How to Attract Younger Donors to Your Nonprofit Events

The Generational Cliff Is Real

AJ Steinberg of Queen Bee Fundraising has a name for the problem many galas are quietly facing. She calls it the generational cliff. The people who started attending a gala at 30 are now 80, and many of their friends are too tired to keep coming. "That event will either die a slow death because of attrition by the elderly patrons, or a younger group will step in and revamp it to their vision," she said.

Trevor Nelson asked the question that every board chair is thinking: how do you bring younger people in? Her answer starts with a warning against the obvious move. Dropping a few young professionals onto a long-running committee doesn't work. Older members feel threatened by new ideas, younger members feel dismissed, and both have fair complaints about how the other generation communicates. "The younger people will roll their eyes at the older people, the older people will harrumph at the younger people, and the younger people don't want to come back."

Build a Separate On-Ramp, Then Use It as Training Wheels

AJ recommends creating a dedicated emerging leaders group with its own identity, then asking its members what kind of event they'd actually want to produce for their own friends. "It's not about us saying, let's just revamp it for you. It's genuinely listening and incorporating what they want, letting them be the leads on it."

She does add guardrails. "You are the adult in the room, meaning you have to put bumpers on the side." The group can't, for example, decide to throw a foam party. But inside those limits they own the plan, and ownership builds loyalty. "That gives them an affinity towards your organization. As they grow with their careers and their pocketbooks grow, you're now stewarding them to higher levels of participation monetarily. It's also training wheels for board positions." After a few years you can see who has the commitment and skill for a board seat.

What should these events look like at the start? AJ's answer is mid-level entry points of roughly $50 to $100, built around something social where guests aren't talked at all night, such as a beer or wine tasting, a jazz night, or a comedy show. If it's done well, a first-year event can draw around 100 people. And the standard still applies. "If you want to sell tickets next year, have a good event this year."

Mini takeaway: Don't merge generations on day one. Give younger donors an event of their own to lead, then use it to bring them into the bigger room.

Treat Every Guest Like They're at a Great Restaurant

AJ's company approaches events from hospitality rather than fundraising, and she asks her teams to look at the entire experience from the moment a guest steps out of the car. "How does this make them feel special? How does this make them feel like they're part of something bigger and better than themselves? How does it make them want to stay involved with an organization?" That question, she said, belongs at the start of planning, not at the end.

She uses a bad-dinner analogy. Imagine a pricey restaurant where you wait 15 minutes at the valet, wait again at the host stand, and then a server leans over your table and talks at you for two hours. "That's basically the experience that people have with galas," she said. In her own events, a team greets guests at valet and gets their names by the time they reach registration, where their record is already pulled up. Students or people who benefit from the mission sometimes escort guests to check-in and introduce them. It works like a nice restaurant, where a staffer walks you to the restroom rather than pointing around the corner.

Trevor said he thinks of hospitality in two parts: thoughtfulness personified, like a thank-you nobody expected, and simply how you made someone feel.

One example from AJ shows how far it can go. At one event, the hotel's walk from the valet to registration was so long that older donors couldn't make it to the cocktail area. She moved cocktail tables and chairs to where they'd stopped and served them drinks right there. After the event, her team scouted the venue and found a rear entrance with its own valet station, about 10 yards from the ballroom. The next year, they turned the event around, directed everyone to the new entrance, and reserved tables for the guests who would want to sit down. People who had said they weren't coming back because of the walk came anyway.

Give Older Guests an Afterglow and Younger Guests an Afterparty

AJ doesn't recommend a loud afterparty for older donors. She calls her version an afterglow. When a gala goes well, "the lights go up and we're clearing the tables, but the people won't move," she said, so her team converts the cocktail area outside the ballroom into cocktail tables and a dessert buffet with seating. People can keep talking without being blasted by music, and the valet line has time to shrink. Her philosophy is that older guests, and she includes herself, "don't need to be entertained. I just want to talk."

The afterglow is also an opening for board members. AJ puts assignments on the timeline, and board members are told in advance that they aren't there to drink with friends at the bar. Each is assigned guests to thank, greet, and introduce to someone else. "They are goodwill ambassadors. This stuff doesn't happen by accident, but the incredible community-building effect it has is mammoth."

Younger committee members get the afterparty instead, held in a separate room next to the ballroom. They invite their own friends, free or for a nominal donation, and they run it with a great DJ or band and something memorable like an espresso ice luge or a light-painting booth. Guests who attend, and the committee members who invited them, are proud of the night rather than embarrassed by it. Next year, their friends want in. "You're starting that stewardship cycle with the younger generation."

If Your Board Won't Ask, Ask Them for a Warm Handshake

AJ also addressed the familiar complaint that the board won't help with sponsorship. Her view is that they're tired of asking, they've never been trained, and some are quietly unsure the event will be good. Her fix is a brainstorming session where the board is told they won't ask for money. "What we need is a warm handshake, an introduction. Let's all write down who our attorneys are, who our CPAs are, who we pay insurance to, who's bought or sold a property in the past couple of years."

Then the staff does the asking. The board member's only job is to tell the contact that a call is coming, and AJ says you have to tell them exactly what to say. "You've been my insurance agent for 10 years. You know I'm on the board of this organization, which is near and dear to my heart. You'll be getting a phone call from AJ, who has a great opportunity. I would love it if you would take her call." The staff member then opens with that name. Trevor loved the word-for-word script, and his advice to frustrated staff was to hold off on firing the whole board. AJ agreed. "Don't be a leader. Be a better leader. It's not their fault."

Plan for the Disaster You Hope Doesn't Come

Near the end of the conversation, AJ talked about disaster-proofing an event. In her view, no plan is perfect, but you can prepare. Her rule of thumb is to aim for sponsorships that cover 100% of event costs before the doors open, so a disruption doesn't leave the organization exposed. If something happens, check on your office, your systems, and your staff first, since people may have lost homes. Decide whether to hold, postpone, or change the event, and have your staff settle on a plan A and plan B before taking it to the board. Her own experience is a reminder that these plans matter. She lived through the 2018 wildfires and was working on a symphony gala for a community in grief, which the team reframed around healing. Donors responded with more generosity than the year before.

Her closing advice answered Trevor's usual question about what not to do. "Don't nickel and dime your events. Spend the money where you should spend it. It's our job to raise sponsorships to pay for this wonderful experience. Don't give people a subpar experience because you're afraid of the nickels and dimes."

Insights in this article are drawn from the Hey Nonprofits! podcast episode “The Modern Nonprofit's Guide to Attracting Young Donors”, featuring AJ Steinberg of Queen Bee Fundraising.