Current Event Post - Millennials and Philanthropy by Sean Kurz

The other week, Douglas Zinn, the executive director for the Kenan Charitable Trust, came to speak to our class about his career in philanthropy. At the beginning of his talk with our class, he said that our generation (the millennials) is very driven to make a difference in the world. He said that in generations past, people worked to make a living for themselves. However, Mr. Zinn sees the millennial generation truly is working to make the world a better place.

I really appreciated Mr. Zinn’s words during class, and I also enjoyed learning about his career in philanthropy and his advice to our class as we are going through our application-review process. Mr. Zinn’s thoughts about the millennial generation’s contributions to philanthropy appeared in an article while I was searching for a current event topic. In the article titled “Millennials and Philanthropy,” I was able to learn about how millennials have already made left their mark in the world of philanthropy and how nonprofits today can work with this generation to maximize their impact.

Students in our class have been looking up current events in philanthropy, and I used this article for my current event. According to the article, almost 85% of millennials have made charitable donations in 2014 and nearly 70% of millennials volunteered. Furthermore, 77% of millennials are eager to use their skills while volunteering, which indicates the desire to make a greater impact. The article continued to share suggestions for how nonprofits can work with millennials. One way is leaders in nonprofits can help millennials reach their goals by advising them on how to make a difference with their skill-set. Another suggestion from the article was for nonprofits to have a presence in the world technology - such as having online donation options.

I had the opportunity to lead a class discussion with one of my classmates about this article and we talked a wide variety of topics relating to millennials and philanthropy. For example, we discussed how organizations such as Amazon are using technology to make charitable contributions. Amazon uses the program Amazon Smile, which makes donations when people purchase products using Amazon. This is an example of a company that has been working with technology to increase the inclusion of millennials.

Additionally, our class talked about how almost everyone does community service while going through high school. For a lot of the students in our class, it was a requirement in high school for some of their clubs; other students did community service to fill their resume while applying to college. We had a hard time determining answering whether or not it is bad that students are motivated to do service for their resume.

Overall, the article was very interesting and relevant to our class, seeing that most of our class falls into the millennial generation. As I reflect on the class discussion regarding this article, I find myself curious about how future generations will continue to approach philanthropy and charitable giving. Technology is constantly improving and it will continue to have a drastic effect on philanthropy. Until then, I am proud that our generation is making such an amazing impact on the world of charitable giving.

If you would like to check out the article, the link is posted below!

https://www.nptrust.org/philanthropist/entries/news_for_donors/millennials-and-their-influence-on-philanthropy