Entitled. Unreliable. Glued to their screens. These are just a few of the stereotypes millennials face as they enter the work force and start crafting careers. That can be true even in a nonprofit sphere eager to tap the younger generation’s activist energy and digital skills.
“Every generation gets this singular definition or understanding and obviously it’s not that cut and dry,” says Rachel Dearborn, senior communications manager at Tides.
For this video feature, The Chronicle of Philanthropy talked to Ms. Dearborn and six other young nonprofit professionals, in person or via Google Hangout, to get their take on the misconceptions surrounding their generation, how they prepared to enter the field, and what charities can do to recruit and retain millennial talent. Their experiences vary widely, but many agreed that employers who listen to their opinions and offer room for growth are certain to find out how wrong the stereotypes are.
Tell us about your millennial experience on social media using #MillennialMyths.
Transcript
KIMBERLY WENZ: My education and my previous experience as an intern and as a volunteer in nonprofits provided me with a great background. But I think that because of the diversity of opportunities in nonprofits, it definitely makes it that there will always be a learning curve.
BRENDA BOYLE: When I first entered the nonprofit sector, right after graduating college, I did have the skills that I needed, because I entered in a development job function. And during my college experience, had a lot of the communication skills, public speaking, writing, event planning, through some sort of internships or volunteer opportunities.
BRIAN PHAM: Having mentors that had experience specifically in a nonprofit field, and specifically in my field in volunteer management, was all the resources that I needed to stay motivated and, again, contribute.
RACHEL DEARBORN: I don’t think I had all the training that I needed when I started nonprofit work. But I highly doubt that anybody does, or ever has. I think that it’s a really unique set of skills that’s necessary for this kind of work, and pretty much the only way to get those skills is to start doing the work itself.
BARLOW FLORES: Having had experience in other sectors, I think at least helped to enrich the experience once I got into nonprofit, because I could tug on those skill sets and experiences, and say, well, this is my lens. I’m bringing a different lens, right, to the work that we’re doing.
JUSTIN REASH: No, I didn’t have that much training. And so it was a lot of training on the job.
BRIAN PHAM: I think with the Millennials coming in, we want little bit wider guardrails. I think a misconception is that we don’t want guardrails, right, we don’t want support.
JUSTIN REASH: People think that Millennials look for that quick achievement. You know, they don’t want to stay more than a couple years, and that they job hop.
BRENDA BOYLE: It’s unfortunate that the term “Millennial” seems to mostly have negative connotations, like lazy, or entitled, or the “me me me” generation, whatever it is. And I think that’s sad, because everybody I know who’s in the nonprofit sector or the social impact sector that belongs to that generation, there’s so much passion to tap into.
DANIEL RICO: I think there’s this big misconception about the “me” generation, you know, “me me me.” And just looking at our organization here, you know, I don’t think that really exists. It’s not about me. It’s about us.
RACHEL DEARBORN: I think that the Millennial generation, if such a thing exists, is very open with its opinions and ideas. And I think that comes from growing up in a world where they had a megaphone, or we had a megaphone, in the internet, and a place to put our creative thoughts and ideas and have people react to them in real time. And I think that kind of environment that you grow up in makes you more of a confident person to bring up your own ideas. And I would say that a more traditional, an older view of that might be that it’s inappropriate if you don’t have the years of experience, that maybe it’s time to sit back and listen instead of speaking up.
KIMBERLY WENZ: We’re constantly expected to have these unpaid experiences. And going into the nonprofit sector, internship after internship, and still not really having the opportunity to get a job, because they expect us to have x amount of years doing x, y, and z sort of positions. But then finding those volunteer positions are really hard. And being able to live off of a volunteer role or a non-paid internship is extremely challenging.
BRIAN PHAM: We’re not money entirely money-driven, right? I think it’s important for us to be able to live a certain lifestyle like any generation, but being able to take a job where you feel fulfilled, where you feel like you’re making an impact, where you can kind of put your name and imprint on something and feel safe to succeed and fail.
KIMBERLY WENZ: Many times people think that we are going to be extremely tech-savvy, and expect us to be able to manage a website or build an app or be able to manage the social networking that’s needed to promote these nonprofits. And that’s not always the case.
RACHEL DEARBORN: Social media, digital communications, all of that, should really be seen as strategic tools, and not just as the thing that you give to the Millennial. You might find the perfect person who fits who’s in that Millennial generation to do that work, but I wouldn’t just say that young equals good at social media, because could be that young equals good at a lot of things. One of them could be social media, but I just think that that’s a common misconception, and gets organizations into trouble sometimes.
In one scenario, being a Millennial was one of my biggest assets, because I was looked to for expertise around, particularly, digital campaigning. And to be internet-native was a plus, a positive, in that environment. I think now I start to disassociate with the term a bit, because to be perfectly frank, I think the name has a bad rap. A lot of the headlines are critical of Millennials. And I think a lot of that is wrong, but I do think that that being the mainstream idea of what a Millennial is makes me want to distance myself from it.
BRIAN PHAM: I worked at a international nonprofit. That was my first job for a year and a half. And everyone around me, for the most part, 35 years plus, a lot of which have been there for 10-plus years. Here’s eager little me coming in. It’s I definitely could see that there was a hesitation in trust, right? And for me, the way that I battled that is really just putting in the hours, and just being relentless and producing work and utilizing not only my mentors, but other people that I had gained their trust to help extend my trust beyond them.
BRENDA BOYLE: So if I’m going to go out and externally represent an organization, I need to do my homework. I need to know things backwards and forwards so I do have that credibility, even if I am 40 years younger than the person that I’m engaging with.
RACHEL DEARBORN: Particularly when you read things about how, you know, we’re the laziest generation, I’m like, I don’t know who you’re talking to, because most of my friends are working harder than my parents did. You know, it’s just like, there’s an energy that is like, work is all the time, because work can be something that you’re passionate about. You know? I mean, that energy is, I think, really, really palpable in this generation. And I don’t know who is calling them lazy, but they are. They are. It’s totally crazy.
BARLOW FLORES: Opportunity and room for growth is key in keeping Millennials or any other group, really satisfied, and then making the commitment to stay.
RACHEL DEARBORN: I mean, I think you need to feel comfortable to let your employees shine as individuals. If you’re a nonprofit and you’re really scared and you don’t let everybody kind of be themselves, then that’s not a very attractive place to work.
BRIAN PHAM: Finding that balance between autonomy and supervision I think is a really important thing with engaging Millennials.
JUSTIN REASH: Be open about potential upward not just promotions, but moves. So that’s one thing, is be open, you know, and maybe have a culture of, we like to promote from within.
KIMBERLY WENZ: To give us those opportunities, to give us increased responsibility, to show that we’re valued through promotions or adjusted expectations in your role.
BRENDA BOYLE: Again, coming from the fundraising side of things, it’s your donors always want you, as an organization, to be transparent with what’s going on with their funding, what’s happening with your programs. And I think the same can be said for internal business operations.
KIMBERLY WENZ: I think employers should just give us a chance.
JUSTIN REASH: Not make a Millennial feel like they’re not wanted.
DANIEL RICO: Don’t be afraid of this generation. We are a growing a very important segment of the population right now. We’re one of the largest segments out there. That’s particularly true for Latinos. You know, one in four young adults is a Latino. So if you really want to be successful, you’ve got to make sure that your workforce reflects the diversity of the community.
RACHEL DEARBORN: My managers, the people who run the organizations that I’ve worked at, they’ve helped me grow and be better at my job by asking me my opinions and leaving me the space to be wrong, and then have that be OK, than teaching me anything straight up.
BRENDA BOYLE: The job has flexibility in terms of it’s like being creative or being open to new ideas.
JUSTIN REASH: You know, really jump on the enthusiasm. Jump on the reason why they want to work.
RACHEL DEARBORN: To truly be effective now, you have to let your community speak with you, as opposed to telling them what to do. And I think leaders can do a lot to sort of release that control and to build up the voices of the people around them the young people, the old people, everybody.
