Boomer Bonanza … Deferred
In 2014, the last of the Baby Boomers turn 50 — Jeff Bezos, Russell Crowe, Nicholas Cage (it’s his birthday today), Michele Obama, Sandra Bullock, Stephen Colbert, Lenny Kravitz, Courtney Love, Barry Bonds, Melinda Gates, Susan Rice, Don Cheadle, and of course the eternally-50 Roger Craver. A good crew.
They will be the last to fuel a fifteen year process now unfolding where, each day, an average of 8,000 Boomers will reach age 65 … what used to be known as retirement age.
So, are we on the verge of the long-awaited boom in giving, as Boomers reach the life stage that, for reasons of psychology and personal finance, should be (has been in the past for older donors) their golden age of beneficence?
I am desperate to find some reason fundraising should be easier in 2014 — Atlas of Giving predicts a 5.5% increase in giving for 2014, compared to 2013’s 13% growth. However, I can’t see even this demographic tidal movement as reason for optimism.
Boomers ares still squeezed financially (many sandwiched between needy aging parents and still struggling children), fretful about their economic outlook and, I’ll venture, less optimistic that giving can change the world (at the very least, they’ll need more convincing regarding results to part with their dollars).
So I wouldn’t look to 2014 to see much ‘new’ money from Boomers falling into the philanthropic pot. If I were you, however, I would give a great deal of thought to the quality of my planned giving program. Boomers might just hold onto their dollars till the very end!
The other thing you should do, regardless of age, is track the marketing activities of AARP. No organization is shrewder about using the full panoply of media tools to address the older market. And they are pumping up the volume with their 2014 ‘Boomers@50+’ campaign.
Tom
P.S. And while everyone’s ecstatic over year-end online fundraising results for 2013 (online gifts rose 16% YOY for the last two months of the year), even that will get harder in 2014, unless nonprofits keep pace with changing media habits and technology … see tomorrow’s post.
One response to “Boomer Bonanza … Deferred”
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Tom,
You are dead on! We mail to patients of nonprofit hospitals, and the giving difference between Boomers and Matures is night & day! Based on multiple tests, we don’t mail to <60 years of age and measure 60-64 and 65+. There is a substantial diffenence in these two age groups!