The major gift pipeline is critical to future fundraising success. With a generational change among donors on the horizon, advancement shops need to get in the door early with their Gen X and Millennial philanthropic leaders.
Making strategic investments in pipeline development for future major gift donors means that advancement must identify who those future leaders are and then target engagement and solicitations specifically to their needs.
The average age of investors worth $25M+ dropped by
11 years
Average age in 2014:
58
Average age in 2019:
47
Achievement-Focused
Motivated by the next
promotion or pay raise
Networker
Masterfully navigates
a complex bureaucracy
Risk Averse
Prefers a more predictable
path to wealth
$320K
Average salary of a 4th year BigLaw employee
$368K
Average Goldman Sachs employee salary
“Top managers of Fortune 100 companies are fundamentally different: they’re younger, more of them are female, fewer of them were educated at elite institutions, [and] they’re making it to the top faster…” – Harvard Business Review
Create opportunities for corporate climbers to own the impact of
their dollars.
Birmingham Southern College uses fundraising products with explicit price tags, impact statements, and stewardship next steps to encourage mid-level donations. Fundraising products from each division are organized online through a campus-wide gift registry page for donors to easily navigate.
Mission-Driven
Dedicates mindshare to passion projects over salary
Fluent in Philanthropy
Understands wealth-culture
and giving
Hard to Impress
Expects high-touch relationships from day one
$68T
Amount millennials will inherit by 2030 in total assets (includes real estate, etc.)
$850K
The average amount millennials will inherit
Among young inheritors, an urge to redistribute
“Resource Generation, a group that allows young inheritors [18-35] to talk openly… We definitely have a portion of the community who are giving away all inherited wealth.”
– The New York Times
Scale one-on-one relationships with the institution to give anticipated inheritors the attention they expect.
Miami University in Ohio assigns a centralized stewardship staff member to keep mid-level donors informed and engaged. Stewardship staff rely on one-to-many customizable communications during their pledge period and then handoff the relationship to a gift officer when the pledge is fulfilled.
Innovative
Challenges the status-quo
to provide new solutions
and improvements
Time-Pressed
Prioritizes the needs and
success of their business
above all else
Discerning
Asks tough questions in their work—and in their philanthropy, too
68%
Of company CEOs on Forbes’s
next billion-dollar startups list
are under the age of 40
450K
Number of chief executives
ages 25-44 (2019)
Entrepreneurs expect to donate
Build delayed donation opportunities for emerging entrepreneurs to promise future funds to the institution.
University of California, Berkeley asks emerging entrepreneurs to promise a portion of their equity in a firm to be donated upon a liquidity event. In return, over-extended entrepreneurs receive mentors, exclusive networking opportunities, and access to hiring events.
- 2017 BNP Paribas Global Entrepreneur Report, BNP Paribas Wealth Management, 2016
- Advancement Forum interviews and analysis
- Ben Steverman, “Here Comes the New Generation of Very Rich Americans,” Insurance Journal, January 23, 2019
- “Household Data Annual Averages,” Department of Labor Statistics, Solo Entrepreneur Institute, 2020
- Joshua Holt, “Biglaw Salary Scale with Bonuses: 1999 – 2020,” Legal Reader, February 26, 2020
- Michael Foster, “Guess How Much Goldman’s Average Salary is,” Investopedia, June 25, 2019
- “Millennial’s Will Become…” Forbes, 2019
- “Next Billion Dollar Start Ups” Forbes, 2020
- Peter Cappelli and Monika Hamori, “The New Road to the Top,” Harvard Business Review, January, 2005
