Other than the occasional payout rate change or updated state regulation, the world of charitable gift annuities (CGAs) is fairly constant from year to year.  However, when the 2023 SECURE Act 2.0 introduced the ability for donors aged 70½ and older to use a qualified charitable distribution (QCD) from their IRA to fund a CGA, charities finally had a new, shiny opportunity to offer donors. The 2025 American Council on Gift Annuities (ACGA) CGA Survey Report hints that this could be a significant growth opportunity.

The question of the growth trajectory is how it mirrors the use of QCDs to provide charities with outright gifts. That option was first permitted in 2006 and took nearly a decade to gain serious traction with both charities and donors. By the 2020s, growth in outright QCD gifts proved to be significant for many charities. According to Free Will’s 2026 QCD Report, between 2024 and 2025 alone, 63% of charities reported growth in outright QCD gifts compared with only 6% that reported a decline.

Because outright-gift QCDs paved the way, QCD-funded CGAs may be a beneficiary of a more-accelerated timeline for adoption by donors. The ACGA 2025 CGA Survey Report found that 74% of responding charities received at least one QCD-funded CGA in the prior year. That suggests broad awareness in a relatively show time. Furthermore, the report found that QCD-funded CGAs represented 27% of all new CGAs in the prior year, showing particularly high adoption among higher education institutions and larger nonprofit organizations.

The growth potential could become even greater in the next few years. The Charity Parity Act, bipartisan-sponsored legislation introduced earlier this year in both House and Senate committees, seeks to expand the QCD option to 401(k) and 403(b) retirement plans.  While most participants in these employee-sponsored plans are under the required minimum age of 70½ for QCDs, any expansion to include retirees staying in these plans could significantly increase the future pool for QCD-funded CGAs. The ACGA supports the adoption of these changes by Congress.  ACGA will also conduct further research with charities on successful approaches for communicating this opportunity with donors.  The future looks bright.