ARLINGTON, Va., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Right now, corporate philanthropy is used to generate consumer goodwill and represents an important funding stream for charities, but new survey data shows that nearly 70 percent of millennials say corporate giving doesn’t impact their buying decisions, which may lead corporations to modify their giving strategy, if known. Moreover, nearly 50 percent of U.S. millennials fail to give a single dollar to charity, according to the survey released today by BBB Wise Giving Alliance (BBB WGA).
“Contributions from corporations have been a reliable fiscal driver of social change for nearly three decades, so it is shocking to see a majority of millennials say it’s not an important factor to them,” H. Art Taylor, the President and CEO of BBB WGA said. “It’s critical that businesses adapt to this changing environment to show millennials their social responsibility.”
To balance out a potential loss of corporate donations, charities would likely turn to individual donors. And while 8 out of 10 Baby Boomers currently give to charity, only 50 percent of millennials, the next giving generation, currently don’t donate at all, creating a troubling future for the nonprofit sector.
“To tap into millennials, charities must find a way to engage and convert them into donors or they risk being suffocated by this growing giving gap,” Taylor said. “At the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, we are currently studying four key societal forces to better understand how millennials will want to engage and interact with charities moving forward. These future forces will disrupt traditional transactional models for doing business and funding charitable work.”
