RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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It’s 2026, and the $124 trillion Great Wealth Transfer has begun. As baby boomers phase out and pass on the fortunes they’ve built to subsequent generations, a lot will change.
Namely, the old ways of philanthropic giving won’t work on younger generations, and that could be a huge problem for nonprofit organizations.
“The older generations are disproportionately providing the majority of the philanthropic dollars,” despite the Great Wealth Transfer already being fully underway, Steve Isom, chief operating and financial officer of nonprofit software company Bloomerang, told Fortune. “Everyone knows about the transfer of wealth that has happened. It’s going to be record-setting, and I think that a lot of nonprofits feel a bit paralyzed in how to tackle that problem.”
On the surface, it may be confusing why more money flowing could be a problem. But it’s because community-based nonprofits have built deep relationships with the “pillars of the community”—in other words, wealthy baby boomers, Isom explained. But the further you get from baby boomers, the lower the interest in philanthropic giving.
“The level of connection tends to wane,” said Isom, who gave the example of an organization where he’s based in Omaha, Neb. He said being involved in philanthropic giving for that organization in the 1960s and 1970s was very much a “who’s who” in town. And those same people who gave to that organization are still its major donors today.
“Now, those donors’ kids are less involved, and then those donors’ kids are like not involved at all,” he said. “So I think the challenge is how are you introducing these next generations, and what programs do you have that are pulling in the younger generation?”
And a lot of this trend has to do with a sense of belonging, trust, and community. Bloomerang’s 2026 Giving Signals Report , conducted with The Harris Poll among more than 1,000 U.S. donors and 400 fundraising leaders in March, shows millennials and Gen Z care most about giving because it makes them feel as if they are “part of something.”
That sense of belonging matters most to millennials, who the report actually pegs as the most active generation of donors right now. Three-quarters of millennials plan to give more this year than last, while just 49% of Gen X and 36% of baby boomers said the same. This is evidence of the Great Wealth Transfer in action, but it doesn’t mean they’re giving the most dollars or have become the major donor class, so to speak.
But that’s why the Great Wealth Transfer matters so much in philanthropy: Millennials stand to gain more than any other generation, according to wealth management firm Cerulli Associates. So understanding how to reach millennials and Gen Z early will translate into more dollars down the road.
That money won’t land evenly. More than half the total will come from the roughly 2% of households that are already high-net-worth or ultra-high-net-worth, the Cerulli report shows. Isom sees that concentration up close in Omaha, where he said family foundations account for about double the national average of nonprofit funding in Nebraska.
“You can kind of go to five families, and they support a lot,” he said.
Donors want the receipts
So what nonprofit organizations desperately need to do is reconfigure how and when they involve community members if they’re hoping to build long-term donors.
A big factor is building trust in organizations, especially when discretionary spending is more precious amid inflation, stagnant wages, and a higher cost of living.
“Donors are ready to trust nonprofits, but they want to see the receipts more,” Isom said. “A bit more trust, but verified.”
While the Bloomerang report shows 85% of active donors trust the organizations they donate to to use funds effectively and 97% say those organizations appear aligned with what they care about, building that trust takes time—but they want evidence their donation was worthwhile.
According to the report, 94% of donors said they’re motivated to give when an organization tells them exactly where their money goes, and 90% said the same about hearing the impact of their gift. In one test, donors chose a specific pitch of “$50 buys a week of groceries” versus a generic “every dollar makes a difference” by 88 percentage points, which illustrates that specificity in impact makes a difference.
And Isom actually runs his own test each year. On Giving Tuesday, he donates to 25 of Bloomerang’s 24,000 customers and watches what happens after the gift.
“The range of experience is shocking,” he said. Some call that day to say thank you and spell out what the gift will fund, but from others it’s crickets. “[If] you don’t feel that connection, that feedback loop isn’t there, and you’re just going to fall out,” Isom added.
Some of it comes down to why people give in the first place. Isom pointed to the slow death of workplace giving campaigns, which came during the era of giving as an obligation. That doesn’t work anymore in a younger, more remote workforce.
“People don’t feel compelled as much,” he said.
So the nonprofits that survive the Great Wealth Transfer, he argues, are the ones planting seeds now by stewarding volunteers and earning smaller donations now before they ever write a major check.
“I need to solve for today. But I also have to build for tomorrow,” Isom said about how nonprofit organizations should be thinking now.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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