There is a lot of talk lately about how the world is changing thanks to the Millennials, the demographic force of people born between 1981 and 2000 who promise to fundamentally change the world as we know it.
And they are already well on their way, from eschewing cars, to corporate jobs, to Facebook, just for a start.
But what I continue to wonder is whether Millennials will fundamentally shift how money flows to social change.
Here are the shifts I wonder if Millennials will help us make:
More Social Change Money
Will a significantly greater amount of money begin flowing to organizations that are working on positive social change? For the past four decades only about 2% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product has gone to philanthropy. That's a pretty big trend to buck. Millennials stand to enjoy the largest wealth transfer in America history. Will more of that money flow to philanthropy? Will Millennials be able to move the needle on the 2% and find ways to funnel more money to social change?
More Money Flowing to Proven Impact
Will more money start flowing to organizations that can prove that they have created social change? Traditionally, philanthropy has not been terribly strategic, following emotion rather than data. However, new research claims that Millennial donors are more focused on impact than their predecessors (see the Millennial Impact Report, the Next Generation of American Giving report, and the NextGen Donors report) and are more committed to seeing their money flow to organizations that can prove they are actually accomplishing social change. (Although some argue that Millennials will actually not give any differently than their predecessors did.) So once Millennials become the philanthropic force everyone predicts will they actually invest that money differently?
More Financial Vehicles for Social Change
Will more financial vehicles become available for social change efforts? As Millennials start to control the wealth in this country, will they use new tools like impact investing to funnel more money, beyond just philanthropy, to social change efforts? Will they be able to connect impact investors and philanthropists and their respective pools of money? Will Millennials' demonstrated interest in social change translate into new ways to fund that social change?
More Delivery Vehicles for Social Change
Millennials, so far, tend to be more entrepreneurial than their predecessors. And at the same time there are more organizational structures, beyond the traditional nonprofit organization, for making social change happen, from B Corps to LC3s to for-profit social businesses, to social intrapreneurship. But it remains to be seen whether these new structures, and others yet to come, will stand the test of time. And whether Millennials can transform traditional nonprofits to be more entrepreneurial too.
There certainly can be hype around the promise of a generation. But I'm excited to see what the Millennials bring to the world of social change.