Nonprofit-Performance-360-Vol-2-No-1-Hesselbein

Berny Dohrmann

Millennial-Focused Nonprofits Think Diffferently

M illennials are causing organizations to rethink their strategy. They are media-conditioned, new brains and have developed a wiring that is quite unique and different from earlier generations. The millennial generation requires new and different cue patterns to command their attention. Millennials, with a mode for thinking that may often frustrates the pathologies of the older generations, are changing the way we think about education, employment, career paths, and charitable strategies. They are a focused yet flexible generation who desires to move from one area of mastery to another including breaking away from one career path to pursue another. To millennials, security and retirement are a tenuous oxymoron. The United States Department of Labor predicts the new millennial market will shift employment patterns by having 15 to 25 career resume experiences before they turn age 40. Millennial entrepreneurs are typically serial entrepreneurs (or entrepreneurs that have the propensity to continually create new entities).These entrepreneurs brainstorm and build two to three year business models, sell them, and then enter into the next business opportunity.With the exception to this being entrepreneurs who are able to iterate new ventures within the confines of their existing organization. But Millennials’ entrepreneurial focus extends to their view of the nonprofit sphere as well.They are interested in what Bill Gates termed as strategic charitable giving. They have engineered a new economy shifting

using charity as the core driver without any stress loads to your existing bandwidth? • If we can enlarge your trading community using exciting press releases and our own events, featuring your sponsorship, and you can measure every dollar is returning more than a dollar for future enlargement of this plan, would you have a meal with us to explore this plan? • We can develop charitable tax repurposing in free audits that match your values to gifting and never exceed your stress load on current tax management using charity as a missing toolkit for both. • Can we schedule a meeting with you and your comptroller or treasurer over the coming 10 days just for exploration that makes bottom line sense? Confirm your meeting dates with the CEO’s permission as you book the location time and date for the meeting, and who will attend by e-mail or text, and send a GPS map to them for convenience. Demonstrate you’ll do everything, and let them feel the offloading of bandwidth from their busy time pressures. You have taken a non priority item of charitable gifting and moved tax repurposing – strategic multi-year gift planning and audit matching – to an art form for the new brain millennial buyer. Berny Dohrmann is Chairman of CEOSpace Interna- tional, the largest support organization for business owners, and the inventor of SuperTeaching, a Title 1 technology for public schools that greatly accelerates retention. Frequently speaking on stages as the guest of nations and VIP conferences, Berny is a recognized author. His latest book is Redemption: The Cooperative Revolution .

away from the old multi-decade “I” cycle that focused on hosts of individual benefit and motivations. Millennials want to be engaged in a way that brings together their funds, time, passion, and purpose with their social network and physical community. Just as they want to create business ventures, they want to be co- creators of the nonprofit organizations with which they partner. But, we won’t be able to engage this generation if we don’t understand them. Approaching Millennials requires new check lists or a new cue language. This cue language alters the entire frame work of incoming messages electronically on your web site, in print, and in personal relationship meetings. Millennial Cue Construction in approaching the Millennial with follow-up to core questions as defined in this short article, can reform your team’s approach successfully. Millennial questions to work into conversa- tions: • I know your brand profit is high when your strategic charitable gifting plan impacts growth in your core business. Have you explored how tax repurposing can deliver exciting brand enhancement over a multi-year strategic gifting plan fitting any budget large or small? • Do you know how gifting programs can dramatically impact brand awareness

16 I Nonprofit Professional Performance Magazine