The results are in from a national survey entitled “Next Gen Donors: The Future of Jewish Giving,” and they are more positive than some had feared. But they also indicate that American Jews in their 20s and 30s are not as enthusiastic about giving to specifically Jewish organizations as their parents.
As Managing Editor Robert Goldblum reports this week (see Page 1), 65 percent of the young donors reported giving to religious and faith-based causes, and the only category that ranked higher was education (73) percent. Seventy-eight percent of the parents and grandparents of today’s young people reported giving to religious and faith-based causes.
“While Jewish next gen donors do give less to Jewish causes than they perceive that their parents and grandparents do, our findings suggest that the community concern is overblown,” the authors of the study noted.
A key finding is that young people care more about causes than organizations, and they are less inclined to take a parochial view when it comes to choosing which groups to support.
The study, a collaborative effort among the nonprofit group 21/64, the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy and the Jewish Funders Network, did not ask directly about giving to Israel, which remains a concern for the Jewish establishment. But it provides a number of insights about the priorities and style of younger Jews, and it will be important for fundraisers to study carefully, and adjust accordingly.
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