I recently read a piece about gen Z and philanthropy by the co-founders of GirlDreamer, a Birmingham-based not-for-profit supporting young women of the global majority through funding, leadership development, and community-rooted wellbeing. In it, the authors argue that UK philanthropic and grantmaking spaces are struggling to engage a generation of social organisations that are becoming increasingly sceptical of institutions that have failed to demonstrate their relevance.
“This is where good intentions become a structural problem,” they write. “Grant criteria designed around registered charities, formal accounts, and conventional project outputs consistently filter out early-stage, community-rooted founders.”
It got me thinking not only about how the funding model is not fit for purpose but also how the charity sector is in danger of feeling sluggish and old-fashioned when it comes to addressing pressing social issues. The gen Z-ers are looking at charities in the same way as teenagers look at their parents: “You had your chance, now it’s our turn.”
And this extends to fundraising. My inbox is still full of gala dinners and golf days and CEOs holding up oversized cheques. They must still work or charities wouldn’t be doing it, but somehow it feels like the final throes of an old order. No-one in the pictures is under 40.
In a recent vox pop I ran on LinkedIn about the future of fundraising, one sector leader commented: “We need to understand and tap into how gen Z and even younger generations engage in the world – they’re the future but so much of fundraising and philanthropy feels out of touch. We should be looking at how they behave, meet them where they are, and understand how they want to contribute to the world (monetarily or otherwise). But so many organisations are not doing this work.”
So, when we talk about disruption in fundraising it is not about looking for the next big thing – it’s about evolving at the same pace as the marketplace. Fundraisers have form on this, and the sector has always been dynamic, but the speed at which external change is happening is staggering. It’s not like switching from direct marketing to digital or TikTok to Twitch. Fundraisers need to consider every opportunity – from cryptocurrencies to donor-advised funds to increased collaboration to commerce, and of course, AI – or the sector will increasingly appear, to anyone under 20, as part of the problem, not the solution.
Stephen Cotterill is editor of Fundraising Magazine.
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