Who are these Gen Z-ers?

• They’re the future: If your organization is meant to last longer than your working lifetime, who will eventually take over running it? And who will those future nonprofit leaders be asking for donations?
• Gen Z cares: Studies have shown that Gen Z is deeply concerned about the environment as well as racial justice, disability advocacy, and many other social issues.
• Smaller, but more consistent: This generation is primed to give smaller, but more consistent donation amounts, which tend to be more impactful that larger one-offs.

Reaching Gen Z Donors and Volunteers

• Authenticity: Gen Z can smell a phony from a mile (or several TikToks) away. Remember that they hold more degrees than any other generation: if your organization is trying to hide some scandal, Gen Zers are likely to sniff it out. If you created a TikTok account purely to try and appeal to Gen Z, they’ll sense it (more tips on social media in a moment). Be genuine in your communications with them.
  • Try asking: If you’re not sure what Gen Z would want to hear from you, or how they’d want to hear it (email, text, etc.) consider sending out a survey, or even just informally asking friends and family in that age range.
• Mobile-First Strategies: Keep your website up to date, with solid user experience on mobile. Gen Z does spend a lot of time on their phones: your organization’s mission and your site’s calls-to-action need to be clear and concise. 
  • Tip: When we say Gen Z is on their phones constantly, we don’t mean they’re making and taking calls. Use texts, emails, and social media/their associated messaging systems to communicate. Your phone calls will go unanswered.
• Social Media: If your organization doesn’t have someone who can create compelling, brief videos, signing up for TikTok might be a waste of your time. Consider your choices carefully and weigh them against your resources. Gen Z spends a lot of time on Instagram and YouTube, as well as TikTok, but considerably less on Facebook. Start out small as you get the hang of a new tool, but make sure you have a consistently updated presence on the platforms you do end up choosing.
• Include them in decision making: Especially if you’re trying to get younger members of your community involved in your operations or volunteer network, bring them to the table early-on and listen to their ideas. If you show that you’re genuinely interested in what they have to contribute, you’ll start to earn the interest and loyalty of younger folks who can take your mission to new heights.
• Diversity and transparency: This one ties back to authenticity. As the most diverse generation in the US, Gen Z cares that organizations reflect the makeup of our wider society. This doesn’t mean that a charity in, say, rural Iowa needs to worry a lot about the fact that they don’t have any people of color on their board (though maybe it should be a discussion) so much as the fact that any organization, for profit or not, be aware that people of color face real inequalities in the US. And it’s not enough to “talk the talk” with Gen Z, you should be ready to show genuine efforts towards diversity, inclusion, and racial equity projects.

Causes Gen Z cares about

• The environment: as the generation that will inherit the consequences of global warming and decades of inaction, this is the one issue Gen Z tends to be most concerned about and united on
• Mental health: partly due to the social isolation of the pandemic, this generation is concerned with anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues
• Racial and gender equity: this generation recognizes power imbalances in our government, justice system, pay disparity, and more
• Gun control: no surprise given how many school shootings these students and recent grads have lived through
• Economic stability: including issues surrounding affordable housing, the job market, and debt

Talkin’ ‘Bout That Generation