All sorts of donors responded in all sorts of ways to the many crises of 2020. Because next gen donors — those under 50 with an historic capacity to fund change and revamp giving — are such a significant group, it is essential that we track closely what they did… and how these new or ongoing approaches might affect their future work.

In a previous blog, we summarized the findings from a national survey fielded last summer that asked over 100 next-gen donors about their responses. In this blog, four of those donors give us more detail about how 2020 affected them and how they, their peers, and their families tried to step up and help.

Q: There were a lot of crises happening in 2020 — e.g., the pandemic, economic instability, national reckoning on race and social justice, wildfires, and on and on. What kept you up at night as you lived through the last 14 months?

Sara: It would be hard to pinpoint a specific item that was consuming my sleeping hours, but I can say that it never really ebbed and flowed, it was just constant. I was deeply committed to the final stages of producing a documentary on maternal health (“Born Free”), and how it notably disproportionately affects BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and People of Color] communities. What the year has shown me, however, is that there is continued power in activism even from home and that we have now uncovered ways to do so and build stronger movements and sense of community.

Andine: The pandemic and racial reckoning of the U.S. has caused me to look deeper into the privileges, opportunities, and resources that I have inherited — to be safe, healthy, and to have the capital to contribute to communities in need. As an Indonesian-American, who did not grow up in the U.S., I learned about this country’s history of slavery, forced migration, internment camps, and the discrimination and marginalization of immigrants who came to this country with the hopes of achieving the American Dream. I also began learning about the way we identify as individuals and view each other as worthy (or unworthy) citizens of this nation. Confronting my privilege and learning about the history of this country has been hard and humbling. It’s changed the way I interact with my peers, colleagues, and communities I support. I check my biases and my assumptions about people and the situations I’m in, in part by using the mental technique of “flip it to test it.”

Victoria: I was kept up at night thinking through the role cultural institutions did and could have in either supporting or dismantling systems of white supremacy.

Joya: The issue about which I have agonized most is viral misinformation and disinformation, especially misinformation campaigns about COVID and the election. Unlike other issues I’ve grappled with over the past year — such as getting essential food and protective supplies to families in need, where tangible difference can be made in individuals’ lives — only structural changes can begin to address misinformation.

Read the full article about next-gen donors by Sharna Goldseker, Michael Moody, and Holly Honig at Johnson Center.