Younger donors gave £2.7bn to charity last year, meaning they are the age cohort giving the most to good causes in the United Kingdom, according to a recently published report .
The report called The Next Generation of UK Giving published by Blackbaud, said that over 11 million millennial donors (those born between 1981 and 1995) gave £2.7bn to over 5,000 different charities in 2017.
According to Blackbaud millennials donated 30 per cent of the total amount given to charity this year, making them the largest donor cohort in the country. However the eport does say that the reason for this is because of the “sheer size of this generation”, being more than twice as well represented as those in the mature generation.
Nearly 1,000 people were surveyed in February 2018.
The report also points to the charitable contribution of gen zers (those born after 1996), with the more than eight million such-aged donors giving around £2.2bn to over 4,800 different charities this year.
This compares to the 9.9 million baby boomer donors, who gave £2.3bn to charity this year and the some five million so-called mature donors (those born before 1946), who gave £2bn to charity this year.
However Blackbaud’s research showed that giving by younger generations “doesn’t show any signs of stopping anytime soon”, with more than 40 per cent of people born in or after 1981 planning to “increase the amount they give to charity next year” – more than double any other generation.
The report said: “If your organisation isn’t focusing on this group, now is the time to recognise just how important gen zers and millennials are and will continue to be”.
Health the top giving priority for all ages
Blackbaud’s report also found that all four generations shared the top three priority giving causes: health, children and animal charities, with all generations listing health charities as the most important.
Indeed the report showed that over 60 per cent of all donors in the UK have given to a health charity this year. This was followed by 41 per cent of donors giving to children charities and 35 per cent to animal organisations.
However, while the two younger generations favoured children causes above animal charities, that ranking was reversed when it came to both the boomers and mature cohorts. All four generations also gave emergency relief as a frequent giving choice.
The report also found that gen zers/millennials prioritise victims of crime and abuse charities, while boomers and mature donors tend to focus on military charities.
Face-to-face most popular channel
The report also found that street and door-to-door fundraising remain the most used fundraising channel across all the different age cohorts, with 33 per cent of all donors having given using this channel this year.
The second most used fundraising channel overall was monthly giving, with 24 per cent followed by donations being made directly to an organisation’s website with 23 per cent.
The least used fundraising channel was phone, with just 4 per cent of donors of all age groups giving through this channel in 2018. This was followed by email with 8 per cent and then social media with 10 per cent.
In its recommendations, Blackbaud said that charities must “focus on the generations that matter today” and called both gen zers and millennials “a force to be reckoned with” when it comes to fundraising.
|
Related Articles
