At this stage in your practice’s growth, your client base likely includes a significant number of Millennials—the generation born between 1981 and 1996. For years, much of the conversation about Millennials and wealth has focused on the looming Great Wealth Transfer. But new research suggests that advisors shouldn’t wait for their Millennial clients to receive an inheritance before they start building deeper relationships with this generation through conversations about charitable giving.  

Here are three ways to start: 

Ask your Millennial clients about charitable giving before there’s a tax reason to ask. 

It may be tempting for advisors to condense the topic of charitable giving into a single year-end tax-planning question: “Are you planning to make any charitable gifts before December 31?” Instead, try asking a broader question: “What causes or issues are most important to you?”  

This is an important shift because research suggests that younger donors tend to organize their philanthropy around responding to issues and community needs, rather than simply supporting institutions on autopilot every year. Indeed, Bloomerang’s 2026 Giving Signals Report found that 80% of Millennials surveyed expect to support at least one new nonprofit this year, compared with 52% of Gen X and 30% of Baby Boomers. What’s more, three-quarters of Millennials surveyed said they plan to increase their charitable giving this year. Even more striking, 97% said giving makes them feel “part of something.” 

Remember that Innovia can help turn your clients’ interest into action! For instance, our team is happy to introduce a client to specific organizations that are working on issues the client cares about and provide strategic insight into local needs. For you, as a trusted advisor, this deeper dive presents a meaningful opportunity for conversations about what the client’s wealth is for—not simply how it should be invested, taxed, or transferred. 

Introduce charitable planning earlier than you might think. 

It may seem counterintuitive, but don’t assume donor-advised funds and other charitable planning tools are relevant only after a client reaches a particular age or level of wealth. Indeed, many advisors may be surprised to learn that Bloomerang’s 2026 Giving Signals Report also found that 42% of Millennial donors surveyed had used a donor-advised fund in the past year. 

What this means is that it’s wise to keep an eye out for a Millennial client receiving equity compensation, selling appreciated investments, exercising stock options, building a business, or simply increasing annual charitable giving. These clients may benefit from a conversation about giving appreciated assets, bunching contributions, and establishing a donor-advised fund at Innovia sooner rather than later. 

Use philanthropy to connect with clients across generations. 

As you review your client list, you may discover that in some cases, your strongest relationship might not be with the Millennial at all, but instead with the Millennial’s parents. Naturally, you would like to change that to increase the likelihood that the client’s children and grandchildren stay with your practice for many years. Philanthropy is useful because it is typically a low-pressure topic that can engage multiple generations. So, instead of waiting until an estate plan, business succession plan, or inheritance event forces the generations into the same room, which understandably may be a tense and pressure-filled situation, consider inviting clients to include children or other family members in the charitable giving part of the conversation.  

For instance, you might suggest that a client work with Innovia to establish a family donor-advised fund to allow multiple generations the space to discuss what matters to them, conduct research on nonprofit organizations, and make grant recommendations together. 

Keep in mind that this type of multigenerational collaboration is valuable not only to the family, but also to you as the advisor. Along those lines, the 2026 TPI Study of the Philanthropic Conversation reported that 95% of advisors surveyed said that discussing philanthropy is important to building relationships with high-net-worth clients’ extended families, and 88% of advisors surveyed said that philanthropic conversations help deepen existing client relationships. 

The bottom line here is that Millennials are already earning, investing, giving, and deciding whom they trust to help them make financial decisions. Philanthropy offers attorneys, CPAs, and financial advisors a particularly meaningful way to become part of those decisions now. Please reach out to the Gift Planning team at Innovia as a resource! It is our team’s honor to be your first call on all matters of charitable giving.