Hispanics now largest minority group among U.S. 4-year university students

Hispanics are now the largest minority group among the nation’s four-year college and university students. And for the first time, Hispanics made up one-quarter (25.2%) of 18- to 24-year-old students enrolled in two-year colleges, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

In public schools, Hispanics also reached new milestones. For the first time, one-in-four (24.7%) public elementary school students were Hispanic, following similar milestones reached recently by Hispanics among public kindergarten students (in 2007) and public nursery school students (in 2006).

Among all pre-K through 12^th grade public school students, a record 23.9% were Hispanic in 2011.

Population growth alone does not explain all the enrollment gains as high school completion rate among Hispanics is also at a new high. According to the Pew Hispanic analysis, 76.3% of all Hispanics ages 18 to 24 had a high school diploma or a General Educational Development (GED) degree in 2011, up from 72.8% in 2010. And among these high school graduates, a record share—nearly half (45.6%)—is enrolled in two-year or four-year colleges.

Non-profits, Foundations need Latino Donors to Make up for Existing Boomer Donor Base

Philanthropic organizations and nonprofits face a long-term challenge as most have a donor that is overwhelmingly made up aging Anglo Baby Boomers.  Their future is based on making themselves relevant to Hispanics as the fastest-growing demographic in a way that's relevant to them, says an article in MediaPost.

The article's author, Jose Villa, points out some facts that track with research and strategic marketing planning I've been involved with for non-profits and a major community foundation.  Specifically, that most Hispanics are generous in their giving, but do so in non-traditional ways and give to organizations close to them, such as a church.  Most have no family history or connection to charitable organizations and other nonprofit organizations.

Mr. Villa suggests a few ways philanthropic and non-profit organizations can start to make themselves relevant such as:

• Make your work (product, service, etc.) relevant to Hispanics (and other ethnic groups) and particularly young Hispanics. You may not have an“H” or “L” in your name (e.g., LULAC, HSF, NALEO, etc.), but you need to start to think and act like a Hispanic-serving organization.
• Make sure you hire and retrain staff who understand (and represent) younger Hispanics.
• Create opportunities for Hispanics to take leadership roles in your organization.
• Invest in understanding how to make your brand, marketing and communications inherently cross-cultural.
• You probably already have an existing Hispanic constituency. Identify it, empower it, and use them as your ambassadors, or “emisarios,” out to their large network of Hispanics.
• Make your organization digital at its core – live where young multicultural audiences live. Go where younger Hispanics are. That’s in social, mobile and the broader digital world.

The above suggestions are great, but they are largely tactical. What I suggest is that the first step be to stop talking about credibly reaching out to Hispanics make it a business imperative by getting buy-in from the leadership and the board.  Not much will happen without that, despite the best intentions of those in the organization.

Also, start with a plan.  Hire experts to develop a strategic marketing plan so that the entire organization is on the same page, and resources are allocated appropriately based on segments identified. Buy-in has to start at the top and permeate throughout the organization ... and everyone needs to be operating from the same plan.

Hispanic Millennials and Mobile Usage

More than 40% of Hispanics have smartphones, and that figure is expected to rise to 63% by 2016 with the Hispanic Millennial segment as the driving force, according to an Insight Tr3s article.  Other good insights from the article are that Hispanic Millenials are:

• Nearly twice as likely to get online at home using a phone. 50% of Hispanics 18 to 29 use a phone for Internet access at home, vs. 27% of Hispanics 30 to 49.

• More active in using their phones to connect with others. Hispanics 18 to 29 are significantly more likely than thirty- and forty-somethings to be heavy social media users, as well as to agree with statements like, “I like to be connected to my friends and family wherever I am,” “Texting is just as meaningful as an actual conversation with a person on the phone,” “My cell phone connects me to my social world,” and, “My friendships would not be as close without my cell phone.”

• More interested in status and what their phone says about them. Having the latest technology confers status among younger Hispanics. Compared with the older group, they heavily over-index in agreeing with statements like, “My cell phone is an expression of who I am” and “I’m always the first among my friends to have the latest electronic equipment.”

• More likely to use their phone to get information. The younger group is far more likely to agree with statements like, “I use information from my cell phone to decide where to go or what to do in my free time” and “I rely on my cell phone to keep up with news or sports.”

• More receptive to mobile advertising. Hispanics 18 to 29 are more likely than those 30 to 49 to agree with statements like “I am willing to accept advertisements sent to my cell phone if I were to receive something of value in exchange” and “I would be interested in a service that would let me use my cell phone to make purchases in a store.”

Pew launches year-long look at Millenials

The Pew Research Center announced they will launch new nationwide surveys in 2010 to probe more deeply into Millennial personality traits. In addition, they will look closely at the diversity among the Millennials themselves.

Even without further research, we already know a few big things about the Millennials, according to Pew:

• They are the most ethnically and racially diverse cohort of youth in the nation's history. Among those ages 13 to 29: 18.5% are Hispanic; 14.2% are black; 4.3% are Asian; 3.2% are mixed race or other; and 59.8%, a record low, are white.
• They are starting out as the most politically progressive age group in modern history. In the 2008 election, Millennials voted for Barack Obama over John McCain by 66%-32%, while adults ages 30 and over split their votes 50%-49%. In the four decades since the development of Election Day exit polling, this is the largest gap ever seen in a presidential election between the votes of those under and over age 30.
• They are the first generation in human history who regard behaviors like tweeting and texting, along with websites like Facebook, YouTube, Google and Wikipedia, not as astonishing innovations of the digital era, but as everyday parts of their social lives and their search for understanding.
• They are the least religiously observant youths since survey research began charting religious behavior.
• They are more inclined toward trust in institutions than were either of their two predecessor generations -- Gen Xers (who are now ages 30 to 45) and Baby Boomers (now ages 46 to 64) when they were coming of age.