Paper Example on Donor Behavior

Introduction

Donors make a significant impact on various communities they care about; however, various donors are motivated by different motives to donate towards a certain course. Understanding the motivations of Gen Y to donate is a common challenge experienced by Youngcare and other nonprofit organizations. The Millennials face economic turmoil and upturns in the market that gives them a new standpoint in deciding what is worth for their money. Donor behavior among the millennial is a critical aspect for Youngcare in supporting the community.

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It requires a deep understanding of the consumer behavior among the millennial coupled with consideration of the changing donor environments and economic conditions. An essential part of donation and volunteering activities is the net of individuals, which shape their giving. Previous research regarding donor motivations, donor cognition and emotions, their decision-making process and donor behavior are aimed at understanding donor behavior. Therefore, this research seeks to examine what Youngcare can do to influence the Gen Y (Millennial) donor behavior positively. Literature review, a consumer behavior theory and three recommendations regarding the approaches that Youngcare should take to get additional support as well as volunteer time from the millennial.

Literature Review

Various studies have been conducted looking at charitable giving and established that age has a significant impact; older individuals are more likely to give compared to the young with variations in income education and marital status. The difference is attributed to the motivations between older and young people. Millennial has a different perspective of giving while each generation has different behaviors and attitudes that shape the era that they developed in and numerous significant events including conflicts and disasters. Publications such as "Millennials: Confident. Connected. Open to change" indicates that the Millennials are generous, self-confident, self-expressive and susceptible to change (Pin, 2015). The millennials generation is culturally and racially diverse compared to the older generation, the population dynamics of the United States has increased with a rise in Hispanics and African Americans inhabitants (Mainardes et al., 2017).

The Millennials are technically innovative and using mobile phones and computers are essential in daily activities, they spend significant time on social media and frequently use social networks to express their opinion. Dreyer, 2009 recognizes the importance in the life of the internet in the life of millennials. The generation tends to be competitively caused by the fact that the millennials believe in achievements that generate pressure to keep pace with other peers. Brand identification is core, particularly when the product is marked as a symbolic way of living. Burns, et al., 2008 believes that the millennials work collaboratively and be optimistic of making a significant impact on the world and they are intensely occupied by the cause they donate to. However, they often complain that they are frequently not taken seriously and their opinions keenly observed. They usually raise their opinions through the internet and because of their age, they are not considered serious. Risman, 2018 cautions charitable organizations that when the Gen Y is not happy, they will opt to advance and establish their organizations.

Millennials display competition and brand loyalty that results from believing in achievement thereby creating pressure to move together with their peers. The young generation work together to make a change globally and are absorbed in the reasons they believe in. Millennials have many internet outlets to express their ideas though they feel and complain that their opinions are not taken seriously, as their parents would do because of their age. Smith, 2017 cautions that Millennials would establish their organization in case other organizations fail to treat them satisfactorily.

Non-profit organizations should find methods of communicating and engaging with prospective contributors and volunteers. In this technology-driven era, communication through non-profit requires to be changed to the suitability of the incoming generation. The change is vital as contributors and volunteers influence the survivor of non-profit. The study shows that various non-profit organization still practice direct mailing to communicate their requirements to their potential donors (Preston, 2015). Even though direct mailing is still significant, modern methods are essential for the attraction of new era of supporters.

The ideal mode of communicating and getting details of the top donors is by the websites and emails. Millennials used mainstream media to learn about their top charity. The young generation uses direct donations, attend occasions, visit sites, promote charities, and volunteer mainly than other generations. Members of the millennial generation share articles and photographs of the donations on the social media (Berger, 2016). They also forward e-mail messages from the contributions to their families.

Another method that millennial uses to communicate are text messaging although it has not grown in acceptance yet it is slowly increasing (Nisbett & Strzelecka, 2016). Millennials use text messaging and the internet to assist a friends' fundraising and utilize it as a tool for fundraising. However, literature does not give a direction on how nonprofit organizations should communicate and engage with the millennials, relatively, it advises the use of multilevel approaches such as emails, websites, text messages, and mainstream media. The multilevel approach may result in long-term benefits to not-for-profits and allow getting maximum benefit from the millennials.

Theory/Model/Framework

The theory of planned behavior states that the actual behavior of an individual insignificantly influenced by their intention, motivation, and enthusiasm to perform a specific act (Martin, 2017). The theory consists of three constructs that include the consumer's attitude towards the behavior, perceived behavioral control and the subjective norms. The approach has been used to test pro-social behavior and intentions to make financial donations to nonprofit charitable organizations and the real donating behaviors. Based on the theory, injunctive norms and perceived behavioral control will forecast the intentions if the Millennials to donate to charitable organizations. People with positive attitudes towards the behavior are expected to give, and they tend to believe that others will support their practice. They also believe that they have control over conducting their behavior will more likely to intend to donate.

The theory will provide a better understanding of human behavior specifically in charitable donations, a psychological methodology applying behavioral approach. This theory relates to a specific individual behavior with the intention to predict the probabilities of performing the behavior. The aim of the millennials to donate towards a charitable course is the core factor that captures and mediates other related impelling influences that define the level of willingness to implement the behavior. A high level of intention to perform the act, the more possible the individual will utilize the behavior.

The subjective norm focuses overall lot surrounding a person including the social network, social rules and group principles (Martin, 2017). The individual model is the personal perception of the social pressure and therefore reflects the views about the normative prospects of others. According to millennials charitable donation, the present social norms for a majority is to make an impact into the society. If the majority in a group donates towards a charitable course, then they will influence the rest to give that could result in others in the group to donate because they do not want to be overlooked. Subjective norms and attitudes are likely to influence an individual to develop a behavioral intention. Prior research has indicated that attitudes predict well the development of behavioral intentions compared to subjective norms.

Different factors influence the intention of an individual to donate such as personal trait that can be dignified by an individual's attitude. It is significantly affected by a person's belief regarding the outcome of a particular behavior and their evaluation and expectations of the result. The perceived behavioral control is the level of control that an individual has to perform a specific behavior. It is more similar to self-judgment in self-efficacy that an individual has over their capability to apply the behavior (Martin, 2017). Individual abilities, personal skills, dependence on others and barriers can significantly influence the behavior of millennials to donate.

Recommendations

Communication

Using the available resources and technology, Youngcare should increase their effort in communicating with the millennials through a multilevel approach. Youngcare should share the causes that are supported in a multilevel approach because it has shown from the previous researches that the generation gets information from various sources. Making use of current technology such as the internet, e-mails, text messaging, Youngcare can draw more support from the millennials for a particular course. The Gen Y learn about Youngcare from different channels; therefore they also use various channels to seek information regarding volunteering opportunities available. Youngcare should also try to establish connections with institutions of higher learning to advance their cause and gain more volunteers to the organization. The organization should encourage other peers through text messages, e-mails, and other communication platforms to share information regarding donation and the organization they volunteer for with their peers and acquaintances since grassroots effort can be more beneficial. Grassroots strategy can form an efficient technique for Youngcare to develop a higher support base.

Communicating with the millennials is essential since they want to know whether they will gain skills from volunteering or recognition from donation and the influence they will have to the organization. Therefore, a patronizing communication approach cannot work for the millennials. Staying engaged with millennials is essential; an annual report will not be enough to satisfy a Gen Y because they are eager to know where their money went, and the effect it had towards the cause to donated or volunteered. Transparency with clear and consistent communication to the millennials will increase the organization's trust, millennials will be more attracted to the organization, and they will be willing to maintain their relationship. A clear message is elaborating why Youngcare requires the millennials support, whether financial, fundraising or volunteering is vital and developing on where the funds will help. This can be done through the online tools that are mostly utilized by the generation. Millennials anticipate transparency, urbane storytelling and technical understanding from Youngcare to give the strength of their social networks to a cause that they trust. A survey in 2017 showed that millennials probably give to a cause when they feel inspired by a charitable organization and more so when they appreciate the impacts that their efforts have made.

Make It Easy For Millennials to Donate

Youngcare should manage to engage millennials with a charity request through the social media so that they can easily get access to through their phones. Although financial donations are less common among Gen Y, it can be related to lesser income, but they often give (Company Volunteering Attracts Millennials,...