2025 Nonprofit Trends: Uniting Generations in the Workplace
One of my favorite events of 2024 was the total solar eclipse in April. While it was an astronomical marvel, it was also a great social experiment. For a brief five minutes, North Americans of all ages stopped what they were doing to gaze at the sky in collective awe. It reminded me of the joy and unity that can happen when diverse groups come together around a shared experience.
This same dynamic is playing out in our social sector workplaces today. For the first time, four generations are working together — from Baby Boomers to Zoomers (Gen Z). This dynamic has dramatically impacted our workplaces and influenced our civil discourse, families and communities.
Last year, when I was testing some of my ideas for this blog post, the convergence of generations evoked the highest emotional response from any audience. Some managers noted the challenge of bridging the generational gap to create a workplace where engagement, loyalty and productivity are high despite generational differences. Others noted the difficulty in creating common ground across teams. Younger employees, on the other hand, felt like older generations had let them down and wanted to have a voice in their workplace to make things better.
What was particularly inspirational to me, though, was that the common denominator across all four generations is their shared desire to make a difference. This moment in time presents a powerful opportunity for the social sector to capitalize on this convergence of generations to increase our impact.
Leveraging Generational Differences
Each generation is unique and has been greatly influenced by the major cultural and technological shifts of their time. According to labor statistics, the workforce now is 22% Baby Boomers, 30% Gen X, 35% Millennials, and 13% Gen Z. To showcase some of these differences, we have created a synopsis of their mantra, values and styles.
Rather than focusing on generational differences, organizations can reframe the workplace from a one-size-fits-all place (focused on the dominant culture) to a personalized experience driven by shared values and norms. A multi-generational workforce can help your organization harness creativity alongside wisdom to reimagine strategy, revitalize old processes, create better customer and client experiences, and strengthen company culture.
Shifting to Build Intergenerational Workplaces
Leading organizations are making key shifts to create positive, productive environments that harness the strength of the intergenerational workplace:
- Participatory Leadership vs. Hierarchical Leadership — While many CEOs were already shifting to participatory leadership (see our blog on Clay Mathile as one example), this generational shift has made it a strategic imperative. This style focuses on actively engaging employees in decision-making and fostering collective ownership of outcomes. It prioritizes co-creation over command and control, which means leaders need to have a strong EQ/EI (emotional quotient/emotional intelligence) as well as solid facilitation and team-building skills. For nonprofits, this also includes gathering input from diverse voices in the community to inform programs, policy and practices to ensure that they reflect the needs and values of the community.
- Psychological Safety vs. Empowerment — Coined by Dr. Amy Edmonson in 1999, psychological safety is now a top phrase used in HR circles. For individuals, it means the ability to show up without fear of negative consequences to self-image or career. For teams, it means creating a shared belief that the group is a safe space for interpersonal risk-taking. For workplaces, it is a place where people feel empowered to take risks, challenge the status quo, and bring their whole selves to work. Psychological safety is the foundation that allows empowerment to be meaningful. It can be created by nurturing a collaborative, curious and compassionate culture where everyone can be in the “learning zone” and contribute their unique talents to the collective work. Based on our informal research over the past two years, all generations benefit from this type of culture.
- Multi-Touch Communications vs. High-Touch Communications — Marketing experts know the “Rule of 7,” which means that people need to encounter a message at least seven times before they understand it and are willing to take action. This is true in advertising, but it is also true with nonprofit employees and boards. Individuals also benefit from receiving messages in their preferred communication format (e.g., email, video) and in multiple ways over varied intervals of time. We also need to follow what teachers know — the more active the engagement (e.g., Bloom’s Taxonomy), the higher the retention and learning. We are encouraging all leadership teams to take this lesson to heart in their internal and external communications.
- Collectivism vs. Individualism — America was built upon a collectivist notion of “the greater good.” Each generation has come together to add their unique spin on this notion. During World War II, we fought a common enemy, which led to “The Greatest Generation.” Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” Americans throughout our history have helped our neighbor, believed in each other and worked toward the common good. However, disconnectedness caused by the pandemic, which was reinforced by the isolating effect of technology, has shifted us further away from collectivism toward individualism — doing what is best for oneself. We notice this playing out in the workplace as well as in civil discourse and communities. Nonprofits and social sector organizations are uniquely equipped to navigate this tension, listening and learning from individuals as well as finding common ground for the collective group. We believe that a participatory leadership style coupled with radical accountability can steer us back toward “the greater good” and our collectivist roots, while still honoring the individual’s need to have their voice heard.
- Kindness vs. Niceness — We have spoken a lot about our concern that the social sector has a “niceness syndrome,” so when we saw this graphic by Justin Mecham in 2024, we adapted it for the social sector and shared it with leadership teams. It really helps clarify the difference between being kind and being nice. It also supports a culture of radical accountability, which we have noted in the past is essential for the nonprofit sector.
Looking Ahead
As leaders in the community, social sector organizations can model what it takes to bring generations together to create a stronger, more unified workforce fighting for the greater good together. As we move into 2025, we’ll use our blog to explore how the social sector can better harness the potential of a multi-generational workforce. We will also be sharing more insights on how these generational differences are shifting other aspects of our work, including marketing, fundraising and community engagement.
If you missed our nonprofit trend posts from the past 12 years, please check them out!
2022 (Global Interconnectedness)
2017 (Entrepreneurial Thinking in Nonprofits)
2014 & 2013 (21st Century Themes)
As always, if you loved what you read, share them on social media, pass them along via email and tag us. We hope you’ll share your stories with us as we chart this path forward together.
