This piece is written by Suzzanne Eden, Partner with CCS Fundraising. CCS Fundraising is a strategic fundraising consulting firm that partners with nonprofits across sectors to design and implement fundraising programs that achieve transformational goals.

When most development professionals are asked about their endowment prospects, they describe the same person: a major donor, probably retired, likely already thinking about their estate, with significant wealth and a long history with the organization.

That search is happening at a meaningful moment. Total charitable giving reached a record $617 billion in 2025, and bequest giving grew nearly 20%, the strongest signal in years that donors are thinking seriously about legacy and permanence. The philanthropic conditions for endowment giving have rarely been better. The question is whether organizations are positioned to take advantage of them.

The problem with the traditional endowment prospect picture isn’t that it’s wrong, it’s that it’s incomplete, and that incompleteness is costing organizations real endowment gifts every year. Your strongest endowment prospects are almost certainly already in your database. They may not look like the profile above, but they share something more important than wealth: relationship depth, values alignment, and a genuine desire for lasting impact. The work of endowment fundraising isn’t finding a different kind of donor; it’s learning to see the donors you already have a little differently.

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Five Trends Shaping Endowment Fundraising Right Now

Understanding who gives to endowment and how to reach them, starts with understanding the environment they’re giving in. Five trends are defining this moment:

• Endowment fundraising is no longer niche. More nonprofits are actively starting or expanding endowment programs, driven by a desire to strengthen financial resilience and diversify revenue after COVID-era funding disruptions and continuing government cutbacks.
• Endowment giving is growing but remains concentrated. Endowment gifts are large in dollar impact but small in share of total giving, typically driven by major and planned gifts, which means the opportunity for organizations that invest in this area is significant.
• Donors expect clear, designated impact. Most endowment gifts are restricted by donors, often tied to specific purposes like scholarships, faculty chairs, or programs. This can limit institutional flexibility, but it also means that organizations that can intentionally offer specific funding opportunities of their choosing that are budget-relieving are better positioned to close, utilize, and steward, these gifts.
• Total giving tracks market performance with less volatility. The U.S. stock market has experienced a prolonged bull run with the S&P 500 over the past three years. Philanthropy tends to follow the market, though to a lower degree of volatility. Positive market growth suggests growth in giving.
• Planned giving and wealth transfer are supporting long-term growth. Bequest giving grew nearly 20% in 2025 (the largest single-source increase of the year) and the share of giving from bequests grew from 8% to 10%. Whether or not the Great Wealth Transfer has fully arrived, donors are clearly thinking about legacy.

Best Practice #1: Your Best Endowment Prospects Are Already in Your Database

Four donor profiles are worth knowing. The loyal annual donor, someone with five or more consecutive years of giving, is often the most overlooked endowment prospect precisely because they feel “already engaged.” But loyalty is one of the strongest predictors of endowment readiness, and that consistent giver deserves a closer look. The major gift partner is already investing at a significant level and looking for a way to deepen that commitment; naming opportunities tend to be a natural fit here. The values-aligned donor is motivated by a specific mission area or program and responds well to the question: “What does your gift make possible forever?” And the planned giving prospect may already be thinking about their estate, making endowment a natural bridge conversation, though it’s worth saying out loud that endowment isn’t only about planned gifts. Endowed gifts can be made now, named now, and felt now.

Across all four profiles, the signals look similar: tenure and consistency of giving, an expressed connection to a specific program or outcome, and life stage moments like retirement, an inheritance, or the sale of a business. If you’re not sure where to start, pull a list of everyone who has given for five or more consecutive years as a starting point.

Best Practice #2: Pipeline Management Doesn’t Require New Infrastructure

Knowing your profiles is step one. Moving donors toward a conversation is step two, and most organizations stall here, not because they lack the right donors but because they don’t have a structured way to prioritize and progress them.

When qualifying endowment prospects, think across three dimensions: affinity, access, and ability. Affinity is about relationship depth. Does this donor support your annual fund or express a personal connection to your work? Access is about entry points; are they an alum, a former board member, someone your leadership already knows? Ability is about feasibility, and this is where organizations cut their lists too early. A donor who can’t write a large check today might be able to make a multi-year pledge, give through a donor-advised fund, or designate a portion of their estate. Expanding your thinking about gift vehicles meaningfully expands your prospect pool.

The practical takeaway: add an “endowment readiness” flag to your existing prospect tracking and commit to moving those donors forward with intention: signal tracking, life stage moments, deeper engagement. No new infrastructure required, just a new lens. When donors feel uncertain about the present, conversations about permanence tend to land more naturally than they might in a stronger economic moment

Best Practice #3: Cultivation is What Moves Donors

The most effective endowment conversations happen long before the ask through cultivation experiences that make donors feel like partners in your mission rather than targets for it.

Consider two examples. An academic medical center wanted to endow a professorship in oncology research. Rather than opening with that conversation, the development team arranged a private meeting between a longtime major donor and the relevant faculty member about where the research was heading. They then invited the donor to a small advisory gathering where scientists were thinking through a new line of inquiry. The donor was asked for their perspective, not their money. By the time the endowed professorship conversation happened, it wasn’t really an ask. The donor already felt ownership over the work.

An independent school took a different approach. A twelve-year annual donor was introduced to an opportunity they didn’t know existed: the ability to endow an entire cohort of students. Before any ask, the development team invited them to a scholarship breakfast where they sat with three current scholarship recipients. The donor left saying “I want more of them to have this.” The endowment conversation followed within two months.

In both cases, the cultivation activity did the work, not the pitch. Your toolkit is probably already in front of you: faculty meetings, site visits, advisory gatherings. The shift is intentional: using those moments to help a specific donor see themselves in a specific opportunity before you ask them to fund it. That means matching donors to opportunities that genuinely fit, using their own language, and being direct that endowment and annual giving aren’t competing asks, they’re different expressions of the same relationship.

The Takeaway

Endowment fundraising isn’t a separate discipline that requires a different set of donors, a different pipeline, or a different kind of ask. It’s a deeper version of the conversation you’re already having grounded in relationship, activated through cultivation, and timed to when a donor is most ready to hear it.

In a year when bequest giving grew nearly 20% and the data signals that donors are thinking more seriously about legacy and the long term, that conversation has rarely felt more timely. The donors who will make your next endowment gift are almost certainly already in your database. The question is whether you’re creating the moments that help them see themselves in that opportunity before you ever ask.

Explore additional resources in the accompanying slide deck here.

This article is a companion piece to TIFF Investment Management’s Endowment Webinar Series, developed in partnership with CCS Fundraising. Watch Session 1, “Bringing Your Endowment to Life: How to Tell a Story That Resonates with Donors.”

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