Many of you know that here at Stelter, we have a longstanding commitment to bring data-driven, research-based ideas to the industry.
Over the years, we’ve looked at donor behaviors and motivations, healthy aging, the impact of advisors and new technologies—all to help you grow your planned giving program.
But there’s one audience that we hadn’t really explored: people who are already making decisions about lifetime income. And they’ve been hiding in plain sight.
We know the Great Wealth Transfer is here. With an aging Baby Boomer population, interest in reliable income is top of mind. The charitable gift annuity (CGA) remains an important tool as the population ages and more people look to secure a steady income stream.
At the same time, awareness of CGAs remains a challenge. Which led us to wonder: Could we find prospective CGA donors by looking at what they’re already doing with their money?
Viewing the Annuity Market Through a New Lens
To answer that question, we partnered with TIAA Kaspick to look beyond traditional CGA audiences and nonprofit databases. Instead, we focused on people who are actively purchasing commercial annuities.
The opportunity is significant. The single premium immediate annuity (SPIA) market alone represents more than $14 billion in annual purchases.
Take a moment to let that sink in. These are buyers who are already demonstrating an interest in lifetime income. And the market is only getting bigger with a historic number of boomers entering retirement.
We wanted to explore this group and ask: If they knew about charitable gift annuities, would a CGA make sense for them? Would they even contemplate one?
Reimagining the CGA Prospect
The study, conducted by NAPCO Research, looks at a sample of SPIA owners to better understand what drives their decisions.
We wanted to discover what motivates people to purchase commercial annuities, and how philanthropy might fit into the picture.
So, we asked them:
- Who influenced your decision?
- What information did you have?
- Did you know CGAs existed?
- If you had known about CGAs, would you have considered one?
The findings offer a new perspective on this untapped audience and raise some important questions about who we consider to be a CGA prospect.
What Could This Mean for CGAs?
The fact is that people are already raising their hands. They’re thinking about lifetime income, researching their options and purchasing commercial annuities.
The question is whether the charitable sector is paying attention. What if some of these buyers could also be potential CGA donors? And what might we learn by understanding what motivates their decisions?
If we could persuade even 5% or 10% of the $14 billion-a-year SPIA commercial annuity market to consider a CGA, the potential impact for nonprofits could be significant.
Perhaps it’s time to look beyond existing donor databases.
We have an enormous opportunity to meet people where they are and show them how financial security and philanthropy can work together. The research points to an audience that may have more in common with the traditional CGA prospect than we realize, including philanthropic interests. What they lack is awareness.
How can we make sure they know a CGA is an option?
We’d love to hear from you. Please share your thoughts in the comments below.