If you're below a certain age, it might surprise you to learn that in general, happiness increases with age. That's right, as your health and strength decrease, as death approaches, people feel more joy.
This is as reported at the Ageless Marketing blog, at The Joys of Old Age Are Real.
Okay, that gives us something to look forward to. But for fundraisers, it should give us something to seriously consider:
Success in older markets depends on connecting with them through their worldview, which means the younger members of your marketing and service team need to learn how to shift away from the worldview of the young....
Fundraising is overwhelmingly a form of elder marketing. That means you need to get older people. They feel joy, and their joy is different from young people's joy. They worry less than younger people. They have more emotional intelligence.
If you're under 60 and your yardstick for effective fundraising is That's really persuasive to me and all my friends -- you're missing the boat. You're being irrelevant.
Keep your eyes open. Know your older audience.
If you're interested in understanding some of the ways older donors are different, you might want to read these posts:
Jeff Brooks, creative director at 
Maybe fundraisers should hire older people to do their marketing, rather than the hip young whipper-snappers who don't understand their demographic.
Posted by: Charles Cherry | 18 July 2011 at 11:27
How about grant proposal writing? Are the readers young or old? They ask for statistics and outcome measures. They only want stories to put on their own website.
Posted by: rb | 18 July 2011 at 11:32
One could assume they would be the ones who have the capability to make larger donations as well...but we can't forget the younger crowd. Start building relationships when they're young, so when they are older and happier, they'll know exactly where to go with their retirement money!
Posted by: Mindframe (Indianapolis) | 18 July 2011 at 21:26