generations will not be abandoned. In fact, as we will see, many next gen donors have a genuine respect for the legacy of past donors. Perhaps the most encouraging news is how focused Generation Impact is on finally making substantial progress on long‐entrenched social problems. We welcome that as good news. It portends a more effective role for philanthropy in our world in the future.
Still, even a respectful revolution can break things it didn't mean to break. We need to be informed and vigilant to make the most of the coming Impact Revolution.
Who Are These Gen Xers and Millennials?
No doubt most of what you've heard about these generations wouldn't inspire much confidence in how the major donors among them will respond to their tremendous privilege and opportunity to make an impact. But a closer look reveals a nuanced picture of their generational personalities.
The Gen X Generation (born between 1965 and 1980) is the smallest of the generational cohorts alive today, stuck between the much larger and more widely scrutinized Baby Boomers and Millennials. Influenced in their formative years by Watergate, the Iran‐Contra affair, the rise of AIDS, the War on Drugs, and the tripling of the divorce rate, Gen Xers in the United States are often seen as distrustful of traditional institutions – from government to marriage – and more cynical than Boomers about the possibility of mass social change. They are supposedly “slackers,” individualists who want to be left alone to “do their own thing.” The label “Gen X” itself was originally meant to signal their apparent apathy about big movements and causes and their lack of a defining, collective passion or identity.12
But this image of Gen Xers has softened over the years. What was mistaken initially for apathy is now seen more as a resourcefulness and desire to effect quieter but more lasting social changes. Gen Xers don't wait for movements or big institutions to solve the challenges of the day, nor do they wait for Boomers to retire to step into leadership roles. As the first “latchkey kids,” they are independent and adept at coming up with their own solutions. For example, while Boomers were still chairing the boards of major nonprofit institutions in the United States, Gen Xers were creating new organizations (Teach For America and the Knowledge Is Power Program, also known as KIPP Schools, for example) to solve pressing problems in our country.
The Millennial Generation (a.k.a. Gen Y, born between 1980 and 1995) garners much more attention and speculation than Gen X, in part because it is the largest generation over age 21 today, and one with massive purchasing power. Growing up as impressionable witnesses to the Columbine and Oklahoma City tragedies, Hurricane Katrina, and of course the 9/11 attacks, American Millennials experienced trauma on their own soil unlike any generation since the Civil War. But they also grew up with the Internet, cell phones, and social networking and saw both the financial boom of the 1990s and the recession that followed. Raised by helicopter parents trying to protect them from these traumas and handing out trophies for participating rather than winning, Millennials have come to be seen as the Selfie Generation – narcissistic and entitled.
But this unflattering view has changed as more Millennials have come into adulthood. Research has shown them to be much more socially conscious and interested in collective social engagement than originally thought. They expect corporations to be socially responsible, and they see technology as a tool for human progress. They use their horizontal, social‐network mentality to harness their peers for anything and everything, including social change. Raised to believe they can do whatever they want, Millennials now take that to mean they can change the world; better yet, they want to do so together. Maybe those participation trophies weren't such a bad idea after all.
If these are the generational personalities that inform how Gen Xers and Millennials in general engage in the world, will the major donors from these generations act and think along these lines? There is a growing body of research (cited throughout this book) on high‐net‐worth donors and lots of biographical accounts of big donors, but that research is focused almost exclusively on older generations. The social commentary on big Gen X and Millennial donors, by contrast, has mostly been about broad generational trends and/or based on second‐ and third‐hand sources. We haven't heard much from major next gen donors themselves, much less in their own words.
This book fills that gap, pulling back the curtain to reveal the next gen, posing questions directly to the donors of Generation Impact – people like Hadi Partovi, Hannah Quimby, and Alexander Soros – and recording their musings verbatim.
Hadi Partovi was born in Tehran, studied computer science at Harvard, and enjoyed tremendous success as a tech entrepreneur and early investor in companies like Facebook, Dropbox, and Airbnb. But instead of devoting himself to building an even bigger fortune, Hadi now funnels that business savvy into his work as CEO, cofounder, and principal donor to the nonprofit Code.org, pouring every asset he has – monetary or otherwise – into Code.org's mission of expanding access to computer science, especially for women and students of color.
Hannah Quimby spent her early years with her twin brother in rural Maine, in a cabin without electricity or running water. Her mother, Roxanne, met a beekeeper named Burt while hitchhiking, and over time built their small lip balm business into the Burt's Bees phenomenon. The Quimby family is now one of the largest philanthropic funders in Maine, and Hannah has taken the lead, determined to invest the family's resources in grassroots, hands‐on ways.
Alexander Soros is a PhD student in history at Cal‐Berkeley. But he is unlike his fellow students in notable ways. For one, he is studying Jewish intellectuals, a research subject he feels connected to because of his own heritage. And two, he is shaping history around the world through his own activist style of giving and through his roles in the global foundations created by his father, billionaire investor George Soros.
These three next gen donors, featured in later chapters, help illustrate how they and their peers will be the most significant philanthropists ever, not just because of how much they will give but because of how they intend to give.
To be clear, when we say the rising generation of big donors will be the most significant philanthropists ever, we are not saying that younger Gen Xers and maturing Millennials are more philanthropically minded or generous of spirit than previous generations.13 Plenty of people in their 20s and 30s – and plenty of wealthy young people – are not all that interested in philanthropy. In fact, the historic wealth concentration might mean we'll see even more stories of inordinately wealthy young people making non‐philanthropic choices (even downright misanthropic choices), relishing their position on top of the steep economic ladder without doing anything to help those below them.
But the fact remains that those members of the Gen X and Millennial generations who do want to give will have the unparalleled assets and entrepreneurial mindset to become the biggest, most influential donors in history.14 And many of them want to give now, so how they approach their giving is already starting to change things. They see waiting until they retire to start writing donation checks as uninspiring and uninspired. They want to give throughout their lives. And they want to give in new ways from the very start.
These next gen donors want to “do good” in their personal and professional lives, as well as philanthropically. Whether as investors, consumers, employers, business professionals, or volunteers, they want all their assets directed toward effecting social change, and they're willing to invest their expertise, time, and networks in addition to their financial largesse. They care less about having their names on a building and more about being inside the building or “on the ground,” sleeves rolled up, helping to solve problems. They want to use every tool available to meet their goals, including working closely with peers to achieve their visions.
This complex picture of the Gen X and Millennial generational personalities emerges from the considerable cultural commentary and limited scholarly research on these generations. See, for instance, Paul Taylor,
There is some emerging evidence that, on the whole, Gen Xers and Millennials are giving slightly less than previous generations at the same time in their lives. But this finding is for people of all levels of wealth in these generations, not those at the top end. Interestingly, this finding also seems to be true for men only, not women. See Women's Philanthropy Institute,
Our focus in this book is on the next gen donors who are most active and reflective about their giving at this stage in their lives. See Chapter 12 and the Appendix for the implications – positive and negative – of this limitation of our study.
