Define Inheritance: How You Can Build an Inheritance Reflective of You
The Great Wealth Transfer is a much-cited era happening right now. Trillions of dollars will pass from one generation to the next over the coming decades in various forms, ranging from cash and stock to real estate and business interests.
Much of the conversation about this transfer focuses on the assets themselves.
- Who will inherit the family business?
- What will happen to the investment portfolio?
- How should assets be passed from one generation to the next?
But there is another important question for families to consider: "What values do we want to pass along?"
For many people, charitable giving is a one way to answer that question.
Passing Along More Than Assets
A charitable legacy isn't simply about the gifts included in an estate plan. It can begin during your lifetime through the conversations, traditions and shared decisions that help children and grandchildren understand why generosity is important to you.
That might mean involving family members in decisions about your donor advised fund, volunteering together or talking about the organizations and community needs that have shaped your giving. These experiences can help the next generation develop its own relationship with generosity while carrying forward values that have long mattered to you.
For those with a donor advised fund at the Community Foundation, that tradition can continue across generations. By naming your children or other loved ones as successor advisors, you can invite them to recommend grants to the organizations and causes they believe will make a difference. The opportunity to continue a family’s generosity can itself be a meaningful inheritance!
Extending Your Giving Into the Future
Estate planning offers another way to carry those values forward. According to the latest Giving USA report, charitable bequests totaled more than $62 billion in 2025, increasing nearly 20% over the previous year. Bequests were the fastest-growing source of charitable giving, underscoring how important these gifts can be for nonprofit organizations and the communities they serve.
For individuals and couples with especially large estates, charitable planning may also reduce the federal estate tax, which applies to estates exceeding the federal exemption of $15 million per individual in 2026. Your attorney, CPA and financial advisor can help determine whether estate tax planning is relevant to your particular circumstances.
Even when estate taxes are not a concern, a charitable bequest can become one of the most meaningful gifts you make. You can provide for the people you love while also creating lasting support for the causes and organizations that have mattered throughout your life.
A charitable bequest can be surprisingly simple. You might leave a specific dollar amount or percentage of your estate to your donor advised fund or establish another type of charitable fund at the Community Foundation to continue meaningful community support.
What Will Your Family Carry Forward?
The Great Wealth Transfer will move trillions of dollars from one generation to the next, but what families pass along doesn’t have to be measured only in dollars. Estate plans are designed to transfer wealth. A charitable legacy has the power to transfer something even more lasting.
The Community Foundation would be honored to work with you and your estate planning advisors to arrange charitable bequests, establish a donor advised or other charitable fund and build a legacy your family can continue long into the future.