Millennials don’t want to call themselves philanthropists

Engaging donors means understanding their motivations and many of the new generation do not want to see themselves simply as wealthy benefactors.
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Roman philanthropist Herodes Atticus – a model whose time has been. 

The term philanthropist, it seems, is getting a bad rep. The next generation of philanthropists at this year’s Philanthropy Australia conference made it perfectly clear that they would prefer to be known as ‘change-makers’ or ‘social entrepreneurs’, and so, are ‘consciously uncoupling’ from being known as philanthropists. It appears today, as discussed at the Conference, the title of philanthropist is marred with out-of-date connotations for this next-gen crowd and does not reflect their modes of giving.

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Marisa Mandile
About the Author
Marisa Mandile is a Management Consultant at Philanthropy Squared.