“My generation is all about authenticity,” proclaims a Millennial (or maybe Gen-X) fundraiser. “All fundraising today is missing us.”
And they have ideas about how to market to Millennials or Gen X. Or Y. Or Z.
All based on the “fact” that people are organized into distinct “generations” with meaningful differences and clear boundaries between them. People born in 1965 (the oldest Millennials) are totally unlike people born in 1964 (the youngest Boomers).
It’s not supported by any actual facts. It’s just a lazy shorthand used to support (usually unsupportable) fundraising “innovations.”
The Agitator reports (at Your Generational Mkt Deck: Horoscopes in Business Casual) on a recent study in the UK found that there’s group cohesion among people who eat nuts every day than among any of the generations.
In other words, it would make more sense for those self-proclaimed spokespersons to propose an amazing new fundraising innovation aimed at nut-eaters than building strategies around generations.
Of course, the nut-eaters strategy would be silly. But somewhat less silly than the “generations” strategies.
Someone may come up with an amazing, innovative new fundraising strategy with the potential to dramatically improve your revenue. It happens all the time. But if it depends on the “generations” theory, it’s probably bogus.
Jeff Brooks has been serving the nonprofit community for more than 35 years and blogging about it since 2005. He considers fundraising the most noble of pursuits and hopes you’ll join him in that opinion. You can reach him at jeff [at] jeff-brooks [dot] com.
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