Foster lifelong generosity with donor-advised fund software

Donor-advised funds (DAFs) are becoming increasingly essential to nonprofit strategy. In the past five years, the wealth flowing in and out of DAFs has more than doubled.

Use donor-advised fund software by FreeWill to provide your supporters with an intuitive and effortless way to make DAF grants. Full visibility into donor and gift details makes it easy to build a robust DAF giving program that can support your organization’s work for years to come.

Donor-advised fund software can help nonprofits foster a community of lifelong donors.DAF software empowers your donors to leave lasting philanthropic legacies.

How it works

Grow your supporter base with FreeWill.

Make DAF contributions easy for your supporters

With FreeWill, making a grant, regardless of DAF provider or sponsoring organization, is seamless and fully digital.

Get alerts when someone leaves a gift from their donor-advised fund.

See all your data in one place

FreeWill’s Portal provides full visibility into donation data, eliminating tedious detective work.

Get insights on your donor-advised fund gifts.

Strategically follow up and steward DAF donors

Gift details help inform successful stewardship strategies to sustain your DAF giving program.

DAF software allows your nonprofit to tap into the unprecedented growth of donor-advised funds in recent years.

A growing and sustainable opportunity

DAFs have seen remarkable growth in recent years. In 2021, wealth going into DAFs reached a new record of $73 billion, with the overall value of DAFs exceeding $235 billion — more than double the amount five years prior. DAFs have also proven to be more resilient to economic downturns compared to other forms of charitable giving.

Source: National Philanthropic Trust

DAF software creates an intuitive experience for donors

FreeWill, in partnership with Chariot, integrates with the leading DAF providers. That means for the majority of your supporters, it takes just three clicks without navigating away from your website to complete their donation – making it much more likely that your organization secures the gift.

Donor-advised fund reports and analytics allow you to manage and grow your DAF program easily.
Support from FreeWill’s DAF platform makes it easy to continually promote donor-advised funds and grow your program.

Create a focused stewardship strategy

When supporters use FreeWill to make a DAF grant, you gain essential information to shape a targeted and effective outreach strategy. Through the FreeWill Portal, capture information about the DAF donor and what causes they most care about.

Leverage FreeWill DAF support to educate your supporters

In 2021, nonprofits received over $45 billion in grants from DAFs. Still, untapped wealth remains in DAFs, especially in uncertain economic times when other sources of giving contract. By providing supporters with a discoverable and easy-to-use DAF experience, you can remind and educate them to make grants from DAFs, either for the first time or as a continuation of their giving efforts.

Source: National Philanthropic Trust

Streamline every part of creating and running your DAF giving program with FreeWill’s innovative software.
DAF software helps your nonprofit to capture more donor dollars.

Position your organization for success with DAFs

Organizations that received four or more DAF gifts in 2021 received 32% more DAF gifts in 2022 than they did the year before. Not only are organizations receiving more DAF gifts than they did in previous years, the average gift size is increasing. But organizations that aren’t actively promoting DAFs to their donor base are missing out — nonprofits that didn’t actively solicit DAFs in 2022 received 2.2 times fewer DAF dollars than those that did. It pays to seek donor-advised fund gifts proactively.

Source: FreeWill Donor-Advised Fund Report

DAF software trusted by the smartest minds in planned & major giving

Capturing information from donors that are giving through donor-advised funds has always been a challenge for us. [FreeWill] has made it really simple for us…Now, we are actively tracking a pipeline and I think it’s going to really help us grow this revenue channel year over year.

Trish Ellis
National Director of Major Gifts &
Planned Giving, Susan G. Komen

Having FreeWill is like having a part-time planned giving officer. Our FreeWill strategist is there anytime I have questions, ideas, or comments. I trust their expertise, and all the support they provide means I can spend time on other priorities.

Les Fout
Senior Stewardship Advisor
Knox Area Rescue Mission

For a small nonprofit, where we don’t even have a dedicated fundraising staff person, much less a major gifts or planned giving officer, FreeWill almost acts like the planned giving department I don’t have. FreeWill allows us to have a Planned Giving program that I otherwise would never have the time for. FreeWill lets us punch above our weight.

Alisa Mitchell
Executive Director
Library Foundation for Sarasota County

FAQ: Why invest in DAF software?

Why should donor-advised funds be a priority for organizations?

DAF dollars represent a major opportunity for nonprofits for a few reasons. They’ve skyrocketed in popularity among donors and now hold a considerable amount of wealth that has been specifically set aside for philanthropic purposes. DAFs currently hold over $234 billion, a nearly 40% increase over the past year. Donors who give through DAFs are also very loyal, with 77% of grants in 2022 going to nonprofits that the donor had previously supported.

Learn more with our guide, DAFs 101: The nonprofit’s guide to donor-advised funds.

Is it difficult to accept DAF gifts?

Not at all! Accepting DAF gifts is typically much easier than accepting other forms of non-cash gifts since any non-cash assets are liquidated upon being contributed to the DAF. This eliminates the need to work through brokerages and reduces the chance of receiving a gift anonymously.

How does donor-advised fund software help?

DAF software closes the loop by ensuring you properly collect and track the donor and gift information you need to run an effective giving program. Seamless data collection plus intuitive reporting features from FreeWill mean you can thank, steward, and engage your DAF donors for the long term.

Learn more about FreeWill’s comprehensive smart giving solutions.

Let’s start a conversation!

If you work for a nonprofit organization and would like to know how FreeWill can support your goals, please get in touch with our team by filling out this form.

One of our team members will reach out to you shortly to learn more about how we can help and to schedule a time to demonstrate how our products work.

In the meantime, feel free to review some resources our partners have found interesting:

Nonprofit Inquiry Form