@GOODINSIGHTS

As a Millennial who works in the nonprofit software sector, I’m often surprised by how hesitant nonprofit executives are when it comes to marketing to my generation. It seems that the Baby Boomers and Matures who run nonprofits are aware that they need to market to Millennials, but unsure of how to proceed and unconfident that their work will pay off.

It’s simple to take a staple event and refresh it! Implement these tactics into your next repeat event, and watch your audience loyalty grow.

A recent article in The Atlantic highlighted a growing trend in economic aid of giving money directly to the needy, often without strings attached. It’s being fueled in part by the spread of smartphones, which make it a breeze to offer a few dollars to someone almost anywhere in the world – not just a person passed on the street.

If you had US$1 million to give to charities aiming to eradicate poverty, how would you do it? Would you support a soup kitchen? A financial literacy program? Educational scholarships? Organizations pressing for policy changes?

Comfortably accountable is an approach that allows board members to hold each other accountable, not with an atmosphere of intimidation and guilt but with an atmosphere of encouragement and celebration. The best person to hold a board member accountable is another board member. Board member to board member is a peer to peer relationship. Both are volunteers.

Following years of steady growth that has tracked the performance of a generally healthy economy, U.S. charitable giving has reached an all-time high at a time when the share of Americans who make donations is falling.

Part of my job is to keep an eye on trending topics in the nonprofit tech and fundraising world. A while ago, I started noticing more and more articles focusing on a group of people called “millennials” and how to get them involved with nonprofit organizations. I’d never heard the term “millennial” before and it took me a few minutes to figure out that they were talking about me – people like me, anyway – and how to relate to us, how to talk to us, and how to get us interested in donating time and money to charity organizations. “Millennial engagement” seems to be one of the great buzz-phrases these days.

Avoid these pitfalls when planning your next event and it will inevitably help your organization reach and exceed expectations.

Cashiers asking customers to donate small sums to charity while they’re at cash registers, known as checkout charity, is becoming a big business.