Or should I say, on whom?

Jeff Brooks at Future Fundraising Now has posted a Jeff classic. No one will ever accuse Jeff of not expressing his opinion! And that’s why Roger and I treasure the guy … a true agitator.

In Boomers: the young donors you should be worried about, Jeff takes aim at those who would urge fundraisers to set their sights on Millennials. Here’s the core of his argument:

“If you’re spending a lot of time worried about how you’re going to get millennial donors, you’re wasting your time.

It’s true, most fundraisers aren’t doing what it takes to attract millennials. And that’s okay, because people in their 20s and 30s are just not very good prospects. Hard (expensive) to get on board, even harder to keep there.

Don’t worry: they’ll start showing up in a few decades.

Until then, what we should be sweating is how to get Boomers to give. The Boomer era of fundraising has started, and we don’t have them figured out yet.”

Amen … Amen … Amen!

I really liked his advice on how fundraisers should allocate their mindshare by generation:

• 40% to Silent Generation (born before 1946)
• 50% to Boomers (born 1946-1964)
• 8% to Gen Y (born 1965-1980)
• 2% to Millennials (born 1981-2000)

I wouldn’t change a single percentage point. Would you? Why?

That said, I was wondering, does anybody really prioritize their fundraising by generation?

Within the same cause or charity, do we really think about tailoring one fundraising message to the Silent Generation and a somewhat different one to Boomers? Probably not. Although psychologists tell us there are indeed significant life stage differences in self-image and worldview, which in turn might suggest ‘better’ or ‘worse’ framings for the same basic proposition.

More likely, we might think about our use of channels (e.g., direct mail vs online, mobile) based on where we think our ‘fish’ are swimming.

Or we might use demographic selects or factor in age affinities when we think about which lists to rent or which websites might work best for paid search.

Further into the weeds, we might consider the visual images used in our various media materials, or even the font size in our communications.

I, for one, do try to keep abreast of media usage and media device data. And that tells me even if I want to chiefly focus on Boomers (and older), I had better figure out how to do so via digital media, to balance out and complement my workhorse direct mail.

If you wanted to really target Boomers and Silents, what steps would you take?

Tom