AMPERAGE Marketing & Fundraising

One-Minute MarketerDon’t Forget Gen X: A Powerful Force for the Future

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Don’t Forget Gen X: A Powerful Force for the Future

Have you sat in a meeting when someone says, “But what about millennials? We have to start attracting millennials.” Unfortunately, most people seem to believe that after boomers you have millennials, but there is a forgotten generation — Gen X.

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If you forget Gen X, then you are missing the gap group that is beginning to exercise its place in society. Gen Xers were born between 1965 and 1979. Gen Xers are currently 39 to 53 years old. More than 80 million people are Gen X.

Here are a few key stats about Gen X:

  • Gen X earns 31% of total US income even though Gen X only accounts for 25% of population
  • They outspend other generations for housing, clothing, eating out and entertainment
  • Gen X makes $50,400 compared with $34,420 for millennials
  • 35% of Xers have college degrees compared with 19% of millennials

If you’re getting ready for millennials, you’re going to miss an entire generation of customers, donors and stakeholders.

 

 

Written by:

Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle.

After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant.

He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.”

Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.”

One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College.

Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board.

Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.