The Wealth Transfer Playbook: Planned Giving Opportunities for Nonprofits

How nonprofits can prepare now for the next generation of giving

Over the next two decades, Cerulli Associates estimates that $124 trillion in wealth will change hands, with $18 trillion expected to go to charity.

For nonprofits, it may be the largest philanthropic opportunity of our lifetime.

I say opportunity deliberately. None of that money has a nonprofit’s name on it yet.

The organizations that benefit will be the ones donors already know and trust—both longtime supporters thinking about the legacy they want to leave and younger generations deciding which causes they want to support.

And we don’t have to wait 20 years to see it happen. Giving USA’s generational research found that between 2016 and 2022, average annual giving by Baby Boomer donors declined 12%, while Millennial donors increased their giving by 40%. Boomers still give more overall, but the shift is already underway.

Understanding how wealth is moving

Here’s where things get more interesting for fundraisers: bequests are only part of the picture.

According to Giving USA, bequest giving fell to $45.84 billion in 2024, and there’s a practical reason not to build a strategy around bequests alone. Caring.com’s 2025 Wills Survey found that only 24% of Americans have a will, down from 33% in 2022. More than half have no estate planning documents at all.

Meanwhile, National Philanthropic Trust reports that donor-advised funds held more than $251 billion in charitable assets at the end of 2023, and qualified charitable distributions from retirement accounts give donors another way to direct significant dollars to causes they care about.

Nonprofit teams don’t need to become experts in estate planning, DAFs, QCDs, and every other financial instrument. That’s not their job.

They do need to know enough to recognize the opportunity, talk about the options comfortably, and make the next step easy. If your planned giving strategy begins and ends with “remember us in your will,” you’re looking at only one part of a much bigger opportunity.

Building the planned giving pipeline

Too much planned giving still depends on the donor making the first move.

That has always struck me as a missed opportunity. If someone has supported your mission for 10 or 20 years, a conversation about the legacy they want to leave shouldn’t have to come out of nowhere.

This doesn’t mean turning every donor conversation into a discussion about estate planning. It means making planned giving a normal and visible part of the relationship. Include it in your donor communications. Make the information easy to find, and give supporters a simple way to tell you when they’ve included your organization in their plans.

Then pay attention to something that is easy to miss when fundraising gets reduced to reports and gift amounts: the depth of the relationship.

Some of your strongest planned giving prospects may not be your biggest donors today. They could be current or former volunteers, consistent donors, or people who have stayed connected to the organization for years. That history can tell you something a recent gift amount can’t.

Before looking for an entirely new pool of planned giving prospects, look closely at the people who already have a deep connection to your mission.

Know their stories, not just their giving histories. When someone eventually starts thinking about the legacy they want to leave, that knowledge—and the relationship behind it—will matter far more than a planned giving brochure.

Engaging the inheriting generation

A donor can spend decades building a relationship with an organization. Their children, on the other hand, don’t inherit that relationship along with the family’s assets. They may barely know the organization at all.

And while family foundations often operate across generations, an organization’s strongest connection is likely with the family member leading its giving today.

Relationships with the next generation can start well before wealth changes hands and frankly should: invite younger family members on a site visit, involve them in program work, or create a next-generation advisory group. The point isn’t to secure their parents’ giving for another generation. It’s to give them their own reason to care about the work.

And the appetite to give is there. Bloomerang’s 2026 Giving Signals Report found that 80% of Millennials plan to support at least one new nonprofit this year.

That’s a remarkable opportunity. A new generation of donors will choose where to put its time, attention, and money. The organizations building genuine relationships with them now will have a much better chance of being top of the list.

Start your planned giving strategy before the wealth moves

Look at the supporters who have been with you for years. Is planned giving part of the conversation? Is it easy for someone to understand their options and tell you they’ve included your organization in their plans? If a family has supported you for decades, how well do you know the next generation?

None of this is particularly complicated. But it does take time.

You cannot manufacture a 20-year donor relationship when someone begins updating an estate plan. The same is true across generations. If you want your mission to be part of someone’s plans for the future, start building that relationship now.