Not-for-profits And Businesses Work To Engage Millennials In Donating, Volunteering

Millennials are often stereotyped as a self-centered, selfie-taking, entitled bunch constantly needing praise. In many ways, those impressions are false. And that generation now represents the largest share of employees in the workforce, and they’re taking over for baby boomers as the most active members of their communities. In fact, the Case Foundation’s national 2015 Millennial Impact Report, which details millennials’ tendency to interact with causes, showed that; l 84 percent of millennial employees made a charitable donation in 2014 l 70 percent of millennial employees spent at least an hour volunteering in 2014. Though baby boomers and Gen Xers still represent the majority of charitable givers, the ratio will shift as millennials rise in the workforce and become more economical stable. In response, Corridor not-for-profits in are coming up with new ways to engage millennials in donating and volunteering, and area businesses are enticing their employees to participate in charitable causes. However, millennials won’t be donating and volunteering the same way their parents and grandparents have. HOW MILLENNIALS WANT TO GIVE The Next Generation of American Giving 2016 Blackbaud report showed that millennials differ from the other generations of givers in that they wanted to be hands-on participants in the causes they were involved in, and if they donate money, they want to know where that money is going and how it benefits a cause. “Millennials want to be engaged in something,” said Shannon Hanson, marketing and communication manager at United Way of East Central Iowa.