you are interested in recruiting people in this age group as volunteers for your nonprofit, keep in mind a few tips from Sam Davidson of CoolPeopleCare. Sam will be the guest speaker during the May 7 Nonprofit Marketing Guide webinar on “How to Connect with Generation Y.”

Don’t ask for long-term commitments. For most of Gen Y, life is usually about trying lots of things and then committing to those things that really knock your socks off. “If I want to learn more about your organization and how I can help, and the only option for me is to commit to 8 hours next weekend or an hour a week for the next 12 weeks, I may just skip it,” says Sam. Instead, offer quick but meaningful opportunities to lend a hand.

Let friends volunteer together. Gen Y is a very social set that prefers to shop, eat, date, and hang out in groups of friends. Volunteering is no different. “We’re not afraid to tackle a big project, as long as we can do it together,” say Sam, who notes that his is the first generation to grow up in schools that required working collectively in groups in nearly every subject. (We would have HATED that, wouldn’t we have, my independent Gen X brothers and sisters?)

Spread the word through friends. When reaching out to 20-something volunteers, forget direct mail, and for email to work, it has to be really good. “Tell me quickly why it’s important, because I’ll be scanning/listening to/reading your pitch while I do six other things, so it needs to stick out,” advises Sam. Instead, Sam says to play your local equivalent of the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game: If you want to reach a group of 20-somethings, talk to their friends and friends of friends and have them spread the word.

“If you’re soliciting me directly, let me know the connection to the opportunity, whether it’s because my friend volunteers there or the issue affects me in some way,” says Sam. ” Or, better yet, if you’ve created a low-commitment, team-friendly experience, I’ll hear about it naturally from one of my friends anyway, so by offering something I’ll actually think about coming to, it should market itself.”

Learn more about marketing your nonprofit to people in their 20s during next week’s webinar, How to Connect with Generation Y on May 7, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern, 11:00 a.m. Pacific. Registration is $35 per connection. Get the details.

Get all of our webinars and e-books for one price with the All-Access Pass! Get a full year for $465, or 90 days for $145.

I’ve been doing some research on the differences between the generations and how those differences may affect nonprofit marketing for some blog posts I’m planning for the coming weeks. I’ve bookmarked the articles I’ve read so far, if you are interested in doing some reading of your own.

I’m also really excited about two upcoming webinars, because I’ll be doing the learning instead of the teaching!

On Thursday, May 1 at 3:00 p.m. ET, Jeff Brooks will share what he’s learned so far about the philanthropic habits of Baby Boomers in “What Do Baby Boomers Want from Your Nonprofit?”

The following week on Wednesday, May 7 at 2:00 p.m., Sam Davidson will discuss “How to Connect with Generation Y.”

Registration for each webinar is $35 and includes as many people from your organization as you can fit around the speaker phone and computer monitor.

I’d also love to host a webinar on Generation X, especially since I’m a member, but I haven’t found a good guest speaker yet. Any ideas?

Get all of our webinars and e-books for one price with the All-Access Pass! Get a full year for $465, or 90 days for $145.