Hook & Context
Most of the gifts in your CRM have already happened. A legacy gift is different. It is a promise that may not arrive for ten or twenty years, and in many cases you will never hear about it until an executor calls.
That makes legacy giving one of the easiest revenue streams to lose track of, and one of the most valuable to get right. In the U.S., Giving USA reports that bequest giving rose nearly 20% in 2025, the largest increase of any source of giving. According to Candid, bequests reached $62.19 billion, or 10% of all U.S. giving.
Canada shows the same opportunity. The Legacy Landscape 2026 report estimates that 1.3 million Canadians have already left $180 billion to charities, with another 1.1 million preparing to leave another $156 billion over the next five years.
The question for small and mid-sized charities is not whether legacy gifts matter. It is whether your database can tell you who has made one, who is thinking about one, and what you have promised in return.
Insight & Analysis
Legacy giving breaks the normal rules of a donor database. Three problems come up again and again.
Most legacy donors never tell you
The first problem is visibility. A UK study reported by UK Fundraising found that almost one in five charity donors aged 40 and over have left a gift in their will, but only half of them say they have told the charities involved. The UK is a different market, but the lesson carries over: a large share of your future legacy revenue is likely invisible today.
Legacy donors are often not your biggest donors
The second problem is targeting. Many charities look for legacy prospects among their largest donors. But research summarized by Stelter shows that 7% of Americans aged 40 and older already name nonprofits in their wills, with more saying they plan to. Bequests come from people across the income range, and loyalty usually matters more than gift size. A donor who has given $40 a year for twelve years may be a much better legacy prospect than someone who gave $5,000 once.
Intentions are not revenue
The third problem is reporting. A donor saying "I've included you in my will" is not the same as a gift in hand. Wills change, estates shrink, and amounts are often unknown. If legacy intentions are mixed in with pledges or counted at face value, your board will get a misleading picture of future revenue. Bloomerang warns that if you do not track intentions, communicate with families, and steward commitments, you can miss transformative future support.
The fix is to treat legacy giving as its own stage in the CRM, with its own fields, statuses, and stewardship plan.
Actionable Steps
1. Create a dedicated legacy status field
Do not rely on a free-text note or a generic tag. Add a single field to every constituent record with clear statuses:
- Prospect: Shows strong loyalty or interest, no conversation yet
- Considering: Has asked about legacy giving or requested information
- Intention (unconfirmed): Has told you they plan to include you
- Confirmed: Has provided documentation or details of the gift
- Realized: The estate gift has been received
- Declined: Has told you they do not plan to include you
This one field lets you pull a clean list at any time and see how your pipeline is moving.
2. Record the gift details you actually know
For intentions and confirmed gifts, capture what you can without pressuring the donor:
- Gift vehicle (will, beneficiary designation, life insurance, other)
- Type (fixed amount, percentage, residual, unknown)
- Estimated value, if the donor shared it
- Any restriction or purpose the donor requested
- Date you learned about the gift and who recorded it
- Whether you have documentation
Keep estimated values in a separate field from your pledge or gift totals. That way legacy expectancies never get counted as current revenue by accident.
3. Find prospects using loyalty, not just gift size
Run a simple report of donors who have given in at least five of the last seven years, regardless of amount. Add long-serving volunteers, former board members, and monthly donors with long tenure. Then mark the strongest as "Prospect." This list is often surprisingly long, and many of the names will not be on your major donor list.
4. Make it easy for donors to tell you
Add a short, low-pressure message to your newsletters, receipts, and website: "Have you included us in your will? We would love to thank you." Include a simple reply form that writes directly to the legacy status field. Every response moves someone from invisible to known.
5. Build a separate stewardship track
Legacy donors should not get the same messages as everyone else. Create a quiet, respectful track with:
- A personal thank-you within a week of learning about the gift
- An annual update on the program or cause they care about
- An invitation to a legacy society or recognition list, if they want one
- A check-in every year or two to confirm their wishes have not changed
Set these as recurring tasks in your CRM so they happen even if staff change.
6. Plan for the estate call
When a gift is realized, the experience matters for the family. Create a short internal checklist: who speaks with the executor, how you confirm the details, how you issue the right receipt, and how you thank the family. Log the outcome in the record and update the status to "Realized." This data is also how you will eventually measure the real value of your legacy program.
7. Report legacy giving separately to your board
Give your board a simple quarterly view: number of known intentions, number of confirmed gifts, and realized gifts this year. Avoid adding estimated values to your revenue forecast. Count donors, not promised dollars, until the money arrives.
Regional Insight: Canada and the U.S.
In Canada, gifts made through a will are treated in a specific way for tax purposes. The Canada Revenue Agency explains that donations made by will and designation donations are deemed to be made by the individual's estate, and where certain conditions are met, by the graduated rate estate. They are deemed to be made at the time the property is transferred to the charity. Donors can also, where provincial law permits, name a charity as a beneficiary of an RRSP, RRIF, TFSA, or life insurance policy, as CIBC outlines. Your CRM should capture which vehicle the donor used, because it affects who you deal with when the gift is realized.
In the U.S., bequest giving is already a major source of support, at 10% of all giving according to Candid. The Chronicle of Philanthropy notes that the 2025 jump marks the third year in the last four with double-digit increases in bequest giving, which some see as an early sign of the generational wealth transfer. Retirement account beneficiary designations and bequests are common vehicles, so tracking the vehicle matters on both sides of the border.
In either country, your charity should not give tax or legal advice. Encourage donors to speak with their own lawyer, notary, or financial advisor, and record that you did.
Conclusion
Legacy gifts are some of the largest and most meaningful gifts a charity will ever receive, but they are also the easiest to lose track of. The donors behind them are often quiet, loyal supporters who never make your major donor list.
Start with one status field, separate expectancy values from real revenue, find prospects by loyalty, and give donors an easy way to tell you. Then steward them with care, year after year. You may not see the results this fiscal year, but the charity that runs this system consistently will be far better prepared when those gifts arrive.
