Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, and INC magazine are all targeting the Social Responsibility movement. This is the concept that corporations should be more than profit centers which are unattached to the impacts that they have on society. In fact, companies and communities are uniquely intertwined. Social responsibility blends the best of non-profit activism for social good with business strategies that recognize, integrate, and promote profit with a purpose.

I’ve been wondering why this trend has become such a hot topic in recent years. Sure, there are vague notions that technology has brought the world closer - connecting us to people who are suffering more easily. The rise of people who are searching for meaning earlier in their lives and the corporate foul-ups and lay-offs that have reduced the social contract that once drove toward profit at all costs have certainly contributed as well. I’ve seen all of these arguments. Companies work from something other than vague notions, however - they need hard data to make changes as monumental as giving profits away to social causes. So, what is driving this shift?

As in most things, it is you - Generation Y! Here’s the proof.

In an October 24, 2006 press release, Cone Inc., a corporate cause inititive agency and AMP Insights, a division of AMP Agency which is a youth-focused marketing agency produced results from a survey of 1800 Gen Y respondents. The study describes the impact that social responsibility plays in the 78 million Gen Y consumers that are coming into the marketplace. This major force is expecting more from companies than a profit - they expect companies to feel as responsible for making a difference in the world as they do, and Gen Y has the pocketbook to back it up.
Some results:

• 74% surveyed indicate they are more likely to pay attention to a company’s overall messages when they see that the company has a deep commitment to a cause.
• Nine out of 10 millenials say they are likely or very likely to switch from one brand to another (price and quality being equal) if the second brand is associated with a good cause.
• 79% of Gen Y’s want to work for a company that cares about how it impacts and contributes to society.
• 64% say their company’s social/environmental activities make them feel loyal to that company
• 56% would refuse to work for an irresponsible corporation

This loyalty to making a difference goes beyond just expecting companies to make changes, the “Doers” - millenials who actively volunteer - are even more responsive to cause branded companies. About 20% of those surveyed indicated that they volunteered at least once per week and these “doers” report that volunteering “unleashes a more engaged citizen, consumer and employee.” This improved engagement shows up as loyalty to those companies who walk their talk.

• 42% of the doers describe their “ideal” work environmment as a place that will help them make the world a better place, outranking ALL other factors including high salary (41%) and flexible hours (37%).
• 87% of the doers have purchased a product that supports a cause in the last year; that number drops to 48% for non-doers

Gen Y is a potent force for change. Many companies are taking notice. Are you?

Tina Turner had a big hit in 1984 with the song, “What’s love got to do with it?”. As I considered what I wrote on Monday, I could hear the echoes of people saying, “what’s hope got to do with the Gen Y project?”

Well, I say ALOT!

We’re in a time of great change culturally, socially, technologically, economically, politically, and personally. When all of these situations converge, it can be rather scary and uncomfortable. In times like these, hope becomes an anchor.

Let’s take this example in Fast Company. Richard Watson, in his editorial, “The Future of Newspapers” argues that newspaper subscriptions worldwide are falling. Some as much as 30% since 1960. New sources of information online are better equipped to respond to the personalized attention that we want in today’s world. In fact, some newspapers are created completely by user-driven content (OhMyNews in South Korea is an example), while others ask readers to vote on the top story of the next day.

We’re also getting our news from many different sources than just newspapers. Blogs, e-zines, targeted hobby or special interest magazines, and web sites are wisely offering more and more information specific to their users interests. They are also asking their users what they want to know more often. When was the last time that your newspaper editor asked what you wanted to see in your morning paper?

Savvy media marketers and brand loyalists understand that providing us with the information that is most relevant to us in the moment and in a way that is visually attractive, innovative, or fun can be a great way to change our behaviors. We’re social creatures. Create a community through technology, design, uncovered secrets, or unique local perspectives and a national brand or information source can become our friend. And, we stay loyal to friends who stay loyal to us.

Newspapers haven’t made this shift - yet! But, they can. And, to stay in business many will have to. Does that mean that we’ll be sipping coffee at the kitchen table with a three foot wide piece of paper in front of us everyday? No, it might be the blue-green glow of the screen, or the 2 x 3 screen of a handheld phone instead. Winners in the market of information delivery will make this shift in conjunction to their customers.
Community building through technology. Innovations through personal loyalty to customers. Shifting habits between one generation and another. These are the symptoms of a sea change in just one industry. Now imagine it happening in every industry, every day faster than the day before. This is the world that Generation Y is entering and influencing.

They hope that people will hear and understand their call for personalized information in a multitude of formats that suit their own personal style. Not because they are selfish, but because they have better things to do - like saving the world, hanging out with friends, or learning a new skill. They have hope. Shouldn’t we?

Hope.

A simple word, with profound impacts for our lives.

As humans, we crave hope. We choose hope. We legislate hope. We promote hope. We believe because of hope. And, even when our hopes are dashed in the short term, we quickly replace a failed hope with new hopes. Hope is as crucial to living a healthy life as breath, food and water.

It is a depth of hope for our world that we seek to unearth, understand, and celebrate through this project. As the Connected Generation, Gen Y, Millenials, or NextGens assume greater leadership roles, the depth of their hope to change the world is contagious to us. The abilities and knowledge they have acquired in their short time on Earth is unprecedented. Their certainty of who they are and what influence they have… and will have, is unbounded.
A synergistic combination of technological advances, improvements in education, strength of economy, and access to peace and freedom has given this generation hope that they can not only make a difference, but be different than any other previous generation. And, for one of the first times in history, this hope to BE a different generation is encouraged, supported, and honored instead of being dismissed as just “the frivolities of youth”. Marketing, music, consumer products, and organizations are in the process of shifting to embrace a new generation which wields money, influence, and hope for a better world.
At the Gen Y Project, we plan to be a purveyor of approaches which the coaching industry, organizations, and leaders can use to maximize the hope, drive and influence of this generation. Our role is to be the architects of conversations. Conversations which open people to new discoveries, possibilities and understanding of an amazing generation. We will connect visionary leaders with community change agents and content strategists to discuss and distill the essence of their experiences into practical approaches which emphasize the best this “wireless, but always connected” generation has to offer.

Through the journey that this project takes us, we seek to learn from, provoke, and empower others to hope for a better world in the hands of this generation.
We plan to offer worthwhile ideas to those who lead or work with this generation on how to communicate, listen, and value them in a more open and intuitive way. Finally, we elect to see in the eyes, voices, actions, and hearts of Generation Y, a flicker of the people that we were - and can be again - if we choose to believe in this generation and this thing called hope.