Millennial Specific Techniques for Nonprofit Marketing Communications: A Messaging Study for World Relief

Nonprofit organizations are quickly catching up to for profit companies in their marketing communications endeavors. World Relief, a faith-based nonprofit organization that strives to empower the vulnerable, is one of those organizations. While they have made huge strides in recent years, they are missing the mark when it comes to reaching millennials. This thesis sought to research effective millennial specific messaging techniques and implement an integrated marketing communications (IMC) campaign using the findings. This thesis compiles research on millennials from the Pew Research Center and other sources as a background for primary research. A survey and focus group were conducted at The University of Mississippi to gain insights on how millennials want nonprofits to communicate with them. The research showed messaging that focuses on the problem at hand resonates with millennials most. Additionally, millennials are most willing to support nonprofit programs that benefit children and those affected by natural disasters. When supporting a nonprofit, millennials are most likely to volunteer, rather than donate or advocate. Somewhat surprisingly, millennials’ willingness to support a nonprofit is not affected by the organization’s association with the Christian church. This �thesis includes an IMC campaign that was created with the intent to raise awareness of refugee resettlement among millennials. Website, social media, e-mail, broadcast, and print collateral were created for World Relief in alignment with the recommendations from research