An aerial photo shows the scene after Typhoon Haiyan hit Leyte province, Nov. 10, 2013. The Philippine government disaster relief agency said Sunday about 4.4 million people have become homeless in areas hit by super typhoon Haiyan (local name Yolanda). It was the most powerful typhoon in the history of the Philippines.
PHILADELPHIA - Typhoon Haiyan, one of the largest storms ever recorded, hit the Philippines on Nov. 7, killing thousands and sending more than 600,000 away from their homes. The full toll is not yet known. Communications and roads are far from restored, and aid has been slow to reach stranded, isolated victims.

Could this be an opportunity for the "new philanthropy" as some call it? A chance for young people to give to charity in their own way? A moment in particular for the millennial generation, those born after 1982, to take leadership?

Digital technology has changed the face of philanthropy, for aid groups who ask for money and the people who donate money so that the aid groups can help people. More and more, donation is digital: text messaging, Facebook, websites.

The quickest way to send $10 is via text message. You can send the World Food Programme $10 by texting the word AID to a five-digit number. The word you would use to send money to the Salvation Army is TYPHOON. A click or two later and it's all done.

Quick And Easy Clicking

The Web is ready to receive money. Google "Philippines" and "aid," and about a dozen aid organization websites are posted above and to the right of your search results. You'll see ads from the International Rescue Committee and Doctors Without Borders.

If you've visited Facebook this week, you've seen an ad at the top for "Emergency Relief Donation." It says, "This donation to the American Red Cross will help those affected by the typhoon in the Philippines."

Apple even has created a way to donate via the iTunes store.

That makes it quick and easy to give. "It's about the closest you can come," says Derrick Feldmann, who helps aid groups build support for causes, "to one-click giving."

Which, you'd think, makes it ideal for mobile, smart-phoning, multiscreening millennials. Digital giving has steadily increased in popularity: A Pew Research Center survey found that as of 2011, people under 40 were just as likely to donate digitally as by other means, such as over the phone or by sending money in the mail. The Pew Research Center is a group that surveys people about big issues in the U.S.

Donating In A Big Way

Millennials surprised a lot of people during the Haiti earthquake of 2010. And they gave big again during the Japanese tsunami tidal wave disaster of 2011. Large numbers responded to the call for aid, via social media and communications tools. Thanks in part to appeals by celebs such as will.i.am, Sean Penn and Shakira, 73 percent of all donors to Haiti relief were younger than 50, according to a Pew survey.

Raising money for Haiti, says Feldmann, was successful because the media helped bring the disaster alive and make it real.

Can the suffering in the Philippines be brought alive like that?

Both emotional and sophisticated, millennials are what Feldmann calls "impulse philanthropists": "They see something on TV, the Web, their mobile device, and they decide to text some money. They're fueled by images and by emotions."

He added, "On the sophisticated side, they know exactly what digital tools to use, to find out more about the cause and 'where my money is going,' and then make their donation."

The 2012 Millennial Impact Report asked 6,522 people ages 20 to 35 about their giving patterns. Three-quarters said they had donated to a charitable cause in the last year, 63 percent said they had volunteered, and 70 percent said they'd encouraged friends to give.

Not So Self-Absorbed

Millennials are sometimes said to be self-absorbed. But the amount of them giving money proves otherwise. Millennials give less money at once, mostly $100 or less, than older groups. But younger people give more quickly.

Although they tell pollsters they would prefer to give locally, the numbers suggest millennials give to many international causes. Part of this is that YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other social media are global. Human suffering is all over the world, and social media can bring it very close.

Aaron Smith works for the Pew Research Center's Internet Project. He says millennials make philanthropic decisions based on photos, videos and calls to action on TV - and their network of friends.

"We now experience information within a network, either of people we listen to or of the Web," Smith says. "We expect it to be instant. We expect to see it, not just read about it."

And most of the time, we can.

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