The upper ranks of the third sector are dominated by people in their middle and senior years, particularly in the area of board membership. It's well known within certain sectors of the business community that diversity—usually defined as ethnic and gender diversity—offers benefits, including more innovation, broader reach, earlier anticipation of market shifts, better problem solving, higher revenue, and more talent retention. Could youth diversity offer any of the same rewards to nonprofits? Some within the charitable sector think so.
The duties of board members can vary from organization to organization, but oversight rather than day-to-day operation is their province. Their many important functions include ensuring that a clear strategic vision is followed, anticipating and managing reputational issues, helping raise money, and planning events. In all these cases, it's possible to see where the input of younger people could help balance the perspectives around conference tables. Easy consensus in debates can feel like success, while the divergence of opinion that comes with diversity can feel like a struggle. But in a world of differing ideas, nonprofit boards are places where good faith efforts can be made to bridge divides.
At the moment, about 35% of the U.S. workforce are millennials—generally considered to be people born between 1981 and 2000, entering their forties at the upper end and their twenties at the lower end. New vision, new ideas about outreach to a wider range of prospective donors, and understanding reputational harm in a way that might be imperceptible to trustees in their fifties and beyond are all potential bonuses of more youthful input. And in the case of the many thousands of nonprofits that serve youth, ideas about how and where intervention needs to occur could also be a benefit.
Young board members are few and far between
Data about young nonprofit trustees is scant, but information about recruitment is available and revealing. Recent research from U.K.-based Ecclesiastical Insurance shows that 51% of charity boards have problems attracting new members, and 54% have vacancies. In addition, resignations from boards have risen in the last year. Most of the charities surveyed said they were actively looking to diversify their boards, and 79% said their sector needs to do more to recruit “trustees from a wider range of ages, backgrounds, and communities.”
Therefore opportunities for younger people to join boards exist numerically, as well as in terms of what many nonprofits say they are seeking. One organization actively trying to connect nonprofit boards and youth is the London-based Young Trustees Movement, which aims to double the number of trustees under age 30 by 2024. The group makes clear the scope of the challenge when it notes that only 3% of U.K. board members are under age 30. It also offers the eye-opening tidbit that, in a very diverse nation, one of every 12 of these individuals is named either John or David.
There are recruiting obstacles involved in bringing younger people onto nonprofit boards. Though the research dates back to 2017 and may not be perfectly applicable to the U.S., Charity Financials found that only 5% of trusteeships in the U.K. at that time were recruited openly, and 71% were recruited informally. Since younger people have had less time to develop professional connections, nonprofits that seek an infusion of youth into their upper ranks need to make special efforts. But those efforts need to be carefully constructed. Charity Financials also learned that—paradoxically—diversity was, “generally worse on boards with a higher level of formal recruitment.”
Charity Commission, also based in the U.K., cautions that young people should be chosen for their skillset, not because they broadly represent their demographic group. It calls this a “tokenistic approach” that should be avoided. It notes that “parachuting” people onto a board can be counterproductive, and a better idea is to involve new recruits in the organization in other ways first. “Cultural change,” the group's website says, “takes time and preparation and involves effort by everyone involved.” At the same time, young people need to be given real responsibilities that prepare them for board membership.
In any case, both opportunity and process are factors in recruiting younger board members. But would young people even want to take on such roles? Research already confirms that millennials increasingly prefer giving time rather than money to charitable causes, and various surveys, such as one conducted by Civil Society, find that charity board members overwhelmingly enjoy the job, with 90% saying it’s rewarding, and 94% saying it's important or very important to them. Add those two facts together and it seems likely that people of any age would have an interest and would gain fulfillment taking on such responsibilities.
Collaboration and change
“Generation gap” is a nebulous term. It's fair to question whether it even exists as a quantifiable phenomenon outside marketing meetings. However, it's clear that ideas change over time and the young largely feel that older generations cling to beliefs—and therefore power—past the point of credibility. We all felt the same way. Now, with new scientific advances, rising generations can point toward actual evidence that the need for change is an emergency. On issues from global heating to inequality to misinformation to endless war, young people have a desire for a more stable future.
A recent survey conducted as part of the Voices of the Leaders of Tomorrow Report uncovered the important fact that 76% of respondents, who were mostly under age 35, “believe older generations ignore—intentionally or unintentionally—the vital interests of younger generations.” Older generations of course disagree. This gap, while it's about perceived priorities, is also about legitimacy. Based on the current state of the world, older generations don't exactly have piles of evidence showing they've been good stewards of nature, economies, human rights, and international stability.
But at the same time, despite broad skepticism about progress toward climate solutions and about the truthfulness of information they are presented with online, a global 2021 UNICEF-Gallup international poll revealed that young people aged 15 to 24 are more optimistic about the future than older people. “Today’s young people have concerns for the future,” UNICEF Director Henrietta Fore summed up the survey, “but see themselves as part of the solution.” The findings indicate that nonprofit boards could gain an infusion of enthusiasm from young members, particularly those under 25.
For an idea of what that sort of energy can look like, simply consider the influence young people have had on political and social issues in the last ten years. The LGBTQ+ rights movement, as an example, would not look the same. Thandiwe Chama managed to make education a major issue in Zambia as a teenager. Xiuhtezcatl Roske-Martinez used both activism and hip-hop to advocate for climate change action. And teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has done more to move global heating onto people's radars than scores of climate organizations—often as a foil for climate change deniers.
In high-income countries like the U.S., fewer than one third of youth believe they will be better off than their parents. This points toward their waning faith not just in economics, but also in past approaches and institutions of all types—including nonprofits. For them, pragmatism is the enemy of effectiveness. But at least within the nonprofit community, youth can see firsthand what are in reality effective institutions, guided by experienced boards, making substantive interventions into people's lives. In that environment, trust can be built, both fresh and traditional ideas can mingle, and future goals can be decided for the benefit of all.
- Read the Voices of the Leaders of Tomorrow Report.