To read a lot of the fundraising blogs, you might get the idea that there are two groups you need to even think about: Boomers and Millennials.
Thinking this way just might scuttle your growth in the next few years, because there's a whole other generation in between those two, and they are starting to matter a lot to serious fundraisers.
Generation X. People born from 1965 to 1983.
As the GroupThinkers blog notes, Gen X is ready to be the next great giving generation.
The leading edge of the generation is now in their mid-50s. Just entering the Donor Years. That's the first reason to pay attention to them.
A second reason: There are a lot of them. 79 million. (Compared to the 65 million Baby Boomers).
And yet they are often stereotyped as unlikely to be good donors:
Viewed as slackers, cynical and complicated. The first latchkey generation. The middle child. Classically overlooked.
The stereotypes reveal nothing.
Marketing to generations is not likely to pan out well. Market to people. And if you're fundraising, that means mainly older people who care about making the world a better place.
Generation X people are now pouring into the donor demographic. You'll start encountering them on your list. Watch them!
