FreeWill, a social-good enterprise at the nexus of philanthropy and estate planning, announced it has raised $30 million in Series B funding round led by Bain Capital Double Impact alongside existing investors. This round follows a previous Series A financing led by ICONIQ Growth, which also included QED Investors, Ulu, Highland, Pear, and HearstLab. FreeWill will use the new capital for product development and scaling its capabilities in providing nonprofits comprehensive planned and major giving support.
FreeWill is a public benefit corporation that was initially launched in 2017, and offers free, online software tools designed to broaden Americans' access to estate planning tools, while helping them support the charitable causes they love. The company offers a comprehensive suite of estate planning tools that have helped more than 460,000 individuals create wills and commit nearly $5 billion to more than 10,000 nonprofits through charitable bequests.
We founded FreeWill with a goal of raising more than $1 trillion for nonprofits. We saw that nonprofit technology -- and particularly technology around planned and major giving -- lacked the innovation seen in other areas. We want to make the highest-impact ways of giving easier for everyone involved, from donors to nonprofit fundraisers, and in doing so, transform philanthropy for the better. We're lucky to have found like-minded impact investors with whom we can collaborate."
Jenny Xia Spradling and Patrick Schmitt, co-CEOs of FreeWill
FreeWill has also expanded its innovative product suite to enable nonprofits to accept a growing range of non-cash gifts through its Bequest Tool for legacy giving, a Qualified Charitable Distributions Tool to fundraise in real-time from IRAs, a Stock Gifts Tool for real-time giving, and a new Crypto for Charity tool that helps nonprofits – the vast majority of whom are currently unable to take crypto donations today – immediately begin accepting crypto gifts within a day.
"We are thrilled to support a pioneering mission-driven enterprise like FreeWill that is transforming the process for planned and non-cash nonprofit giving," said Iain Ware, Managing Director of Bain Capital Double Impact. "The company's highly differentiated offerings are building the future of philanthropy by enabling nonprofits to more efficiently raise meaningful incremental donations to expand critical services to the communities they serve. We are excited to empower FreeWill's ambitious growth and impact plan by supporting its expansion into adjacent services and customer groups and enhancing its current suite of nonprofit giving resources."
Based on five-year fundraising data spanning 2010 to 2015, nonprofits receiving only cash gifts grew fundraising 11% – only marginally exceeding inflation during that time – while nonprofits receiving at least some non-cash gifts saw 50% lift.1 The average cash gift is $120,2 while FreeWill proprietary data shows the average bequest is $48,000, the average stock gift is $10,000, and the average crypto gift is $7,000.
About FreeWill
FreeWill is a social-good enterprise offering online tools that empower Americans to address commonly faced estate planning needs and make charitable donations in tax-advantaged ways, all for free. FreeWill also features a charitable giving platform that makes it easier for nonprofit fundraising teams to unlock transformational non-cash gifts. Through its partnerships with 1,000+ nonprofits who understand that major gifts often are part of estate plans, the company is also able to provide a comprehensive suite of estate planning and related tools to consumers free of cost. To date, FreeWill has generated nearly $5 billion in planned and real-time gifts for more than 10,000 nonprofits while helping more than 460,000 consumers create wills and plan their estates.
About Bain Capital Double Impact
Bain Capital Double Impact is the impact investing strategy of Bain Capital, a leading global private investment firm. Bain Capital Double Impact leverages deep industry experience and an active, value-added approach to build great companies that deliver both competitive financial returns and meaningful, measurable social and environmental good. Bain Capital Double Impact partners with companies across three themes – health & wellness, education & workforce development, and sustainability to create long-term value and meaningful social impact at scale.