Need to replace your older donors?

Everyone seems to worship youth in our culture. Even nonprofit organizations that should know better. As we see here at Barry's Arts Blog and Update, in Further consideration of the Generational Succession issues:

When kids have enormous disposable income ... we wonder why arts organizations long ago concluded that young people as we define them (high school, college and post college up to 30 years) simply don't have the financial resources to be donors to our programs and organization, when that simply doesn't appear to be true....

What's this fixation on young donors, anyway?

The reason younger people aren't present in large numbers among donors is not money. It's their age. They just aren't there yet -- they give seldom (if at all), and when they do, they don't make lasting partnerships with charities. There are exceptions, of course (practicing religious believers give at higher rates even when young), but in general, people don't really become donors until some time in their 50s or 60s.

Seriously, it's time to give up on the under-30 group and move on!

Now it's true that older people dominate the ranks of donors. And older people have the disturbing tendency of eventually dying. So they need to be replaced. The problem is when you look to the under-30 cohort for your replacement donors.

If you found gold in a creek, and then wanted to find another creek with gold, would you try the next creek over -- or one that's 30 miles away?

When you're prospecting for donors to replace your older donors, you should be looking not at young people but at almost-old people.

And in the US, that means Baby Boomers -- who are between 40 and 60 years old.

To reach this group, you can't be complacent: If you sit back and hope that your current messaging to the over-60 group will work as the next generation ages, you're in for some unpleasant surprises.

As Boomers take over the ranks of the old, we're likely to see some real differences in what's effective in fundraising. But you're going to need to offer them higher than ever levels of:

• Relevance
  
• Choice
  
• Specificity
  
• Proof of effectiveness
  

That's the generational change you need to be thinking about. The Boomers are already starting to show up in meaningful numbers on donor lists. In the next 10 years, they'll start to dominate.

And the under-30 group? Wait until they become the over-50 group. Until then, they're pretty much a waste of your time.

(Look through the demographics category in the archives for much, much more on this topic.)

Technorati Tags: philanthropy, fundraising, boomers