‘record Level’ Of Nonprofit Senior Living Providers Seeking Affiliation In 2025

A record number of  nonprofit senior living providers are exploring affiliations or other forms of external growth.

A new report from Ziegler shows that community closures have risen significantly since 2020 as pandemic-era government assistance evaporated and the cost of doing business rises. In turn, a number of organizations have affiliated with larger entities or merged with other nonprofit organizations.

“We continue to see record-level activity among organizations exploring the benefits of a potential affiliation with another not-for-profit, as well as scenarios where a disposition/sale may be the most logical alternative,” the report’s authors wrote.

Some nonprofit providers are looking internally to prepare for a future that could include an affiliation with smaller, nonprofit senior living providers. 

Some recent examples of that trend include Lutheran Senior Services merging with Diakon Lutheran Social Ministries and changing its name to EverTrue; Brightspire, known as Kintura after a rebrand and merger the Well-Spring Group; Masonicare and United Methodist Homes; and Knute Nelson, which rebranded as Vivie and merged with Walker Methodist.

Since 2015, Ziegler has tracked more than 1,100 nonprofit, market-rate senior living communities that have changed hands as 784 transactions have been tracked in 2025, up from 740 in 2024 and 640 in 2023, according to the report.

A trend that has been “fairly consistent” in the last decade has been that about a quarter of the communities in transition transfer to another nonprofit senior living provider, and life plan communities are most likely to retain their nonprofit status unless driven by financial distress. In the last 10 years, nearly 48% of nonprofit transitions have been nonprofit providers being acquired by private investors.

With pandemic-era funding running dry, combined with workforce challenges, some nonprofit senior living providers have closed their doors. Between 2015 and 2025, 15% of nonprofit senior living providers have closed, but that figure between 2020 and 2025 shows that rate increasing to 19.8% of transactions in the last five years, according to the report.

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