By: Melissa Bienenfeld
Did you know that Millennials are poised to inherit a significant chunk of change in the coming years from their Boomer parents? The fact that most Jewish nonprofits completely ignore this age group is not only mind-boggling, but a complete lack of foresight. Since we launched in the Winter of 2020, we have been constantly adding new features and improving our product for Millennial and Gen-Z users. Here are a few of our major takeaways over the past year about the current trends in Jewish next generation giving:
Jewish Millennials care about a lot of different things:
60% of funds on MyTzedakah support 8 charities or more, and 90% of funds support 5 causes or more. We know that our users love to vary their giving to a spectrum of different causes. Unlike Boomers, who give very pragmatically and to very specific organizations, our data shows that Millennials care about supporting a wide variety of movements. Millennials are optimistic and genuinely believe that they can impact the world, and they want to make sure their charity is a testament to their varied value systems.
Health and Welfare is our most popular category of charities:
Not only do we have the most number of charities in this category on the platform, but it is also the most popular category for our donors. 87% of all funds have at least one organization that falls under ‘Health and Welfare’. The causes that pull at the heartstrings of younger generation donors are the ones that answer to bigger problems in society.
Women are more likely to create a fund than men:
45% of our fund owners are women, 30% couples/ families and 25% men. This is consistent with general giving trends that women are more likely to be charitable than men. What’s interesting here is that women’s causes are particularly interesting to female donors. 85% of our female and family owned funds donate to 2 or more women’s causes. Considering the demographic of our donors, it should come as no surprise that organizations dealing with fertility in the Jewish community are widely supported. As many of our users are in child-bearing age, statistically speaking either they themselves or a friend is going through or has gone through fertility challenges. What we are seeing here actually contradicts some general trends in which women’s charities are supported far less than other causes. Our younger generation donors care about supporting causes that are relatable to them.
Our donors love learning about new organizations from the MyTzedakah Fund marketplace:
While our donors are likely to come to the platform from organizations that they recognize, 90% of donors add organizations to their funds that they have either never heard of before, or have never donated to before. At MyTzedakah Fund, we want the donor to be in charge of where their money goes. They get to decide if they want to support smaller local organizations, or larger well-oiled machines. Because of that, we are constantly working toward curating a wide variety of options for donors.
Here’s some additional things we have learned:
65% of survey respondents include synagogue fees and day school tuition as a part of their charitable giving. When asked about motivation for giving charity, 85% responded that the religious obligation is highly motivating, while receiving tax benefits is only important to 25% of respondents. 76% of users highly appreciate engagement from the charities they support. Millennials and Gen-Zs care more about impact and causes as opposed to supporting a specific organization.