The gift annuity surveys conducted by the ACGA are the best source of information about charitable gift annuity policies, practices, and trends. The surveys include questions related to gifts, annuitants, administration, and investments. The surveys report data on over 20 years of continuities as well as changes.

2020-21 Gift Annuity Mortality Study (members only)

The 2020-2021 mortality study of gift annuitants covers the experience period 2015-2019 and includes data contributed by 31 organizations. Data was received for 53,221 gift annuities, of which 50,640 were included in the analysis after data scrubbing. Eliminating duplicate data for annuitants who have multiple annuities and capturing both lives on Joint Life annuities, 31,703 unique lives were included in one or more years of the study. These lives generated 130,047 life-years of exposure and an actual death count of 8,157, and this volume of experience results in good statistical credibility.

2021 Survey of Charitable Gift Annuities (members only)

This report on the 2021 Survey of Charitable Gift Annuities displays and analyzes the responses from 152 charitable organizations provided from April 2, 2021 through June 15, 2021. Many of the questions about gifts, annuitants, administration, and investment were asked in the ACGA surveys conducted in 1994, 1999, 2004, 2009, 2013, and 2017, providing the charitable community with data on over 20 years of continuities as well as changes. Results were reported at the ACGA Conference in April 2022 and provided to ACGA members soon thereafter.

2019 Survey of Charitable Gift Annuity Program Best Practices (electronic) - FREE Download

This report on the 2019 Survey of Charitable Gift Annuity Program Best Practices displays and analyzes the responses from 344 charitable organizations provided from April 1 through July 31, 2019. This important survey was conducted jointly by the American Council on Gift Annuities (ACGA) and the National Association of Charitable Gift Planners (CGP). Results were reported at the ACGA Conference in April 2020 and provided to ACGA and CGP members soon thereafter.

This survey follows the research gathered, analyzed and disseminated as part of ACGA’s comprehensive 2017 Survey of Charitable Gift Annuities. The 2017 study identified factors of growing or expanding charitable gift annuity programs. The goal of this study is to expand the inquiry further to identify best practices for growing charitable gift annuity programs that all charities can follow.

2017 Survey of Charitable Gift Annuities (members only)

This report on the 2017 Survey of Charitable Gift Annuities displays and analyzes the responses from 409 charitable organizations provided from September 2016 through April 2017. Many of the questions about gifts, annuitants, administration, and investment were also asked in the ACGA surveys conducted in 1994, 1999, 2004, 2009, and 2013, providing the charitable community with data on over 20 years of continuities as well as changes. Results were reported at the ACGA Conference in April 2018 and provided to ACGA members soon thereafter.

More charities participated in the ACGA survey in 2017 compared with 2013 (409 charities in 2017 and 378 charities in 2013).

Unlike with other planned gifts such as charitable remainder trusts and pooled income funds, gift annuity data are not collected by the Internal Revenue Service. There is no central repository for gift annuity data gathered by the states, which regulate charitable annuities. The gift annuity surveys conducted by ACGA are the best source of information about charitable gift annuity policies, practices, and trends.

2013 Survey of Charitable Gift Annuities (members only)

Five years after the start of the Great Recession, what has been the experience of charities issuing gift annuities? The 2013 Gift Annuity Survey Report displays and analyzes the responses from 378 charitable organizations, provided in October and November of 2013. Many of the questions about gifts, annuitants, administration and investment were asked in the ACGA surveys conducted in 1994, 1999, 2004, and 2009, providing data on 20 years of continuities as well as changes. Results were reported at the ACGA Conference in April 2014 and provided to ACGA sponsors soon thereafter.

2009 Survey of Charitable Gift Annuities (members only)

This is the fifth in a series of national gift annuity surveys conducted by the American Council on Gift Annuities (ACGA) over the last 16 years. 

The 2009 Gift Annuity Survey Report displays and analyzes the responses to 60 questions by 568 organizations, provided from September through December 2009. Many of the questions about gifts, annuitants, administration and investment were asked in the surveys conducted in 1994, 1999, and 2004. In addition to providing continuity, we asked many new questions in 2009. We wanted to know how charities managed financial risks during the Great Recession of 2008-09. We asked new questions about the ages of annuitants to understand how the demographics of an aging American population affect the policies and practices of charities issuing annuities. We increased the number of questions regarding state regulation of charitable gift annuities. 

2008 Survey of Gift Planning (members only)

We are pleased to present the results of a comprehensive national survey on charitable gift planning among U.S. charities. This report contains a detailed statistical analysis of responses from representatives of charitable organizations to a survey administered by the ACGA in the 190 day period from Thursday, September 6, 2007 to Friday, March 14, 2008. 864 completed responses were received during this time. 

This is the fourth national survey conducted by the ACGA since 1994. Surveys of charitable organizations in 1994, 1999 and 2004 focused on charitable gift annuities. The 2007-2008 survey was much broader in scope. Charities were asked about campaign goal-setting, planned gift counting and crediting, gift trends, gift administration, marketing, and donor recognition, as well as nine types of planned gifts: charitable remainder unitrusts and annuity trusts, pooled income funds, lead trusts, life insurance, retained life estates, bargain sales, and of course gift annuities. 

Responses predate the profound crisis in worldwide financial markets during the summer and fall of 2008. The ACGA will conduct a comprehensive survey of gift annuities in 2009 to measure the impact of market volatility on gift annuity donor behavior and the performance of gift annuity reserve funds, in line with our mission of risk management for charitable gift annuities. 

2004 Survey of Charitable Gift Annuities (members only)

We are pleased to present the results of the third national survey of gift annuities. The first comprehensive survey was conducted in 1994, and it was repeated in 1999. Because the first two survey reports were greatly valued by charities, the American Council on Gift Annuities (ACGA) authorized still another update. The ACGA anticipates that it will continue the surveys, spaced at five-year intervals. The surveys enable charities to evaluate their own gift annuity programs by measuring their results against national averages, and they assist the ACGA in one of its primary roles, recommending gift annuity rates. 

During much of the period between the first two surveys, the ACGA in particular, but also charities in general, were preoccupied with the Ozee lawsuit that had been filed in a federal court in Texas. The 1999 survey revealed how that lawsuit had affected annuity policies and practices, and it also indicated how charities were responding to the many new developments regarding the regulation of gift annuities. 

The five-year period between 1999 and 2004, the year in which data from the third survey were collected, saw the most severe bear market in 30 years. This caused an erosion of the gift annuity reserves in many charities and renewed attention to the financial risk inherent in gift annuities. The third survey has measured the level of gift annuity activity during a time when stock values fell and interest rates have remained low. It has also disclosed some of the steps charities have taken to control risk. 

1999 Survey of Charitable Gift Annuities (members only)

During much of the period between the 1994 and 1999 surveys, the ACGA, in particular, but also charities in general, were preoccupied with the Ozee lawsuit that had been filed in a federal court in Texas. Those of us on the ACGA Board were especially interested in determining what impact this litigation may have had on gift annuity programs. We also were quite interested in learning how charities were responding to new developments regarding the regulation of gift annuities. Finally, we were interested in trends regarding all aspects of gift annuities. All of these considerations prompted the update of the survey. 

The report displays the data that was collected and offers interpretive comments and personal observations on charitable gift annuities. 

1994 Survey of Charitable Gift Annuities  (members only)

Except for the bequest, the charitable gift annuity is the oldest planned gift. The first gift annuity is believed to have been written by the American Bible Society in 1843. By the 1920's a number of religious organizations were issuing gift annuities, and in the intervening sixty years all types of organizations, secular as well as religious, have found the gift annuity to be an effective means of securing contributions. The increasing interest in gift annuities was accompanied by growth in the number of sponsoring members of the Committee on Gift Annuities and in attendance at the triennial conferences sponsored by that organization. Effective January 1, 1994, that organization was incorporated, and the name was changed to the American Council on Gift Annuities (ACGA). 

Although gift annuities have been around for more than a century and ever more charities appear to be offering them, we have had little hard data on what is actually happening. The only previous survey of which we are aware was conducted in 1955 by Charles Baas, who was then Chair of the Committee on Gift Annuities. That survey was primarily concerned with financial statistics regarding gift annuity funds.