Top 2015 predictions - Baby boomers bulldoze all-time fundraising record

Baby boomers (humans born between 1946 and 1964) have reached late middle age and the great unknown of ‘retirement’.

The oldest are 69. The youngest are 51; they’ll only reach the ‘retirement-ripe’ age of 65 in 2029 or so. You won’t see the last of them in bulk until 2064 or so.

What symphony manager hasn’t swept eyes across an audience and observed, ‘It’s not just grey . . . it’s mostly white hair out there. By Zeus’ beard, my board chair was right: we DO need younger donors.’

Wrong conclusion. Seems obvious. But it’s wrong.

Charitable giving is just a small piece of household economics.

People ‘age into’ giving around age 55. Americans. Australians. South Africans. Brits.

Most aren’t ready to contribute much in their younger years (tech millionaires excepted). Too many other demands compete for an income: house, food, clothing, family, education, status, privilege. Maslow’s whole hierarchy of needs, basically.

Americans age into charitable giving as a common activity around 55. They continue giving until there’s an interruption like illness or death or destitution.

Another stupid thing in 2015 (as in 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007 and forever): A lousy (e.g. inane) bequest marketing programme.

The number of boomers now entering or in their prime giving years is going to be massive and unprecedented. Baby boomers, by the way, control over 80% of personal financial assets in the U.S..

Therefore, fellow logic freaks, inexorably, baby boomers will assume . . . with superhuman strength and grace . . . their predestined place as the greatest philanthropic generation ever born.

Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that we don’t collectively turn our home planet into something uninhabitable; and, therefore, your charity’s mission remains relevant 100 years from now . . .

as Boys & Girls Clubs of America (founded 1860 by three women) remains; as Girl Scouts (founded 1912) remains; as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (chartered 1861) remains; as the Sierra Club (founded in 1892) remains . . .

Will your organisation still be scrambling for funds each and every year?

Or are you going to do something about the problem now, as your fundraising predecessors likely did not?

Is there a single charity in America that can boast about its bequest marketing programme? Yes: I’ve met a few. I haven’t met dozens, though.

Charities have one amazing thing to sell: A sense of purpose.

A massive generation of potential donors stands before you looking for meaning.

I hope to quote psychiatrist and death-camp survivor, Dr. Viktor Frankl, a million times before I die: ‘Humans are driven by a will to establish meaning in their lives. They need purpose.’

Putting that exciting thought inside a million other minds would, I believe, qualify one as a ‘millionaire’.

People aren’t remembered for their money. They’re remembered for their ideas.

So, please be remembered at your going-away party as ‘the fundraiser who shook us by our tired shoulders and shouted loudly in our faces, “There’s big money in bequests!

“And, because of her, our charity has grown exponentially. Today, because of her insistence on charitable bequests, this worthy charity can do 10 times more good than we could just a decade earlier. I speak to all of you here tonight who’ve joined our Visionary’s Society. I want to say... from children and families . . . thanks from their future! Your generosity will be the ‘tiny privilege’ that tips the balance for one child and then for many other children. A few hundred dollars of charity apiece does the trick. Easy enough to do in a small charitable bequest. You made that possible. The future loves you!”’
Purpose
All we really know is that the number of boomers leaving the workforce has been – is – and will be massive.

And they’re ready for other things to do. They need new purpose! ‘There’s no one more contorted and angst-ridden than a former CEO in the first 12 months of retirement. I pity their spouses.’ That’s the gist from one expert on ageing.