Page 5 - Winter 2018 Digital inLEAGUE Vol.41 No.01

Welcome to a Different Generation of Givers

From KNOWLEDGE@WHARTON PARTNERS

Charitable giving has long been the domain of wealthy industrialists and their foundations after a lifetime
of achievements. But the profile of today’s philanthropists is changing: Increasingly, they are Gen Xers and
millennials who are reinventing what it means to do good. They want more than just their name on the donors’
wall; they want to see real and measurable results. In the book Generation Impact: How Next Gen Donors Are
Revolutionizing Giving, authors Sharna Goldseker and Michael Moody examine the future of giving in these
young hands. They recently joined the Knowledge@Wharton show, which airs on SiriusXM channel 111, to talk
about what they found. The following are four key points from their conversation.

The authors said the members of Generation X and millennials will be “the most significant philanthropists in
history” because of the estimated $59 trillion in wealth that is currently being transferred to them from their
aging baby boomer parents and grandparents. The prosperous members of these younger generations are also
cashing in on a better economy.

“We see that these next generations aren’t just waiting until the sunset of their lives to be donors, like previous
generations of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller and others did, but are really giving earlier,”
Goldseker said. “They’re seeing the needs are great, and they have the resources to make a difference. So,
they’re starting to give an incredible amount at early stages.”

Moody said although the research isn’t firm, there are indications that the wealth available to the next
generations for the purpose of charitable giving is going to be more significant than ever.

“That overall number will go up, we think, over time and certainly with the economy and with wealth transfer,”
he said. “But more and more of the percentage of that that is driven by the Gen Xers and millennials,
particularly at the top end of the economic spectrum, is going to continue to go up. They’re probably not the
majority right now. I think we can say that. But they will be in the next 10, 20 years.”

Blurring the Line Between Profit and Philanthropy

The next generation doesn’t want to separate money into buckets, with one for profit and another for
charitable giving. They would rather have one big bucket.

“They’re not really as concerned about the difference between giving in one sector versus making money in
another sector, versus doing public work in a third sector, a government sector,” Moody said. “They’re eager to
sort of blur those boundaries. And they believe very clearly that they can do as much good, maybe even more
good, through what they do in the business sector [by] either investing significant assets in socially responsible
ways or supporting businesses that have a double or a triple bottom line.” As a result, their philanthropic
investments may not necessarily show up in official estimates of charitable giving.
Goldseker agreed and said it’s time to do
away with the stereotype of millennials as
entitled slackers. “What we really saw, the
top three reasons for giving among these
generations, they’re supporting a mission
or cause that fits with my personal values,
fulfilling my duty as a person of privilege
to give back to society, and seeing that
my contribution makes a real difference
and the organization has real impact,” she
said. “As these people are entering the
working world and having more resources, Image from https://smritidisaac.wordpress.com/
they are caring about values more than
valuables, and they’re making choices in
alignment with those values.”

The New Rules of Engagement
The changing nature of donors translates
(Continued on next page.)
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