Giving USA’s latest report found that charitable bequests increased nearly 20% in 2025 to $62.19 billion, making them the fastest-growing source of charitable giving. Bequests now represent 10% of all charitable revenue in the United States, up from 8% in 2024. This only underscores the growing role they play in long-term fundraising strategies.

That’s extraordinary news for the nonprofit sector. But it also signals something bigger.

The conversation is beginning to shift from “How do we secure more legacy gifts?” to “How do we protect and collect those matured bequests?” 

What are your standards for protecting and collecting matured bequests?

Across the nonprofit sector, we’re seeing more organizations explore outsourced bequest management. Not because they lack capable teams, but because growth is changing what’s required to steward those matured gifts successfully.

Here are five reasons driving that shift.

1. Leveling up for Continued Growth

Giving USA didn’t simply report another year of growth. It reported the fastest-growing source of charitable giving.

For nonprofit leaders, that raises an important strategic question:

How will we handle a 20% increase in day to day work?

Increasingly, organizations are looking beyond the ever-present work at hand, and building their model to respond to increasing bequest volume and revenue growth. For many, outsourced bequest management has become part of that long-term strategy.

2. Quality Estate Administration

Every estate presents its own circumstances. Even seemingly straightforward distributions necessitate reviewing wills and trusts, coordinating with executors, trustees, and attorneys, and monitoring statutory deadlines. Interpreting restrictive gift language, navigating beneficiary designation claims, multi-jurisdictional estates, and working through complex accountings are all responsibilities currently on the shoulders of bequest administration staff. Those responsibilities are growing, and should be supervised by legal professionals. Training new staff to become subject-matter experts in this field takes time away from an already heavy plate of duties.

Many organizations are recognizing that estate administration has become increasingly demanding, and managing a growing portfolio often requires dedicated legal and administrative expertise.

3. Passive Bequest Management Can Leave Charitable Dollars on the Table

Every matured bequest represents charitable dollars a donor intended your organization to receive. Yet, without active oversight, organizations risk receiving a smaller gift, or no gift at all.

Trusts and estates often languish for years without active oversight. Consistent contact with trustees and PRs motivate efficient administration. Distributions obtained earlier is money saved for the organization. Active bequest management isn’t about creating conflict or micromanaging the administration process. It’s about protecting donor intent, preserving charitable assets, and helping ensure organizations receive every dollar donors intended them to receive as fast as possible.

4. They Want Their Teams Focused on Donors, Not Estate Settlement

Planned giving professionals are hired to build relationships, trust, cultivate future legacy donors, and advance their organization’s mission, not to become estate settlement or probate professionals.

Yet as bequest programs grow, estate administration increasingly competes for the same time and resources needed to steward donors and grow future giving.

Rather than asking development, finance, legal, and planned giving teams to absorb an increasingly specialized responsibility, many organizations are choosing to supplement their internal expertise with dedicated bequest management support. This allows your team to focus on the things that drew them to nonprofit work: the mission and the people.

5. Prioritizing Stewardship

Every charitable bequest represents more than a financial gift. It represents a donor’s lasting trust in an organization’s mission.  When they pass, they are no longer able to protect and direct that gift.  Yes, they trusted the named executor or trustee to settle their estate, but those individuals often have to serve the competing interests of multiple individuals and entities.  Donors ultimately trust the charity to protect and receipt their intended bequest.

As organizations receive more legacy gifts, many are recognizing that stewardship doesn’t end when a donor signs an estate plan, or even when notice of a gift is received.

It continues throughout estate administration by helping ensure donor intent is honored, charitable assets are protected, fiduciaries remain accountable, and every gift is received as intended.

For many nonprofits, outsourcing isn’t simply an operational decision. It’s a stewardship decision.

How CCK Supports Growing Bequest Programs

For organizations looking to build a stewardship model that grows alongside their bequest program, choosing the right partner matters.

At CCK Bequest Management, we serve as an extension of our clients’ teams by providing experienced legal and administrative support throughout every stage of the bequest administration process.