We are currently engaged in the largest wealth transfer in history. Over 50 years, between 2007 and 2061, an estimated $59 trillion will pass from older to younger generations. In addition, many wealthy millennials, like Mark Zuckerberg and his peers, are generating their own substantial wealth.
It is expected that up to half of this wealth will be donated to charitable causes.
A timely and thought-provoking new book explains the powerful ways in which the next generation of philanthropists will use their inherited and earned wealth to impact issues and causes, nonprofits and themselves – with a new and distinct approach to philanthropy. They will create a revolutionary “golden age of giving.”
“Generation Impact: How Next Gen Donors Are Revolutionizing Giving,” (2017) is written by Sharna Goldseker and Michael Moody. Goldseker is founder of 21/64, a nonprofit dedicated to improving next-generation and multigenerational philanthropy. Moody is a cultural sociologist serving as the Frey Foundation Chair at the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University.
As a basis for this book, Goldseker and Moody surveyed more than 300 major donors in their 20s and 30s, and interviewed more than 75. They then combined this original research with their own significant experience in the philanthropic sector to reach a number of important findings. Among these are:
These findings raise key challenges for both nonprofits and affluent families. Nonprofit organizations must work to understand the changing philanthropic landscape. They must adapt their reporting, programming, leadership models and fundraising techniques to the needs and objectives of the rising generation of new and influential donors.
In addition, affluent families must respond to this changing landscape by engaging their rising-generation family members in meaningful, transparent and strategic philanthropy as soon as possible — so that philanthropic values, expertise and opportunities are more likely to transfer along with wealth.
My personal experience working with families has taught me the importance of creating a “safe zone” in which all adult family members are given an equal seat at the table to participate in family giving – contributing their unique individual and generational perspectives.
People on both sides of the philanthropic coin — donors and nonprofits alike – will benefit from the insights available in this important new book. The philanthropic world is changing in dramatic ways. In the words of Charles Darwin, “It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive, but those who can best manage change.”