The Legacy Project

Two factors explain why the Stonewall Generation is the possibly single best estate giving demographic in history. First, more than 60% of LGBTQ+ people don’t have children, and the data are crystal clear that, in general, people without children are significantly more likely to leave charitable estate gifts – and to leave larger ones. Second, millions in the Stonewall Generation are powerfully identified as community, which also makes them historically excellent prospects for LGBTQ-focused legacy gifts. Experience shows again and again that the Stonewall Generation are, in fact, deeply grateful to have such an opportunity to support a community that they themselves helped create.

According to the 2024 Knight Frank Wealth Report, an estimated $90 trillion will pass from estates in the next 20 years. If we reasonably – even conservatively – assume that (a) LGBTQ+ people constitute 3% of the U.S. population and (b) LGBTQ+ people have the same wealth as other Americans, then $2.7 trillion of this wealth transfer will be from estates of our community. If our movement can capture even a mere 1% of that wealth for organizations around the country, that would bring $27 billion to the movement over 20 years – more than $1 billion every year. That is more than quadruple the estimated total support LGBTQ+ nonprofits receive from foundations and corporations combined.

The wealth transfer is well underway, with peak years expected from 2031 through 2045. That means now is the time to engage our community to make their estate plans – and help them make a lasting impact on LGBTQ+ community organizations.

The National Task Force on LGBTQ Planned Giving Project Report and National Strategy (March 2018) demonstrated the historical opportunity available – but awareness and urgency are lacking, both by donors and professional advisors. The Legacy Project was created out of this opportunity to help you take action, helping to empower the LGBTQ+ community for the future.

Clients list the top reasons for planned gifts as passion, impact, and a desire to give back. Conversations with advisors often get mired in technical jargon or tax code. Training advisors instead to speak fluently about the “why” and offering tools and techniques to educate and inform clients on the impact they can have on LGBTQ+ groups through bequests is critical to drive gifts to organizations.

We are working with professionals – attorneys, financial advisors, wealth managers, accountants, and others who assist in estate planning – to have these conversations with clients. Our goal is to help you become an advocate and champion of this moment, providing you with the skills to have the conversations which are statistically more likely to

generate philanthropic gifts and thus (and most critically), secure the future for the LGBTQ+ l community.

Here’s a simple example:

An advisor saying “There may be some tax advantages to your making some kind of gift to charity. Are you interested?
Will likely generate a different result than
An advisor learns of a client’s interest in supporting LGBTQ+ youth, and asks “If we can take care of the people you love and also structure a gift that addresses that concern, is that something you’d like to do?”

We are asking professionals who help in estate planning to step up, today, and commit to:

· raising with each of their clients the possibility of leaving a charitable gift to LGBTQ organizations in professional and culturally sensitive ways;

· developing expertise and comfort in having that conversation in ways more likely to result in a gift; and

· being aware of the organizations locally and nationally serving the LGBTQ+ community to receive such bequests.