Using Social Media to
Connect with
Millennial Donors
Carol Phillips
President, Brand Amplitude, LLC
Instructor, Marketing
University of Notre Dame

Millennials Are Shaking Things Up

Perception
Incompetent
Impatient
Quickly Bored Unrealistic
Immature

Highly Adaptable
Reality
Global
Career-oriented
Multi-tasking
Attracted to large
social movements
Interdependent
Tolerant
Achievers
Wired
Civic-minded

Millennials Have Spending Power

Millennials are Civic-Minded
• Hold the government,
institutions, corporations, their
peers, society, and themselves
to higher standards than any
other generation.
“Clearly, an independent spirit pervades this generation, and
it's fueled by a strong sense of their personal values and
beliefs. Among GenYers' most important personal values are
authenticity, altruism and community.” – Chip Walker

61% feel personally
responsible for making a
difference in the world.

Gen Y Key Value:
Fight for What you Believe in
“In 2007, I fielded a global quantitative
study of Gen-Yers in 13 countries and was
surprised to find the No. 1 attitude
unifying the generation was: "I would
fight for a cause I believe in." A large
majority of global Gen-Yers agreed with it
from among dozens of other attitudes…”
- Chip Walker, Strawberry Frog

Millennials Are Connected
Online Social Network Usage - By Age & Gender (All Online Adults; % of Age Group)
Total 18-34 35-44 45-54 55+
Have a Facebook or 48 74 47 41 24
MySpace account
Update Facebook or 16 29 17 10 3
MySpace account at least
once a day
Use Twitter (Net) 5 8 7 4 1
Follow people on Twitter 5 8 6 4 1
Use Twitter to send 3 4 5 1 *
messages
None of these 51 25 50 59 76
Source: Harris Interactive, April 2009 Multiple responses allowed; * indicates less than 0.5%

Golden Opportunity for
Fundraising?
Millennials Fund raising Apps

Results Are Disappointing
The Nature Conservancy and Students
for a Free Tibet are the only two "More than 25 million of Facebook’s 200
organizations to raise more than million worldwide members have signed on as
$100,000 through Causes.
supporters of at least one cause, making it the
third-most popular of the more than 52,000
applications on the site …
But just 185,000 members have ever
contributed through the site.
The median gift through Causes is $25.
The majority of Causes’ participants have
received no donations through the site.
Fewer than 50 of the 179,000 groups on
Causes have raised $10,000

Online Donations Are Smaller
U.S. Charitable Giving 2007 (Billions $) Campaign Obama Online Donations
US TOTAL Giving Online
$4
Total Online Donations $ $500,000,000
Number Online Donations 6.5 MM
Number where Amount < $100 6.0 MM
Online Donations Are
$306
Collectively Large

Millennials Are Reluctant Donors
Two thirds of Millennials donated Religious organizations and
less than $100 in 2008. schools are the top recipients of
Millennial donations.
‘07 ‘08 ‘07 ‘08
Under $100 71% 66% Religious 25% 35%
$100-$499 17% 19% Local Schools 19% 32%
$500-$999 4% 7% Federated Charities (e.g.
8% 17%
United Way)
$1,000-$4,999 2% 4%
Disaster Relief Agencies 9% 15%
$5,000 or more 2% 1% Human Services (e.g.
Habitat for Humanity, big 10% 20%
Don’t Know/No Answer 4% 3% Brother/Big Sister)
* Yankelovich MONITOR, 2008/09

Attitudes Toward Giving Are Mixed
• 18% of Millennials (16-29 years) say the
charities they support are one way they
express themselves, compared to 26% of
Xers and 36% of Boomers.*
• 87% of Millennials (defined as 16-29)
agree that my priority is to look after my
family, charity begins at home.*
* Yankelovich MONITOR, 2008/09

How Can You Breakthrough?
?

1. Invite them to join the Team
Millennials relate to heroes
and young people with ideas.
• Do: Show them how they can get
involved and contribute in ways
other than money. Like other
segments, Millennials are more
likely to give when they have a
personal connection.
• Do: Feature team members who
are having an impact.

2. Give them a Voice.
Generation Y wants to be heard so help them tell their
story. Make it easy to join the conversation.
• DO: Use blogs to encourage two-way conversation.
Blogs are usually less formal and more dynamic than
a regular websites. Good blogs invite comments and
discussion and repeat visits
• DON’T FILTER: Allow the negative and positive
comments to remain.

3. Make it Personal.
Millennials use social media to connect to people,
not institutions.
• DO: Feature real people. Be
authentic.
• DON’T: Don’t be afraid to be
transparent and have a little fun.

4. Use Facebook With Caution
Facebook is about connecting with friends, not making
friends. Use Facebook to continue a conversation you
started someplace else.
• DO: Create a company page or a
group or a fan page for your
organization or event. Use Facebook
to seek volunteers, donors and
fundraisers (who find other donors)
• DON’T OVER DO IT: When people
join your group or become your fans,
you can send them messages, but
not too many. Make them useful.

5. Embrace Twitter.
Twitter is where you find followers. It is the place to begin
cultivating future donors.
Do: Start ‘following’ people!!
Participate – ask questions and
respond.
Don’t: Underestimate Twitter. Nearly
one in five online adults ages 18 to 34
have ever used Twitter or another
microblogging platform. The number
of users is doubling every month.

6. Offer lots of ways to contribute.
50% of Millennials agree that regularly donating your
time to help others in need is a sign of success and
accomplishment.*
Do: Make it easy and fun to
participate – flexibility is key.
Don’t: Over-organize. Millennials
will tell you what they want –think
Twestivals and ‘groundswells’ vs. big
events.
* Yankelovich MONITOR, 2008/09

7. Enable directed giving. Connect
their giving to results.
Millennials want to know that their
contribution, whatever the size,
matters.
Do: Provide options that allow Millennials to
‘customize’ their giving. One size fits all is
not appealing. Personalize the appeal.
Don’t: Expect them to contribute to the
general fund. Don’t put them on the spot.
Avoid direct appeal phone calls or too
persistent requests.

8. Emphasize quantity over quality.
Focus on building long-term relationships.
Do: Re-orient to a model that encourages
thousands of $25 gifts, rather than
twenty-five $1,000 gifts.
Don’t: Wait for them to pay off their
college loans – they can make small
gestures now.

9. Tailor the media to the target.
Know your audience and ‘court’ them appropriately using
multiple touch points.
Do: Have a strategy that fits the media to
the target. If you neglect conventional media,
you might leave out your core supporters.
Social media is for the most ‘techie’.
Don’t: Over rely on social media or expect
immediate results. Social media is just one
piece of the puzzle, not a substitute for
conventional methods.

10. Market with them, not to them.
Think of your efforts as multiplying and activating advocates.
Do: Work for ‘retweets’ - Encourage
donors and fundraisers to publicize
their support and progress to their
friends. Find ways to give them ‘social
currency’ to spend with their friends.
Don’t: Wait until you have it all figured
out. Put your advocates to work on
your behalf. They are in the best
position to know how to talk to their
peers.

Final thoughts
• Millennials are the future of every business, it’s worth
getting to know them now.
• There are no ‘best practices’ yet – do what’s right for your
organization, keep experimenting and testing.
• You will give up some control – learn to live with it, grow to
love it.

Thank you!
Carol Phillips
carol@brandamplitude.com
www.brandamplitude.com
www.millennialmarketing.com
www.twitter.com/carol_phillips