Stuck In The Middle With You: Are You Thinking About Gen-X Donors?

We are Generation X — the cohort who pioneered grunge, embraced the promise of the Internet, and demanded that our country Move On from the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal.

We range in age from 34-50. And since the glory days of Reality Bites, we have been getting overlooked by media and marketers everywhere.

Why? A Pew Study proposes it’s because we are bookended by two much larger generations  — Baby Boomers and Millennials — that are strikingly different from one another.

We’re smack in the middle. The Pew authors write, “In most of the ways we take stock of generations — their racial and ethnic makeup; their political, social and religious values; their economic and educational circumstances; their technology usage — Gen Xers are a low-slung, straight-line bridge between two noisy behemoths.”

But non profits neglect Gen-Xers at their peril.

According to The Next Generation of American Giving report (a study by Sea Change Strategies, Blackbaud and Edge Research), Baby boomers account for 43% of total charitable revenue in the United States. But Gen-Xers are on the rise — giving 20% of the total charitable giving pie.

How are you creating a pipeline for Gen X donors who are making connections to the charities they will support in years to come now? Here are two shining examples:

• EcoHealth Alliance has developed a young professionals council that hosts networking events in and around New York that relate to the organization’s mission.
• The International Rescue Committee has created Generation Rescue, which also hosts networking events in and around cities where the IRC is active.

Mark and I will be writing on Gen Xers in the months to come and will be sharing other ideas for stewarding this important cohort of donors.