Emerging leaders and united way: reaching millennial for philanthropy grooms them for corporate citizenship.

• Author: Sharpe, Margaret
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Corporate 100

"Millennials" is a term loosely defined as those born between 1980 and the early 2000s. Not since the Baby Boomers-- born between 1946 and 1964--has there been a demographic as large and with the potential to truly effect change in their community. The Council of Economic Advisers stated in their October 2014 report that Millennials are the largest generation in the United States and represent one-third of the US population. Mei Cobb, director of Volunteer and Employee Engagement at United Way Worldwide, says they will make up 50 percent of the workforce by 2020.

Those are powerful numbers. So how does one inspire a group this large to become the next generation of philanthropic and business leaders in Anchorage? United Way of Anchorage has introduced a program aimed at guiding Millennials (also known as Generation Y) in a direction toward investment in their community by offering career enhancement as incentive.

United Way of Anchorage's Laura Brown, senior director of communications, describes how they are engaging Millennials through a program called Emerging Leaders. "Basically the Emerging Leaders program is our lead to reach out to Millennials and includes a lot of programming for activities like professional development, networking events, access to senior community leaders, our board of directors, and volunteering and social events."

One of the challenges United Way corporate partners have expressed is that young professionals sometimes struggle when they move here from the Lower 48. Often transfers don't stay because they don't feel part of the community. "We believe that their voice and their participation in philanthropy are really important. And we want to engage them in the community, engage them in our work, and bring them into the fold so that they can start out as philanthropic givers and participants in community projects right away, at the beginning of their careers, and become life-long philanthropists," Brown says.

Social Issue Education

"It's really a matter of educating them and getting them aware of the complex social issues that we have up here in Anchorage and how it is the community's responsibility. The Emerging Leaders program aims to make them more involved citizens," Brown adds. "In theory, when you are integrated in your community, that will spill into other parts of your life. The goal is to encourage them to build a life up here and become a part of Anchorage. As a result, the employers benefit because they are also grooming these people, and hopefully they will stay."

Jenna Hooley, an account manager at Spawn Ideas, Inc., is a volunteer and co-chairs Emerging Leaders' Advisory Council with Ann Penniston. She learned of the program through a friend...