Proof of Concept – EVERY Nonprofit Should Be Focused on Estate/Planned Giving
The recent report on St. Jude Children's Research Hospital securing $4.5 billion in bequest commitments over a decade is not just a headline. It is a clear validation of something many of us have been saying for years. The real opportunity in philanthropy is not sitting in checking accounts. It is held in assets.
For most of my career, I have made the case that fundraising strategies overly centered on cash miss the larger reality. Roughly 85 percent of wealth in the United States is held in non-liquid forms. Real estate, retirement accounts, closely held businesses, and insurance policies dominate the balance sheet of most families. Cash is a small slice.
When organizations focus only on annual gifts, they are competing for that smaller slice. When they build serious planned giving programs, they access the other 85 percent.
That is the context in which St. Jude’s accomplishment should be viewed. They did not just raise money. They aligned their strategy with how wealth actually exists.
Their approach reflects several principles that show up consistently in high performing programs. Planned giving is treated as a core growth strategy, not a side conversation. Bequests are positioned as the entry point, which lowers complexity and increases participation. Conversations are driven by donor intent rather than technical structures.
This matters because most donors are not thinking first about tax optimization. They are thinking about impact, legacy, and what their life represents over time. The most effective programs understand that second and third gifts are not about what the donor can do for the organization. They are about what the organization can help the donor accomplish.
There is also a timing issue that cannot be ignored. Over the next two decades, more than $80 trillion is expected to transfer between generations. Even conservative estimates suggest that between 11 and 14 percent of that will go to nonprofits. The organizations that build disciplined planned giving programs today will be the ones positioned to benefit from that shift.
St. Jude’s results are a scaled example of what happens when this work is done consistently. They normalized the idea of including the organization in an estate plan. They invested in long term relationships. They made the conversation accessible. None of that is complicated, but it does require commitment and clarity.
There is a practical takeaway here. If most of the wealth is in assets, then the primary question for any organization is whether it has a strategy to engage those assets. Planned giving is not a technical specialty reserved for a small group of donors. It is the most direct path to aligning donor capacity with donor intent.
The organizations that recognize this will not just raise more. They will build more durable and more meaningful partnerships with the people they serve.
