A lot of time and energy is being spent on “what to do” with “the Millennials.” There are seminars, articles, and blogs each addressing this group of people as though they were some kind of aberration. They actually remind me of me! I’m a “child of the 60s” one of those long-haired, lazy hippie-types who were bringing America down. But the strange thing is, I was never a hippie, never had really long hair (I think Jimmy Carter’s hair was actually longer than mine), and I had three jobs just to get through high school. I didn’t have time to do anything with America except work, vote, and pay taxes!

No one has ever benefitted from ascribing, to a group of people, attributes that create unfair caricatures of people made in the image of God.

What we, as nonprofit leaders and fundraisers, can benefit from is the knowledge that there are phases of life each of us go through that influence our interest in and ability to give charitable gifts.

This is what we speak to in this issue of Donor Focus. We assembled a multi-generational team to write our center spread article on The Importance of Multi-Generational Fundraising.

We also tackle The Backbone of Online Fundraising through the insights of Amy Sewell, our Vice President, Digital Solutions. Lastly, Senior Vice President, Client Services, Keith Cleghorn (who is known for his visual illustration talent) presents us with 3 Factors for Donor Acquisition. This is a timely article given that our clients have recently exceeded their direct mail acquisition projections for the number of responses by an incredible 105%.

I hope you’ll find something useful in this issue to help you as you serve so faithfully!

“Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold.” Proverbs 3:13-14 (NIV)

Our team is happy to help advise you on what strategy may work best for your organization, but you’ll never know unless you try.