Young people and regional donation drivers in Italy

Listen to the audio version of the article

II According to the Donare 3.0 study conducted by Bva Doxa for PayPal and Rete del Dono, 2023 was the worst year of the last decade: 80% of online users donated, down 4 percentage points from the previous year. Wars and the winds of inflation took their toll. But it was the young people who stopped the decline: faced with the collapse of the generosity of the baby boomers (85% of donations in 2022 and 76% in 2023, compared to 78% for the Generation), the Zetas and the millennials continue to donate (85% to 84%). “Compared to other generations, the shadow of war and the economic crisis seems to have less of an impact on the attitudes of young people to donate, who want to invest in the future, eager to participate and become protagonists of change. Volunteering participation is declining among all age groups, while it remains high among young people”, explains Valeria Vitali, founder of Rete del Dono, which raised more than 3.5 million donations on the platform last year. In fact, the number of young people who say they volunteer has remained roughly stable at 34%, despite a decline overall from 33% to 29%.

Young people, like women, have different motivations for giving. However, with the majority donating to make a difference (52%) — and a minority donating to fill a need that would otherwise go unmet (48%) — it’s Gen Z and women who are most engaged on the first front (56% for both).

Venturi: “Young people and women driving change”

“We no longer meet needs with a repair logic, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Women and young people have a drive to contribute to change, a drive that is relevant when we talk about volunteering as an evolving form of gift, which is developing in more and more ways the dimension of activism, especially for young people, which has a tendency towards social change”, comments Paolo Venturi, director of Aiccon.

Donations are strengthened when local causes are given voice

Another innovative aspect that emerged in the survey concerns territory. Online donors suggest that physical events dominate as a contact strategy, preferring them as an option in 47% of cases, compared to TV and digital donors (24% each). The Donate 3.0 survey shows that this preference unites donors of all generations, with only slight differences (46% of Millennials and Generation Z, 47% of Generation X, 48% of Baby Boomers). In particular, among direct initiatives, proximity initiatives dominate (headquarters, pavilions, events such as concerts and exhibitions). Even when you decide to donate, territoriality is a factor that is chosen frequently (31%) and even quite a lot (42%). Economist Venturi explains that “the physical dimension is relevant from two points of view – donations are strengthened when they are part of an experience, a personal meeting. In addition, donations are strengthened when they express a cause related to the area where a person lives.” In short, fundraisers must take this dimension into account and know how to integrate and remix it with digital. “The more the digital, global dimension grows, the more the physical, proximity dimension comes into play. That’s the factor Physical Digitizationdigitalization brings inside the physical, local dimension, where these two dimensions coexist “, adds Venturi. This perspective could have potential for the thousands of small associations scattered throughout the Italian territory, which could seize the new need for donors, including young people, who return to the territory, to the local, and could seize the small public causes dispersed at the local level. For a few weeks, it has also been possible to easily find third sector institutions at the local level: Italian Nonprofits has launched the first complete Italian map of nonprofits, which geolocates the institutions, activities and social causes present in each region. This result has been achieved through the introduction of a single national third sector register and the participation of the numerous public registers present in the region.

Less focus on health, more focus on disability

The value of this proximity is demonstrated by numerous area-based crowdfunding campaigns, which have even received support from distant communities. Crowdfunding remains a general donation method (up from 21% to 19%), just behind direct donations to associations (up from 63% to 60%) and solidarity donations (up from 74% to 71%).