Older Donors Are More Likely to Give Nonprofits Unrestricted Gifts

Brian Sagrestano has one message for charities that dream of building a bigger endowment through donations: Work quickly.

Mr. Sagrestano, a New Hartford, N.Y., fundraising consultant, says that only people in their 70s and older are apt to trust charities enough to be inclined to make gifts or leave bequests for endowments.

Even the baby boomers—the oldest of which are now 67—like to restrict their gifts and see the impact of their donations. So charities hoping for large unrestricted gifts or endowment gifts should focus on people born before 1946, he says.

A ‘Golden Era’ for Bequests

Because people in their 70s and older are the most likely to put charities in their wills, he says that the next decade or so will probably be “the golden era of raising money for endowments through bequests.”

But, he says, “Once this transfer of wealth is finished, it’s going to be much more difficult.”

Even the older generations haven’t provided quite the windfall for charities that many envisioned.

In the 1990s, wealth-transfer scholars at Boston College predicted that $1.7-trillion in bequests would go to charities by 2017—a number that one of the study’s authors, Paul Schervish, now concedes won’t be reached. However, he says much of the shortfall can be explained by an increase in giving by donors during their lifetimes.

Joy Siegel, a fundraising consultant and adjunct professor at Florida Atlantic University, says too many charities cozied up to financial advisers based upon what turned out to be inaccurate bequest predictions, and sacrificed their stewardship of both older and younger donors as a result.

“It became the Bible of the future—the bequests were where the income would come from,” Ms. Siegel says. “But you can’t put all your eggs in one basket. You have to get to know the donors yourself.”

Face to Face

Even with older donors, technology can be one way for charities to build and maintain relationships.

Some charities and colleges, such as Tufts University and Chapman University, have created Facebook pages focused on planned giving that help to sustain the interest of donors who have already made generous gifts. Such approaches will only grow in importance: Baby boomers already say they are more likely to give online than by direct mail, according to a study of generational giving released this month by Edge Research, Sea Change Strategies, and Target Analytics. But the older generations still like to work out donations in person.

Robert Wahlers, senior director of development at Meridian Health, a nonprofit hospital system in New Jersey, says a 94-year-old woman who has established four charitable gift annuities (in which a donor makes a gift and in return receives fixed payments during his or her lifetime) at Meridian called him last month saying she wanted to have lunch.

“To sit and talk about current issues of the day—that is more important in stewardship than anything else with this generation,” Mr. Wahlers says. “I’m sure that’s what has led to us receiving repeat gifts.”