I recently hosted a Moonshot Lab Masterclass coaching session with Ann Snyder, Senior Director of Communities Engagement at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, and I left with my head spinning, in the best possible way.

The conversation centered on something I've been watching closely for a while: how generational shifts, particularly among millennials, are reshaping what it means to fundraise effectively at an independent school. The implications go well beyond the development office.

Why This Matters Beyond Advancement

Before diving into what Ann shared, I want to name why I think this conversation belongs in every school leader's line of sight, not just the heads of advancement.

Revenue is one of the eight essential business competencies I use to frame independent school leadership. That competency includes tuition, but it also includes giving, events, auxiliary programs, and any other stream the school depends on for financial sustainability.

Fundraising is a revenue question. And right now, the families who represent your current and future donor base are millennials. How they think about giving is fundamentally different from the generations before them. Schools that haven't updated their approach are leaving money on the table and, in some cases, creating friction with the very families they're trying to engage.

What Ann Snyder Shared That Stopped Me in My Tracks

Ann's perspective confirmed something I've been writing about in the context of enrollment and marketing: millennial families don't respond to institutions the way their parents did. They respond to causes.

That single shift has enormous downstream effects on how schools need to think about fundraising strategy.

Millennials Give to Causes, Not Institutions

Prior generations had a strong sense of institutional loyalty. Alumni gave because they graduated from the school. Parents gave because their children attended. The institution itself carried enough weight to motivate a gift.

That model is changing. Millennials are far more likely to evaluate their giving based on whether an organization's values align with their own, not because of their relationship to the institution. They also tend to spread their giving across multiple causes rather than concentrating it with a single organization year after year.

For schools that have relied on repeat annual fund donors as the backbone of their fundraising, this is worth taking seriously. The pipeline looks different now, and expecting the same behavior from a new generation is a planning risk.

Tuition Already Feels Like the Transaction

This was the insight from Ann that I've kept coming back to. For many millennial parents, tuition is already the contribution. They're paying a significant amount for their child's education, and that transaction feels complete. If they choose to give beyond that, it's because the school has made a compelling case for why the mission itself is worth supporting, separate from the educational product being delivered.

That's a meaningful reframe. It means asking for a gift based on institutional tradition or a general sense of support is unlikely to land the way it once did. The ask has to be grounded in something bigger.

Storytelling and Impact Are No Longer Optional

The third theme Ann emphasized was one that connects directly to how I think about marketing strategy in schools. Millennial donors want to know that their contribution made a difference. Not in the abstract, but specifically. What changed because of their gift? Who benefited? How does that connect to something they actually care about?

Schools that lead with institutional needs, "we're trying to reach our annual fund goal," without translating that into concrete human impact are going to find millennial engagement harder to build. The communication has to lead with the cause and close with the impact.

The Connection to Marketing and Enrollment

This isn't a new pattern. I've been writing for a while about how millennial families are evaluating schools differently during the enrollment process. The shift from features and benefits to values alignment is already well underway in admissions. Families still want to know about college matriculation, course offerings, and signature programs, but those are increasingly table stakes. What actually moves decisions is whether the school's values resonate.

Fundraising is following the same arc. The schools that have done the work to articulate a clear, compelling mission, and to connect that mission to the issues millennial families care about, are going to be better positioned on both fronts.

This is part of why the work I do through the Business Model Retreat and the Strategy + School Operating System puts so much emphasis on understanding your school's value proposition clearly before trying to communicate it. You can't tell a compelling story about your mission if you haven't done the internal work to articulate what makes it distinct and worth supporting.

Three Practical Implications for School Leaders

Drawing from what Ann shared and the broader pattern I've been observing, here's where I'd focus attention.

Audit how you're framing your fundraising asks. Are you leading with institutional needs, or with the cause? Are you connecting the ask to something millennial donors actually care about, in their own language?

Build storytelling into your advancement calendar. Impact stories shouldn't be an afterthought after a campaign closes. They should be part of the year-round communication rhythm that builds the case for giving before the ask ever arrives.

Stop assuming loyalty and start earning it. The donors who will sustain your school over the next two decades grew up in a world with an abundance of ways to contribute to causes they believe in. Your school has to compete for that attention and that commitment. The schools that understand this early have a real advantage.

The Conversation Continues

I want to be clear that I don't have all the answers here, and Ann would be the first to say the same. What I do know is that this is exactly the kind of thinking that belongs in the Moonshot Lab, where school leaders can work through these challenges with peers and advisors who have seen what's working in real schools.

If you haven't already, the Business Competency Self-Assessment is a good starting point for thinking about where your school stands across revenue, marketing, and the other six competencies. It takes about ten minutes and tends to surface questions worth discussing.

What's your read on this? How are generational shifts showing up in your school's fundraising and family engagement? I'd genuinely like to know.