An Initiative Grounded in Research and Data
The National LGBTQ Legacy Giving Initiative project is grounded in extensive research and analysis. In 2018, a National LGBTQ Planned Giving Task Force was convened with LGBTQ leaders and experts to explore the legacy-giving opportunity. After a year’s work, the Task Force issued a set of movement-wide recommendations, on which much of today’s National LGBTQ Legacy Giving Project is based. The NLLGI also incorporated learning from the nine-year LGBT Giving Project and the proven successes of LGBTQ+ and progressive organizations in incentivizing to donors to make planned gifts.
As noted throughout our research, the United States is in the midst of the largest inter-generational transfer of wealth in history. Nonprofit organizations that are well-positioned to attract estate gifts could raise unprecedented funds. Based on a recent study by Knight Frank:
- $90 trillion will be transferred over the next 20 years.
- Assuming LGBTQ people are 3% of the population, approximately $2.7 trillion of that transferred wealth is from LGBTQ estates.
- If LGBTQ nonprofits can realize just one percent (1%) of that possibility, that would mean more than $1 billion for our community every year.
Estimates of the size of wealth transfer vary widely. Yet under even the most conservative estimate that the NLLGI is aware of, that one percent of LGBTQ wealth would be more than $250 million per year.
It is probable that these estimates under-estimate the LGBTQ wealth transfer because LGBTQ+ individuals represent a uniquely promising subgroup of donors. Currently, more than 60% of LGBTQ people do not have children (unsurprisingly, the largest beneficiaries of estates). The research is clear that people without children are significantly more likely to leave charitable estate gifts—and they are more likely to leave larger ones. Additionally, millions of those now in their 50s, 60s, and 70s—members of “the Stonewall Generation,” identify powerfully as LGBTQ+, making them excellent prospects for LGBTQ-focused legacy gifts.
It’s important to note that legacy giving is an opportunity for donors as well as nonprofits. Many people considering their wills or trusts are more than glad to include the community in their plans. Deepening our nonprofits’ legacy giving capacity means that many more will have an opportunity that they might not have been aware of (or know how to do).
We have a window of opportunity to create a culture of legacy giving to LGBTQ+ organizations through the National LGBTQ Legacy Giving Initiative. This legacy would help ensure the future financial sustainability of LGBTQ+ organizations so that they can move beyond surviving and truly thrive.
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