Charities must think like millennials, says author

“Be a Generation X but think like a Millennial.”
That was the lesson from guest speaker Galit Cohen at last week’s Peggy Nesta Foundation Dinner Dance Fundraiser to raise funds for the construction of a community centre in Buffalo Flats. Author of Putting Charities To Work: How to Make Money for Good, Cohen’s speech focused on how charity organisations can better target their growing Millennial base.

Millennial thinking, Cohen said, was completely different from previous generations and if charities like the Peggy Nesta Foundation wished to survive then they will need to quickly learn how to appeal to this increasingly influential demographic, she said.

For example, she said, millennials “don’t want to think money is the only way to have an impact”. When deciding where to donate money, millennials will look first to the influences and – more importantly – the impact the charity in question has before all else.
“Our websites are too polished,” Cohen exclaimed. Millennials are not interested in seeing flowery mission statements or bland mottos. “Millennials don’t think like that.”