The severe economic impact of Covid-19 poses a sweeping threat to nonprofits nationwide. However, given the pandemic’s crushing effect on the U.S. labor market — and the potential that many older workers won’t return to their previous levels of employment (if they return to the working world at all) — the economic downturn could be particularly calamitous for environmental groups. That’s because most environmental groups disproportionately rely on older donors — often far more than they realize.
Based on our analyses done while working for a large number of environmental groups over the years, the percentage of donors at least 50 years old was rarely less than half of a client’s donor pool and was often as high as 70 percent. Also, for most environmental nonprofits, donors significantly curtail their financial contributions when they retire, apart from gifts detailed in their wills. Ahead of Covid-19, one client confessed that his primary impetus for hiring us as consultants was the sharp escalation in bequests the organization received. “We’re loved by our donors,” he said, “but many of those who love us are dying off.”
Through research with both prospective and existing donors, we have identified other pervasive trends affecting today’s environmental nonprofits that distinguish the current generation of supporters from the next generation of supporters.
Charitable giving isn’t the only way young people want to help the environment. Millennials are more environmentally conscious than previous generations, but for them the environment is one of a larger, more diverse set of societal priorities. Also, they place equal emphasis on their everyday behavior, such as recycling and patronizing brands they consider to be environmentally friendly, as they do on making a donation. Millennials, too, are more likely to believe that many of the world’s environmental challenges will be solved by new technologies, not simply the work of nonprofits.
Despite today’s partisan climate, environmental organizations attract supporters of all political stripes. While the donors, advocates, and volunteers of environmental groups generally skew Democratic, they also represent significant percentages of self-described Republicans and independents. However, people of varying political identities often share common environmental priorities while differing in their opinions on how they are best addressed. Republicans favor public education and hands-on conservation over governmental regulation, for example, while Democrats are not averse to the use of litigation to advance or protect environmental interests.
Today’s communications ecosystem elevates the importance of “people like me.” Social media, in particular, places a premium on word-of-mouth communications. Before the average millennial or Gen Xer donates, volunteers, or advocates on behalf of an environmental nonprofit, he or she must first hear good things about the organization from “people like me.”
However, it’s not simply that environmental groups need to identify their next generation of supporters; they need to work from a new playbook in doing so. Although the details of this playbook are unique to each organization — just as each environmental nonprofit has its own strengths and priorities — most organizations need to abide by the following imperatives:
Identify the donor segments that are most likely to support your organization, and meet them where they are. An environmental nonprofit’s current and prospective supporters often fall into three or four prime segments whose members, while sharing a common commitment to the environment, possess different demographic and psychographic characteristics. An organization must tailor messages and engagement strategies to each segment if it is to make inroads with young donors, advocates, and volunteers. For example, we have identified a segment of potential donors characterized by their enhanced racial and gender diversity, as well as their concentration in suburban areas, for several environmental groups.
Increase trust by linking qualities and actions that matter most to them. The greater the trust a person has in an organization, the greater the likelihood he or she will act on its behalf. However, because trust is influenced by a combination of individual attributes an organization demonstrates, environmental nonprofits need to understand the attributes their supporters value most. Donors may particularly appreciate a nonprofit’s local impact and its development of a long-term conservation plan, for example, but demonstrating that the local impact is a result of an organization’s long-term plan can significantly bolster trust.
Showcase organizational leadership, but also “people like me.” The leadership profiles of an environmental organization’s CEO or chief conservationist is a common prerequisite for trust. However, given the importance of “people like me” and word-of-mouth communications in today’s digital and social-media ecosystem, environmental nonprofits need to showcase Gen X and millennial personnel — both paid and volunteer — and their individual contributions to the work of the organization.
Act like a news organization. One of the traits shared by various generations of environmental supporters is an appetite for objective, unbiased information. Compounding this appetite is the expectation that organizations make a priority of educating the next generation of environmental stewards. Those that do this particularly well create a steady cadence of high-quality original content addressing their environmental priorities while spotlighting their key personnel and signature projects.
Many millions of Americans are highly concerned about environmental threats such as climate change and chemical contamination. For them, the environment is a critical, years-in-the-making priority that won’t likely be diminished by Covid-19. Still, converting the concern of younger members of society into contributions of time and money requires new and different approaches. For many environmental nonprofits, the overreliance on older donors has been a longstanding and overlooked problem. For these organizations, the best chance of overcoming the existential economic threat posed by the pandemic is to make a near-term priority of identifying and cultivating a new generation of supporters.
