Learning Hub

Exclusive live & recorded trainings for active FreeWill partners

Upcoming live trainings and events

Join us for the 2026 Giving Season Summit!

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Year-end giving season is won or lost with decisions you make long before December arrives.

That's why FreeWill and Charity Navigator are hosting the first-ever Giving Season Summit.

We invited some of the smartest voices in fundraising to share actionable strategies you can

put to work right away. Join us. Earn CFRE credits. And get ready for a blockbuster year-end!

 

Thu, September 10, 2026 from 11:30am-6:00pm ET

 

With special pre-event, partner-only sessions on Wed, September 9!

3:00-3:45pm ET — One Donor, Many Ways to Give: A practical intro to smart giving

4:00-4:30pm ET — Inside the Strategy: FreeWill's 2026 year-end outreach playbook

4:30-5:00pm ET — United for Growth: How cross-team alignment drives EOY giving

 

FREE. VIRTUAL. BRING YOUR WHOLE TEAM.

 

→ Reserve your spot today! 

Recorded 101-level courses

Learn the basics in recorded sessions available on demand.

Planned Giving Suite trainings

Watch recordings of past sessions focused on FreeWill's planned giving products and how to grow your legacy program.

Planned Giving Certificate
Our five-course certificate program helps you jump start your FreeWill partnership or accelerate your planned giving journey with courses on marketing, donor conversations, stewardship, and more.
 
Complete all five courses and an online quiz to earn the certificate, or pick-and-choose the courses that interest you.
→ Explore the courses
Campaign Info Session: NEPAW
National Estate Planning Awareness Week (NEPAW) was founded in 2008 as a way to help Americans understand what estate planning is and why it's a vital component of financial wellness. For your org, it's an opportunity to raise awareness, put free easy-to-use estate planning tools in your donors’ hands, and generate legacy gifts in the process.
→ Watch the recording
Protecting Pets for Life: Planned giving and pet guardianship with FreeWill
For animal lovers, ensuring a beloved pet is cared for is one of the most emotional and motivating reasons to engage in estate planning. This session explored how animal welfare orgs can leverage a Pet Guardianship program to deepen donor relationships, inspire long-term support, and help donors protect the pets they cherish.
→ Watch the recording
Make-A-Will Sunday: Faith-aligned strategies for MAWM success
National Make-A-Will Month is a timely opportunity to provide both practical guidance and spiritual encouragement around financial stewardship and generosity. In this session for faith partners, we explored how to mobilize congregations and key volunteers with a "Make-A-Will Sunday" effort this August.
→ Watch the recording
Campaign Info Session: Make-A-Will Month
Our biggest campaign is back! National Make-A-Will Month is an essential element of FreeWill's planned giving strategy. All Planned Giving Suite partners are encouraged to participate and send outreach this August. Watch the video to learn more!
→ Watch the recording
Campaign Info Session: Spring Bequests
FreeWill encourages all Planned Giving Suite partners to connect with supporters this spring, or during Volunteer Appreciation Month in April, to share how planned gifts ensure sustainability well into the future. Learn all about our outreach strategy recommendations in this recorded session.
→ Watch the recording
2025 Bequest Campaign Retrospective
FreeWill's strategy recommendations are based, in no small part, on ongoing analysis of how your bequest tools and outreach campaigns perform. We dove into the 2025 data and shared key learnings from that analysis, and how those findings informed our 2026 strategies.
→ Watch the recording
Campaign Info Session: Winter Bequests
Your donors receive a blizzard of requests for cash gifts at year-end. That makes January a great time to pivot to planned giving: a meaningful way to give that costs nothing now. It's also a resilient fundraising model not as vulnerable to economic downturns, and it boosts donor loyalty. In this session, we shared outreach strategies for Jan/Feb that will help you start 2026 with a bang!
→ Watch the recording
2024 Bequest Campaign Retrospective
Our ongoing work with 1,800 nonprofit partners informs the marketing strategies we share with you. We dove into our 2024 data and were excited to share key findings from that analysis, and how those learnings informed our 2025 strategies.
→ Watch the recording
12 essential estate planning documents everyone needs
In advance of National Estate Planning Awareness Week (NEPAW), we shared an overview of important legal documents your supporters may consider including in their estate plan, why each is essential, and how they can get them ready.
→ Watch the recording
Creative strategies to drive YoY results
How can you sustain (and boost!) your FreeWill results long-term? In this session, we reviewed best practices for planned giving outreach and shared creative outreach strategies to try in Year 2, 3 & beyond.
→ Watch the recording

Smart Giving Suite trainings

Watch recordings of past sessions focused on FreeWill's smart giving products and how to grow your non-cash giving program. 

Smart Giving Certificate
Our five-course certificate program helps you jump start your FreeWill partnership or take your comfort and confidence with non-cash giving to the next level.
 
Complete all five courses and an online quiz to earn the certificate, or pick-and-choose the courses that interest you.
→ Explore the courses
QCDs in 2026: Why they're having a moment and how to adapt your strategy
Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCD) from traditional IRA accounts are having a moment! We'll review the basics of IRA gifts, share new research on IRA giving, and suggest timely outreach strategies to leverage the popularity of QCDs this year.
→ Watch the recording
Campaign Info Session: Summer Smart Giving
Sending smart giving outreach throughout the year is a key strategy for success, priming donors to give at year-end. Watch our 30-min info session to hear all about our summer 2026 outreach strategy. This summer is a great time to educate donors on the benefits of non-cash donations.
→ Watch the recording
2025 Smart Giving Retrospective
How did the Smart Giving Suite perform in 2025? What macro conditions affected smart giving? How are those insights and the 2026 landscape informing our smart giving outreach this year? We dove into the data to share key findings from that analysis. Watch to learn more!
→ Watch the recording
Campaign Info Session: Tax Season Smart Giving
At tax time, finances and potential savings are already top-of-mind for Americans. Leverage the moment to educate your donors on the benefits of shifting from cash giving to tax-smart gifts of assets. Watch this recording to learn about our 2026 tax season smart giving outreach strategy.
→ Watch the recording
Smart Giving Suite widget office hours
The Smart Giving Suite (SGS) widget is officially live and available to all partners! In these live office hours, we demoed the widget and provided guidance and support to install it in real time. Check out the recording, and if you have questions, email partnersupport@freewill.com.
→ Watch the recording
The growing power of DAFs
DAFs have shown stunning growth over the last five years, with no signs of their popularity slowing down. In this session, FreeWill's co-CEO Patrick Schmitt unpacked and demystified this hot giving trend — and introduced you to FreeWill's new solution for DAF giving.
→ Watch the recording
Workshop: QCD Donor Conversations
Many gift officers are looking to build comfort and confidence talking about IRA giving with mature donors. This interactive workshop offered tips for introducing QCDs into donor conversations at all points in the donor cultivation cycle.
→ Download the presentation

Stewardship trainings

Thoughtful recognition and stewardship is essential to any fundraising program. Explore strategies to create donor relationships that last a lifetime.

Donor Stewardship Summit Resources
FreeWill's first-ever Donor Stewardship Summit in April 2026 was a rousing success! This two-day virtual event was free and open to FreeWill partners only. Visit this page to access all of the session recordings and download the PDF presentations. 
→ Access recordings and PDF presentations
Campaign Info Session: Evergreen Stewardship Campaign
Some partners experience challenges verifying planned gift commitments. An outreach campaign focused on confirming existing gift intentions can help! A stewardship campaign helps confirm gifts made via your FreeWill tools and uncover previously undisclosed bequests made outside of FreeWill.
 
→ Watch the recording
Partner Roundtable: Planned giving stewardship
Our first ever Partner Roundtable facilitated connection with other FreeWill partner contacts working in planned giving and created space to learn what others are doing to steward their FreeWill bequest donors. 
→ Watch the recording
FreeWill Forum: UX Stewardship Research Study
FreeWill's User Experience (UX) team conducted a stewardship research study that is informing new resource development and product updates at FreeWill in 2023. Watch this recording to learn more about the study and how these insights can help you steward FreeWill bequest donors.
→ Watch the recording
5 strategies to enhance your donor communication & stewardship strategy
Explore learnings from FreeWill's 2021 tax season campaign and review the most effective strategies to steward your donors.
→ Watch the recording
Workshop: Building relationships and retaining donors
Learn about stewardship best practices, what your peers are doing, and how you can maximize your Bequest tool's success with three easy steps.
→ Watch the recording

Grants trainings

For fundraising professionals at any stage of their grant-writing journey!

The Funded Budget: Align your numbers with your narrative
Bridge the gap between your program's vision and the final grant proposal budget. In this session, we show you how to align your numbers with your narrative so that your financial request reinforces, rather than complicates, your story. We also shared a clear process for building a funded budget that proves to partners you're ready to execute on your mission.
→ Watch the recording
The Federal Grant Blueprint: Master the art of high-stakes grant writing
Transform the daunting federal application process into a manageable, automated workflow. In this session, we showed you how to move beyond basic drafting to synthesizing complex program data into a winning strategic narrative for all types of large-scale grants.
→ Watch the recording
The perfect pitch: Mastering the letter of inquiry (LOI)
This session equipped fundraisers with a high-speed framework to master the Letter of Inquiry, transforming generic introductions into compelling pitches that demand funder attention. 
→ Watch the recording
Proposal writing fundamentals
This session equipped fundraisers with a systematic framework to deconstruct funder requirements, draft data-driven narratives, and align project budgets with measurable community outcomes. 
 
→ Watch the recording
Get grant-ready for 2026
This practical training was designed for nonprofit professionals at any stage of their grant journey. Explore trends and best practices, and enjoy our practical checklist and actionable steps to strengthen your organization’s funding approach.
→ Download the slide deck
The power of grants, and Grant Assistant
Is your nonprofit new to grants, or considering jumping into grant-seeking in 2026? Join us to learn the basics of grants and grant-writing programs – and to learn about FreeWill's grants solution, Grant Assistant!
→ Watch the recording

Other Trainings

Special trainings on other fundraising-related topics.

Be a Partner Portal power user! 7/30/26
If you missed our quarterly Partner Portal "deep dive," check out the recording! We reviewed underutilized sections of the Portal, reviewed several recent feature releases that deliver tons of value, and teased a new feature expected to launch next week. Check it out!
→ Watch the recording
Supercharge your Giving Day with FreeWill
Giving Days are traditionally known for high-volume, small-dollar donations. But they also present a massive, often untapped opportunity to secure larger, more impactful gifts. Watch this session to learn how to transform your next Giving Day into a masterclass in donor education and major gift pipeline building.
→ Watch the recording
Sow, Grow, Give: Fundraising lessons from the garden
Great fundraising programs aren't built overnight. They're planted, nurtured, and grown with intention. In this session, we explored the surprising parallels between fundraising and gardening. Whether you're tending a mature program or just planting new ideas, you'll gain practical strategies to help your fundraising flourish.
→ Watch the recording
Be a Partner Portal power user! 4/30/2026
In this quarterly Partner Portal "deep dive," we reviewed several recent feature releases you may have missed, and we teased exciting new updates expected to deploy later this year. Watch the recording to be, or remain, a power user!
→ Watch the recording
Be a Partner Portal power user! 1/29/2026
In our quarterly Portal "deep dive", we answered some lingering questions from last time, helped you get your bearings with a 2-min. overview, and then dove into recently-released features you may have missed and exciting updates coming soon. Watch the recording to keep your Portal skills sharp!
→ Watch the recording
2026 Product Roadmap Partner Preview
Hear from leaders across FreeWill about where we've been and where we're heading! We reviewed exciting product and resource updates from 2025 and shared a first look at releases, enhancements, and innovations coming in 2026. 
→ Watch the recording
Donor prospect research & uncovering assets
For many nonprofits, identifying potential new donors is a huge challenge. In this session, we discussed prospect research strategies, what philanthropic and wealth indicators signal strong prospects, and what works well for other FreeWill partners like you.
→ Watch the recording
Be a Partner Portal power user! 10/30/2025
In this quarterly Portal "deep dive", we explored important but under-used sections of Portal, recently-released features you may have missed, and some exciting updates poised to launch in the near future. Watch the recording for our top tips for getting the most value from the Portal's data & insights.
→ Watch the recording
Get smart on Google Ads & SEO
Reaching new audiences is an essential part of growing your supporter base — and in the internet age, resources like Google Ads and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are often pillars of an organization's online marketing or communications plan.
→ Watch the recording
Effectively partnering with donors & their financial advisors
If your donor works with a professional advisor, it's helpful for you to understand the role of the advisor, and to work to ensure philanthropy is part of the conversation. Join FreeWill and reps from Mercer Advisors to learn more.
→ Watch the recording

Product Demos & Feature Updates

Recorded product demos walk you through the warm and intuitive user flows for FreeWill's platform of products, and short videos detail recent product updates that help you work more efficiently and better steward your FreeWill donors.

Want more partner resources?

Visit our Partner Resource Hub to learn how market the FreeWill tools to your supporters and unlock transformative gifts for your cause.

 

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Copyright © 2026 FreeWill Co., a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation. All rights reserved. FreeWill offers online self-help solutions for common estate planning needs and related educational content. Estate planning may implicate both state and federal laws, and estate planning needs will differ based on personal circumstance and applicable law. FreeWill is not a law firm and its services are not substitutes for an attorney’s advice. The information here is provided for educational purposes only and is not intended to provide, and should not be construed as providing legal or tax advice. This information is general in nature and is not intended to serve as the primary or sole basis for investment or tax-planning decisions. Use of FreeWill’s services is subject to the Terms of Service & Privacy Notice.

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