Charity sustainability – are gifts in wills a beacon of hope right now?

Eleanor Cater
CEO
13 August 2026

Gifts in wills (or charitable bequests*) represent a substantial expression of generosity in Aotearoa New Zealand. These estate gifts can be significant in their size, and one single bequest can be changemaking for a charity, with the potential to provide sustainable income into the future.

Gifts in wills, which can be extremely personal to the giver, also represent a huge opportunity in the coming decades with NZ$1.6T changing hands by 2050 - coined The Great Wealth Transfer – as the Baby Boomer generation passes on their wealth.

At a time when charities across New Zealand are facing escalating demand - and wider sector research tells us that donor numbers are falling and overall giving has grown only in nominal (not real) terms - the potential of bequests may represent a beacon of hope for the charity and community sector.

This year, here at CFANZ, we have undertaking a major research project, in partnership with independent research agency BERL, looking at New Zealand’s generosity – what motivates us to give and what barriers stand in the way? A subset of this research has included gifts in wills and we are releasing a report Giving in Aotearoa NZ – Bequests, sharing the major research findings in time for September Wills Month.

September Wills Month, which is a campaign the CFANZ network launched in 2018, encourages charities to increase their bequest activity around this time and elevate gifts in wills conversations. In recent years, wealth management firms and legal practices have also jumped on board, sharing messages of will-making and charitable bequests, throughout what has become a collective campaign month of sector activity.

September Wills Month encourages charities to think beyond annual budgets, the next campaign or the next grants round. Gifts in wills ask a different question: what does it mean for your supporters to think long term about sustaining a cause close to their hearts? And what would it mean for your cause to have income arriving every year, indefinitely, regardless of how the economy or the news cycle is behaving? Community foundations exist in part to provide a solution to that problem, pooling bequest gifts, investing them for the long term, and distributing the returns locally, year after year, while the capital itself keeps working for the local community.

The Giving in Aotearoa NZ – Bequests research will help to give the sector a clearer picture of what New Zealanders actually think about leaving a charitable gift in their will. It analyses data of over 3,000 respondents and shifts the conversation from anecdotes, taking a look at attitudes, motivations and the barriers that hold people back. It's the kind of evidence base the sector needs, and I think anyone working in fundraising, governance or donor relations in the charity sector will find something in the report which will help inform and empower gifts in wills conversations.

Every charity relying on year-to-year donations knows how exposed that model can be as donor numbers shift, cost-of-living pressures bite, and even loyal supporters can only give so much each year. Gifts in wills sit outside that volatility; they're planned during a person's lifetime but realised later, and often to a scale much bigger than previous donations. And, when channeled through an invested endowment fund, they can keep giving well beyond a loyal supporter’s lifetime.

For a charity thinking about what sustainability really means, we encourage a different kind of question than "how do we raise more this year?" A reframing of that question - with a longer-term outlook - could look more along the lines of "how do we build our charity’s sustainability?”

At the end of August, we'll be sharing more about what the research tells us, and what it means, in practice, for charities thinking seriously about their long-term income. If your charity has ever wondered whether it's ready for that conversation, keep an eye out, the research is landing soon.

*A note on terminology – you will see ‘gifts in wills’ and ‘bequests’ both used here - they have the same meaning - i.e. a portion of an estate, whether by percentage, a fixed dollar sum or the residual (after other commitments are fulfilled) which has been left in a will for charitable purposes.