00:00A new survey from GoFundMe found that Gen Z are giving back more than previous generations.
00:05About 71 percent of Gen Z reported some form of giving in just the past week.
00:10That's also higher than other adults. 71 percent. I mean, that is huge.
00:14They were also more likely to give money despite being more likely to have lower incomes.
00:19GoFundMe co-founder and CEO Tim Cadogan joins us now to discuss.
00:23Tim, I'm still struggling with this number. 71 percent. That's huge. What's behind it?
00:29Yeah. So it's fascinating, isn't it? So we see a lot of activity on GoFundMe from Gen Z.
00:33We wanted to understand it more deeply. So actually, we did this survey together with Giving Tuesday,
00:38which is an amazing organization, has one of the best data infrastructures in the world.
00:43And it's actually a study that was carried over 10,000 people over a year looking at their behavior in
00:49the past week.
00:50And you hit it like Gen Z, which sometimes I think people think they care and they're loud,
00:55but they don't actually give that much. That is wrong. They give more than any other generation.
01:01You hit the highlight stat there, 71 percent. That's six points more than any other group of adults.
01:07And what's fascinating is that applies to every single kind of giving.
01:13That's cash giving, giving to individuals, giving to nonprofits, donating goods in kind.
01:18It's an amazing level of generosity that we're seeing. And we'll talk a little bit more about how that manifests
01:24itself.
01:25I was going to say, is there specific areas you're seeing that more in?
01:28Is it like individual medical needs, educational, environmental, political causes?
01:33What seems to be the dominating force?
01:35Well, it's actually across causes, but we see a couple of things that are very different.
01:41So Gen Z is more shaped by their friends and their family who influence their decisions, their actions and their
01:49perceptions.
01:50That's about 57 percent of Gen Z say that's the primary influence versus 43 percent for other adults.
01:56What that tells us is that giving generosity is more personal, more networked, and it's also a lot more participatory.
02:04So they're using platforms like GoFundMe a lot more.
02:08And when a Gen Z person uses GoFundMe, then 91 percent of those folks are likely to give to nonprofits.
02:15It's about 16 points more than Gen Z folks that don't.
02:20So it's a lot more personal, a lot more participatory, and a lot more public as well.
02:25When I think of personal, I'd assume that a lot of this is happening via social media, Tim.
02:29Like, for example, I'm obsessed with following any sort of dog rescue page.
02:34I watch every single video.
02:35I cry every single time.
02:37And a lot of them will have GoFundMes, like help fund this dog who needs, you know, like an ear
02:42treatment or something like that.
02:43And, you know, I myself am a sucker for those kinds of things.
02:46How much of this is just social media tugging at our heartstrings?
02:50Well, I'll just tell you, I've been on a search and rescue team for 15 years.
02:54And when we would do a dog rescue, it would get a lot more attention than a human rescue.
02:59So you're absolutely in the majority there.
03:02Social media is very effective for sharing.
03:07And for Gen Z, telling people what they're thinking, telling people what they're feeling, expressing their identity through action is
03:15more important than any other generation.
03:16So actually, in another study we did, we found that a Gen Z person is 10 times more likely to
03:23share a fundraiser than a boomer.
03:2610x, that's exponential.
03:27So you're absolutely right.
03:29And it gives people a way to communicate.
03:31And it also allows trust to flow in new ways.
03:36It's because, as you know, trust has shifted a little bit from institutions to individuals.
03:41Social media allows people to do that very powerfully.
03:44If you are then seeing, again, this more like individual kind of focused giving, is there any aspect where that
03:53kind of takes away from registered nonprofits?
03:56Could this be an issue for them?
03:57Yeah, it's the fascinating thing is it is the opposite.
04:01So we see that people who participate give more.
04:05In fact, Gen Z is 8% more likely to promote and advocate for a nonprofit.
04:12So we see higher giving both to individuals and to nonprofits.
04:17And you're bringing up this sort of there has been a perception in the past that maybe this is a
04:21zero sum game.
04:22It's not.
04:23It's a positive sum game.
04:25Giving to individuals and giving to nonprofits is not competitive.
04:29It's actually connected.
04:30And the storytelling that goes between those two things is a really powerful part of this.
04:36So it actually builds upon itself.
04:38And very often, giving to an individual, which is often a friend and a relative, becomes an on-ramp to
04:45giving to the organizations that work on the issues that their friend or relative might be dealing with.
04:50So what we're seeing is the most progressive nonprofits, and I'm just fresh back from a week in Chicago with
04:57hundreds of our nonprofit leaders at one of our biggest events, is they are leaning into these more participatory, networked,
05:05engaged ways of giving.
05:08Okay, so we've been – I know this report is over Gen Z, so we've rightly been giving them a
05:13lot of attention.
05:13I'm going to assume that our viewers are mostly millennials and Gen X.
05:16Tim, how are they doing in this?
05:19They're doing well as well.
05:20In a way, this is not just about Gen Z.
05:23We are seeing these behaviors – more personal, more networked, more participatory, more sharing – actually increase across all generations
05:33because we are becoming more digital.
05:36Trust is shifting for all generations.
05:39So these guys are just the most digitally native.
05:42They're the most they've brought up in this world.
05:45Remember, this is folks 14 to 29.
05:47But we're seeing these trends across the board.
05:49And so what we're advising our nonprofit customers in lean into this and these trends, not just because it's going
05:57to drive engagement with Gen Z, who you need to think of more as supporters and amplifiers, not just donors,
06:04but lean into it for all classes of your users.
06:07So we're seeing these trends elsewhere, but they are most pronounced in this group.
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