The New Face of Philanthropy: The Role of Intrinsic Motivation in Millennials’ Attitudes and Intent to Donate to Charitable Organizations

Nonprofits must gain millennials as lifelong donors for future sustainability. The current study aims to analyze the millennials and their intrinsic motivation (Deci et al., 1994), attitudes toward helping others, attitudes toward charitable organizations (Webb et al., 2000), and millennials intent to donate (Bearden et al., 1984) to these organizations. Results indicate that intrinsic motivation is moderately and positively related to attitudes toward helping others. Attitudes toward charitable organizations is moderately strong and positively related to intent to donate. Suggestions toward engaging and motivating millennials include volunteer work that is interesting, enjoyable and valuable to millennials. This study supports previous research on millennials while providing new avenues to engage them such as technology-based solicitations, generational comparative analysis, and intracohort analysis. The implications of this study suggest innovative ways of fundraising such as crowdfunding and social alliances that not-for-profits can tap into to motivate millennials to donate their time and money to their causes.