The Generational Echo: ’60s Kids Causing New “Boom” in Nonprofits

By Lindsay Walker

Nonprofit Quarterly
www.nonprofitquarterly.org

The startling number of babies born shortly after World War II led to what was called a “baby boom” throughout the United States. Flash forward several decades later, and perhaps there is reason to believe the term “Baby Boomer” has taken on a new meaning. According to several reports, these 50- and 60-somethings are causing yet another boom, one that is altruistic, philanthropic, and reverberating throughout entire nonprofit sector.

A 2015 study published by Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management in partnership with consulting group Age Wave specifically credits baby boomers with donating $8 trillion ($6.6 trillion in cash and $1.4 trillion in volunteer hours) over the course of the next two decades, a pleasantly astonishing figure the Nonprofit Quarterly wrote about soon after the study was released last October. However, that yearning to support a wide array of causes doesn’t just stop at dollar signs and pro bono labor. Boomers are also embarking on second wave careers as founders of their own nonprofit organizations, post-retirement. Data shows that interest among individuals between the age of 50 and 70 in building a nonprofit from the ground up has nearly doubled since 2012.

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