Author: Mark Dobosz

The FEP just reported the strongest giving growth in five years. The sector exhaled. I didn’t. Revenue is up because a smaller group of major donors gave more. The donor base shrank again. Concentrated revenue is brittle revenue. The money is concentrated at the top. The mission lives in the many. That gap is the work.

Donors are ready. Most organizations aren’t. Mark Dobosz of Mozaic Senior Life draws on four decades of research to show why most planned giving conversations fail before they start — and what actually works. The barrier isn’t money, mortality, or donor hesitation. It’s the language we use when we finally decide to ask.

Planned giving transforms donor relationships from transactional to transformational. Charitable bequests total $45.84 billion annually, with average bequests 40 times larger than a donor’s yearly gift. Yet only 1 percent of nonprofits have active programs. The shift requires starting values conversations before gift conversations, integrating legacy language across portfolios, and building stewardship that sustains relationships between bequest intention and realization.