As American Spending Habits Change, Are Giving Patterns Also Shifting?

Americans’ approach to spending has been changing in recent years, with people placing more emphasis on buying “experiences,” such as travel or entertainment, rather than material goods, according to an article in The New York Times.

If that’s true, what are the implications for raising money, wondered Tom Belford, a long-time fund raiser, on The Agitator.

“For fund raisers, the challenge is how to create that sense of ‘experiencing’ your cause or organization and its mission or work,” he writes.

Consumers’ hunger for experiences underscores the importance of in-person events so donors can interact with a charity and with one another, writes Mr. Belford.

Social networks also allow their donors to interact with one another and share their passion for a cause, he notes. And such networks make it easy to share vivid photographs and video that are perhaps the simplest way “of transporting your donor to what your organization is doing and where,” he writes.

What do you think? Do you see signs that American spending habits are changing? What do you think it means for the nonprofit world?