Partner Panel recap: How FreeWill partners found planned giving success during National Estate Planning Awareness Week
Introducing National Estate Planning Awareness Week
Every year, during the third week of October, we celebrate National Estate Planning Awareness Week, sometimes affectionately referred to as NEPAW. This national holiday promotes the importance of estate planning and legacy giving to all.
Before NEPAW 2024, FreeWill hosted a Partner Panel to educate nonprofits on how some of our savvy nonprofit partners leverage NEPAW to engage their supporters in planned giving.
The University of St. Thomas, the American Diabetes Association, and the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption each shared their unique experiences participating in NEPAW and their intentions to continue leveraging planned giving as an opportunity.
We’ve shared the highlights below and hope you can leverage these insights when planning for your own NEPAW campaign or other prime planned giving moments throughout the year.
University of St. Thomas
During National Estate Planning Awareness Week in 2023, the University of St. Thomas used a straightforward, well-coordinated campaign strategy to engage a broad audience of alumni, donors, and university staff.
Kiernan O'Connor, Director of Development, emphasized that "the key takeaway in this process is not to overthink this. FreeWill has more hands-on experience with what's working and the framing options that they present have been vetted."
By partnering with FreeWill, the university simplified the estate planning process for its community, addressing common barriers like perceived complexity and time consumption. As Kiernan noted, "People procrastinate because they think it's complicated, expensive, and time-consuming, and FreeWill addresses all of those issues, eliminating the obstacles to procrastination."
American Diabetes Association
The American Diabetes Association (ADA) has also seen notable success with their National Estate Planning Awareness Week (NEPAW) campaigns by adopting a broad, multi-channel approach.
Last year, ADA reached a wide audience with their FreeWill outreach, leading to 400 people visiting their website, with 22 individuals creating wills through their outreach. Impressively, ten of those individuals became recurring donors, highlighting the long-term relationship-building potential of this campaign.
Sue Dishart, Senior Vice President of Development at ADA, emphasized that the organization uses best practices provided by FreeWill’s strategists to ensure that their communication is impactful. This includes concise, easy-to-read emails with large call-to-action buttons at the top to catch the reader’s attention and a focus on making the content visually appealing.
As Sue noted, “We try to keep the message small, especially knowing since so many people are looking at emails on their phones, they don’t want to be scrolling forever." ADA’s structured outreach plan starts with an initial email at the beginning of NEPAW week, followed by a social media post mid-week, and a final reminder email to those who did not respond initially.
ADA also views FreeWill as more than just a tool—they consider their FreeWill strategist an integral part of their planned giving team, helping them to grow their program continuously.
Sue added, “We almost feel like our strategist is part of our planned giving team, which is great. The acquisitions, the learning, and the community support we get have all been very beneficial.”
Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption
Last year, the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption’s email outreach drove notable engagement, including a follow-up email that resulted in the highest email interaction rate they had ever experienced. This success highlighted the value of a well-timed reminder without needing to reinvent messaging each time, allowing the team to focus their efforts where they were needed most.
Lisa Rovin, Director of Planned Giving at the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, emphasized the importance of consistent, year-round engagement to encourage action on estate planning.
The foundation worked closely with their FreeWill strategist, ensuring their campaign content aligned with their internal communications calendar. By using FreeWill’s templated materials, they could ease their workload while maintaining an effective outreach cadence.
By sending their NEPAW to their full email list, Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption was able to reach their widest audience to encourage supporters to include their organization in their estate plans. This year, the Foundation plans to further expand their outreach by incorporating more social media and text messaging, recognizing the power of multi-channel visibility in driving donor action.
How your nonprofit can grow planned giving
There are multiple times throughout the year that are ideal for highlighting planned giving. Moments like Make-A-Will Month in August, National Estate Planning Awareness Week, and the New Year are all prime occasions to encourage your supporters to think about creating and protecting their legacy.
As your team moves through 2025, remember that Make-A-Will Month in August is the best time of year to promote planned giving to your supporters and is consistently FreeWill’s top-performing planned giving campaign.
Connect with a FreeWill expert to learn more about how you can set up a successful planned giving campaign in time for Make-A-Will Month and make 2025 the year you make legacy giving a priority for your team.