Engaging Digital Native Donors

What would life be like without the internet? For digital natives, including millennials and Generation Z, this question might be difficult to answer. Having grown up immersed in smartphones, social networks, and the latest apps, younger generations navigate the digital world with an ease that largely eludes their predecessors. Technology permeates virtually all aspects of their lives, including their approach to charitable giving. Millennials, for instance, are much more inclined to donate via social media, mobile devices, and other digital tools. With older members of Gen Z launching their careers and millennials poised to inherit $68 trillion in the Great Transfer of Wealth, these groups are also coming into their own as potential donors. So, how can fundraisers speak to digital natives in a familiar language? The key is to reach out to them via the technologies and platforms they engage with in their everyday lives.

Apps to Facilitate Donations

Apps are one of the preferred digital technologies of millennials and members of Gen Z, who dedicate an average of 2.3 to 3.2 hours of each day to them. It seems logical that fundraisers should incorporate apps into their outreach strategy, but how, exactly?

Nonprofits interested in boosting their recurring giving programs might choose to utilize an app that allows users to donate the rounded up change from their day-to-day spending. Two apps that serve this function are Coin Up and RoundUp App, which cater to U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations. Coin Up also allows nonprofits to create a customized white-label donation app for their organization. Nonprofits starting out on these apps must first register for an account and then share the app with their audience to begin receiving monthly donations. Both apps charge a fee for their services.

Helpfreely is another app that utilizes everyday shopping to raise money for charity. It works with online partner stores to donate a percentage of purchases to a nonprofit chosen by the consumer. Users can choose from over 4,000 online shops, including sites such as Etsy, Hotels.com, and Groupon, with each shop donating a different percentage of the purchase. Nonprofits worldwide can sign up for free to receive donations via the app, as long as they are registered with a Charity Legal Code. Once an organization has gone through the Helpfreely registration process and created a public profile, they receive a personalized link to share with their supporters.

Still other apps cater to specific types of organizations, such as WoofTrax, which enables dog owners to raise money for their favorite animal shelter or rescue by taking their pup for a walk.

Neobanks

Neobanks, which are fintech companies that offer online banking services, are also popular among digital natives. They differ from traditional financial institutions in that they aren’t chartered as banks and don’t have a physical office, so they are usually accessed via mobile devices.

Neobanks have been gaining steam in recent years, especially among younger users. Although in 2021 only six percent of U.S. adults had a digital only bank account, that number is predicted to jump in the coming years. Broken down by age groups, digital natives ages 25 to 34 are most likely to have such an account—11% of individuals in this age bracket currently do.

Aside from offering services such as automatic saving, budgeting and investing tools, and a streamlined online banking experience, many neobanks are geared towards specific populations and aim to build a sense of community with their clientele. Examples include Cheese, Greenwood, and Daylight, which target Asian American Pacific Islander, Black and Hispanic, and LGBTQ+ communities, respectively. As a result, some industry insiders believe that neobanks are poised to become a tool for philanthropic donations. Amicus.io suggests that, “By both building financial capital amongst underserved populations and paying it forward to others, neobanks are able to double their positive impact.”

Some neobanks have already taken this leap. Daylight, which rewards users for spending at LGBTQ+ allied businesses, donates $10 to charity for every user who signs up. Bunq and Treecard plant trees to reward customer spending.

The next logical step would be to allow users to make charitable donations to a nonprofit of their choice. Spiral does this by offering a service similar to Coin Up and RoundUp App in that it allows users to round purchases up to the nearest dollar and donate to charity. To sweeten the deal, Spiral takes this concept one step further by matching donations of up to $150 a year for each customer. Spiral customers can use the company’s app to find charities to which to donate, while keeping up with their nonprofits’ activities.

Nonprofit organizations can sign up to join the Spiral Giving Network and receive 100% of donated funds. Spiral already has over a million nonprofits in its network, including names such as the United Way, the Rainforest Trust, and the National Immigration Law Center.

Crypto Giving

Another arena in which digital natives are extremely active is in the area of cryptocurrency. For newer generations who eschew the physical in favor of the virtual (think CDs vs. Spotify), making the leap to virtual currencies is a no-brainer.

Gemni’s 2021 State of U.S. Crypto Report found that 14% of U.S. adults, or 21.2 million people, currently own cryptocurrency, the vast majority of whom (84%) are between the ages of 25 and 44. Currently, more than a third of millennials own cryptocurrency, and half of those who don’t would consider investing in it in the near future.

Noting that 45% of current crypto owners gave $1,000 or more to charity in 2020, Fidelity Charitable predicts that “digital assets are poised to become a strong source of funding for the future.” This sentiment is echoed in The Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society’s recent report, Philanthropy and Digital Civil Society: Blueprint 2022, which predicts an increase in both crypto donations and the number of organizations accepting them.

However, setting up a cryptocurrency donation program comes with a host of challenges, such as how to manage price volatility and store funds securely, all the while ensuring a smooth donation experience for the giver.

The Giving Block may help to solve some of these challenges by enabling nonprofits to “tap into the fastest growing donor demographic and start accepting Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrency with automatic conversion to US Dollars and marketing support.” Crypto donors can choose to give their coins to crypto adoption efforts, a cause fund in a specific area of interest, or an individual nonprofit organization. The Giving Block allows nonprofits to accept donations by setting up a crypto wallet and issuing automated tax receipts. Because cryptocurrencies are immediately converted into U.S. dollars, nonprofits can ensure they are receiving 100% of the asset’s value at the time of donation. Nonprofits new to the crypto space can access a variety of resources on their site, or browse potential donors who have taken the Crypto Giving Pledge to donate 1% or more of their crypto holdings to charity each year.

Another interface that facilitates crypto (as well as stock and donor-advised fund) donations is Every.org, which also enables users to support nonprofits with their debit or credit card, bank account, Apple or Google Pay, Venmo, and PayPal. In addition to processing donations, Every.org helps nonprofits hold virtual fundraising events and includes features that allow donors to share their activity with their network to incentivize additional giving. Any U.S. nonprofit that is registered with the IRS can sign up to create a profile to share with their donors.

Social Media Fundraising

No discussion of digital natives would be complete without mentioning the importance of social media in their lives. So, what platforms are they currently engaged with? In terms of the top three, millennials currently spend the most time on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, while Gen Z uses YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Three of these platforms can be leveraged to raise fundraising dollars.

Of the aforementioned platforms, Facebook is probably the easiest, and most widely used for fundraising. Nonprofits can create their own fundraiser or enlist the help of their audience through peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns in which their supporters raise money on Facebook by reaching out to their network of friends.

Instagram offers a couple of fundraising tools that allow eligible nonprofits and their supporters to raise money for charity directly on the platform. These include adding a donation sticker in Instagram Stories and a donate button on an Instagram Business Account. (TikTok also allows users to add a donation sticker to support a cause, but they must select from a list of available organizations.)

YouTube Giving allows content creators to raise money for an eligible nonprofit and provides a handy instructional video to aid them in this process. YouTube Giving is open to content creators with channels located in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada with at least 10,000 subscribers that are also part of the YouTube Partner Program. To be eligible to receive donations, an organization must be a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit which has been requested by a creator and opted into online fundraising via GuideStar.

Apps, neobanks, and fundraising efforts targeting crypto and social media users are just a few ways that nonprofits can engage with digital native donors. As the virtual world continues to evolve, so will the ways nonprofits engage with these younger generations.