Most Senior Living Nonprofits See Healthspan as ‘Very Important’ for Future Residents

Senior living nonprofits are targeting more healthy aging for residents and investing in healthspan-oriented services and practices that extend the quality of a resident’s life.

Non-profit senior living operators already offer programs under the banner of improving physical and cognitive traits and engaging residents. In 2026, the concept of healthspan is not a distinct investment category, and its implementation is fragmented and based on specific programs. But more senior living organizations are seeking to unify these services and expand on their healthspan offerings in the years ahead.

Respondents to a recent Ziegler CFO Hotline survey typically defined healthspan as programming that emphasizes independence, vitality, cognitive function and purpose. According to the survey and its 110 respondents, top words that operators align with healthspan include healthy aging (82%), independence (77%) and mobility (75%).

More than 81% of respondents reported funding healthspan programming and services primarily through operating budgets. Around 20% utilize philanthropic efforts and grants to fund healthspan concepts, while 13.7% indicated it is baked into the capital budget. The results show efforts may not be formally centralized under a healthspan initiative, according to the survey.

Healthspan importance

Almost 86% of respondents said healthspan will be “very important” for the next wave of residents coming into the industry. Only 1.9% indicated they don’t believe it will be important in the near future.

The majority of respondents to the Ziegler survey are incorporating aspects of “healthspan” into their operations, such as strength, balance and mobility programs (88.7%), fall-risk or functional assessments (84.9%) and cogitative engagement or screening (80.2%) being the most prominent responses.

Nearly one-third of respondents don’t utilize outside partnerships or technology for their initiatives, while one-third use both. The survey indicates single-site operators “tend to be more variable, either opting out of partnerships or building highly customized, locally driven models” compared to multi-site operators, who “demonstrate greater consistency and scale, with more standardized platforms and structured partner strategies, often deployed through pilots across portfolios.”

Future investments

Among the top sought after programs these operators still want to bring in as part of healthspan initiatives are cognitive engagement or screening, purpose-driven programming and strength, balance and mobility programs, with 51.2% of respondents anticipating they will be added within the next one to three years and 23.3% believing it will be possible within the next 12 months. Meanwhile, 22.1% still have not determined the timing with which it will happen.

Additionally funding is likely for these programs as well, with 62% signifying they believe investments will increase modestly and 22% see it increasing significantly. Only 7% were unsure about increasing budgets for these programs, and none indicated an intention to decrease funds.

Like many other initiatives in senior living, staffing capacity is the biggest barrier to adding more healthspan programming, according to 60.6% of respondents. Almost half, or 47.5%, also expressed concerns about the uncertainty of costs and a return on investment.

For 38.4% of respondents, now is the time for continued experimentation and learning on these types of initiatives. A total of 32.3% are actively scaling initiatives or strategies, while 17.2% indicated healthspan is not a current priority to them.

“Overall, the findings reflect a sector progressing from experimentation toward formalization and scale, with increasing strategic alignment but uneven levels of maturity across organizations,” the survey’s authors wrote.

Andrew Christman is a reporter for Senior Housing News as part of WTWH Media, an avid reader and writer. He enjoys new book finds from his local library, and playing tabletop games with friends.