MCON is a self-proclaimed event for leaders, activists, social entrepreneurs, and students who want to change the world - for good and we have been attending the past two days in Washington, DC. It’s hosted by the Case Foundation and Achieve Agency. Achieve has been working on a research project called the Millennial Impact Report released the most recent findings yesterday at the conference. 

Here are some thoughts that stuck with us after the Ignite fundraising session at #MCON.

Rebecca Cooper with the American University Kogod School of Business was introducing a speaker when she (paraphrasing) said: millennials are not impatient, as often stereotyped, but are annoyed by inefficiency. 

A little while later, Margaret Huang, Executive Director of Amnesty International, said that millennials see themselves as changemakers. Towards the end of the day Derrick Feldman, President of Achieve, said that through their impact research they’re learning that millennials don’t feel the need to connect with a nonprofit to make a change in the world. 

After threading the needle on the thoughts throughout the day we realized that perhaps millennials are often not engaged in nonprofits because they’re impatient with how slow nonprofits move. The don’t feel the need to connect because the perceived inefficiency leads them to an “I can do it faster myself” attitude. So how do smaller nonprofits appear efficient and agile in an age with constant protest, news and advocacy?

• React quickly to what’s happening in current news as it relates to your cause.
  • Your nonprofit should always seem relevant and you should be up-to-date with the current pop culture surrounding your cause. If you’re an environmental group and didn’t tweet about the Paris Agreement announcement last week – you missed a huge opportunity to grab donors to your cause. It doesn’t take much time to update your social channels based on what’s going on in the world and if you don’t, the large nonprofits will. Small nonprofits can keep donations local by seeming as relevant as the big ones. Social media can help.
• Give them an opportunity to get involved with what’s going on in real-time.
  • These days millennials want to spring into action, so make sure that when you know they’re feeling agitated, they come to you to make a difference. Be ready with 2 things they can do to engage with your cause. If it’s fundraising, be sure to tell them exactly how their contribution will help the cause the cause they care about today. Don’t just ask them to be “aware”, give them a way to “do”.
• Online donations.
  • If we never saw an envelope on a table at a fundraising event again we would be thrilled. Nonprofits have to make it easy (read: efficient) for millennials, who react quickly, to donate and it’s even more important to do so at your fundraising events. A guest or potential donor shouldn’t have to search your website to donate online. You’ll lose them if it takes too long because, quite frankly, that’s inefficient.

To learn how Swell can help your event engage your guests: