Here’s a rant from Matt Burghdoff — an Agitator reader, a fundraiser at Donordigital, and a Millennial.

Now, I don’t know Matt personally from Adam (or Eve), but if he works at Donordigital he can’t be all bad. However, because he’s a ‘Millennial’, there are certain things I should confidently know about Matt, according to all the surveys.

Such as …

• He uses his cell phone 300 more times in a day than he uses his toothbrush.
• He can’t type more than ten words in a row without a seizure.
• He never watches TV in real time (in fact, he doesn’t own a TV).
• His only definition of ‘novel’ is ‘something new’.

But, according to Matt, my expectations of who he is are mistaken. Matt’s sick of Millennial stereotyping (especially in marketing publications, blogs and other learned sources), and that’s what he’s ranting about. Millennials are people too, and quite diverse, he insists. And he wants fundraisers to take heed of that.

Here’s his rant …

Rebuttal from a Millennial: You’ve got it all wrong

Caveat: I don’t pretend to speak for every “millennial.” I can only speak for myself, and provide anecdotal evidence of what I see around me.

 Yes, I am a “millennial” – apparently the Holy Grail that everyone is obsessed with. I’ve also worked in marketing and fundraising for years, starting before I even finished college.

In that time, I’ve seen more attempts at pigeonholing and understanding “my generation” than I could count. And every single time I have the same reaction: you’re so far off that I can only laugh.

Contrary to apparent edicts from the marketing gods, I’m actually not at all interested in social media, or keeping up with the latest stupid phone, nor will I (hopefully) ever watch Frozen. I don’t text, I don’t leave a page immediately if I have to actually click something, and I’m not about to start a crowd-funding page just to annoy everyone who has ever happened to bump into me.

While I do know a couple of people who might fit those stereotypes (surprisingly, I’m not interested in stalking every person I know), the vast majority of “millennials” I interact with don’t fit it either. Honestly, the definitions I’ve seen fit my mom better than me, which is ironic since she’s probably the same age as the people making up these definitions.

See, we “millennials” are actually kind of busy.

We have careers to build, massive college loans to pay off, a housing market (both rent and own) that doesn’t exactly fill us with confidence, a few are starting to have kids, and so much noise is thrown at us that it’s all nonsensical, suspicious garbage.

What I see, sitting on both sides of the fence, is an industry that has been comfortable for decades afraid of a new landscape. The people haven’t changed so much as the world has changed, but that’s not what’s being talked about.

Instead of acknowledging that technology has changed how we are able to communicate – and disprove everything ads claims – we are struggling with labeling these changes as “generations” and lumping huge groups of people into meaningless categories.

Fine, age-wise I’m a millennial. You can reasonably infer I’ve touched a computer, have friends, gone through some degree of schooling, and generally enjoy fun. What real value is there in any of that?

My generation is as diverse as all others. We have people like me – no interest in family, highly career oriented, looking for financial freedom. We have people like my dad – can’t wait to settle down to a 9-5 job with 2.5 kids in rural America. We have teachers, mechanics, entrepreneurs, scammers, half-wits, leaders – the whole gamut, good and bad. And, surprisingly, we’re not all copies of each other. STOP thinking that we are.

And while you’re at it, stop acting like we’re all stupid (some are, I know, but not ALL of us). You think we can’t update AdBlock within a day of whatever means you’ve found to “defeat” it? You think we won’t notice that your latest model simply adds the stupid camera you already had the mounts for in the last one? You think you can force us into behaving like the good little consumers of last decade?

Fat chance – and that’s not because of age. That’s because technology has changed. We have options now, and we know it.

I’ll give you that my generation may be more experienced with those options, but the other ones are catching up fast. You think our parents aren’t scouring every website for price match coupons, or thinking long and hard about getting rid of satellite and simply streaming online, or just asking us to install AdBlock for them?

The world has changed, not the people. If the industry can’t acknowledge this simple fact… Well, suffice to say there’s always someone looking to take the king’s crown and coin.

Matt Burghdoff

Thanks Matt. The Agitator loves people with strong opinions! But what’s AdBlock?

There are only two categories that really seriously interest me as a fundraiser:

One is ‘1st time giver’.

And the second, into which we want to convert the first, is: ‘donor’.

All the rest is a bit distracting. That said, I do believe that certain technology affinities and life-stage attitudes are deserving of fundraiser recognition. Are those distinctions more important to fundraisers than understanding the sameness that the brain of each and every one of us acts first on emotion? I think not.

Still, as Matt objects, there is plenty of advice out there for engaging Millennials as distinct from Boomers as opposed to those older still. Who’s more loyal? Who’s more online? Who will read a longer message? Who knows how to refill a fountain pen?

How much (or which) of those generational differences do you buy?

Tom

P.S. And now for the big confession. Search The Agitator for ‘Millennial’ and you’ll find 66 results! My favorite is Ode to Boomers, written on my birthday a couple of years ago (and yes, it’s about Millennials vs Boomers). I can’t wait to see the response of Kn Moy to Matt’s rant. As described in Ode, Kn’s role is to focus on ‘generational fundraising’ for his agency. Uh Oh! Hope you’re still reading The Agitator, Kn.