If you were in New York last month for the Direct Marketing Nonprofit conference, you may have witnessed the spirited debate on whether donors under the age of 50 were worth pursuing. Traditionally, when fundraising was dominated solely by direct mail, the data did support that donors under the age of 50 were not viable prospects.

That was then.

We just wrapped up a large generational study based on giving behavior over a two year period. These results are based on real giving, not perceptions from a survey. Now that direct mail is not the sole channel for cultivating donors and donations, younger donors are much more viable prospects.

Donor value over time is based on three metrics:

1.     Retention

2.     Gift frequency

3.     Average gift size.

Younger donors are notoriously difficult to retain. That hasn’t changed. Less than one-in-three of them will give a gift in their second year. Older donors – particularly those over 65 continue to be extremely loyal.

When it comes to gift frequency, we see a similar trend. The older the donor the more likely they are to give multiple gifts.

If we came to a conclusion now, we would think, “Yeah, those younger donors are slackers.” But, hold on to your hats. When we look at average gift size, a different picture is painted. Donors under the age of 50 give on average twice as much per gift compared to their older counterparts – mainly because the channels younger donors give to – like the internet – are larger. [NOTE: There are no gifts skewing this trend. All large gifts were excluded from this analysis.]

The result, when you multiply these 3 metrics together, is rather interesting. The average 24-month cumulative value of the under age 50 donor is actually the highest of the three age groups.

The conclusion here is pretty clear:

Every organization needs a plan to engage younger donors.

While younger donors may give less frequently and are generally more difficult to retain, their average 24-month cumulative value is higher than other age groups, and given that they have the longest potential span for donating, they are the most valuable to engage and cultivate further.

Have you done an analysis like this for your donors? Does the same bear true?

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Tags: Direct Marketing Nonprofit Conference, fundraising, Generational giving trends, generational study, retation rates