Introducing our new Innovation Director

We’re thrilled to have phenomenal talent joining as the Partner Success Innovation Director: say hello to Sharanya Krishna Prasad! Sharanya will lead the FreeWill Innovation team in elevating experimentation and creativity to help your organization succeed. So you can get to know her, we recently sat down with her to ask a few questions:

What is your professional background?

I joined FreeWill after nearly two decades of experience in nonprofit management and operations, fundraising, marketing, and communications. I have advised hundreds of U.S. and international nonprofits and socially-conscious brands on fundraising marketing and social impact communications, recently at Care2.

What's one experiment you ran at Care2 that had a big impact on your partners?

I worked closely with partners to optimize emails and online petitions while at Care2. My most successful test was on subject lines for an email promoting a virtual anti-fur protest. You could join the protest by adding your name and optionally creating a cartoon avatar wearing either fur-free clothing (or nothing at all) to join the virtual parade. The winning subject line? “Don’t open this email at work.” You can take a wild guess on what everyone receiving that subject line did!

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I grew up in India and always wanted to help animals in some way. I considered being a veterinarian until I realized how much vivisection/dissection was involved. That motivated me to move into a more policy/advocacy career path.

We're so excited for the innovation Sharanya will bring to our team and your strategy.

Contingent Gift Notifications

On September 21, we’re adding an email for contingent gifts to your daily bequest notifications. Many partners have requested this, and these gifts represent valuable stewardship opportunities. If you’re not already considering contingent gifts an important part of your planned giving strategy, now is a great time to start!

What is a contingent gift? A contingent gift (or contingent bequest) is a gift that’s made only if the primary beneficiary predeceases the person who made the will. These gifts may or may not be realized - but when they are, they tend to be considerably larger than primary bequests.

What should I do? Review your contingent bequest commitments in the Partner Portal, and reach out to steward these donors. Hot tip: secondary and tertiary gifts are listed right alongside primary gifts in New Portal view.

As always, if you’d like to opt-out of gift notification emails or have questions about contingent gifts, simply reply to your notification email to contact your Strategist.

We’re also changing the delivery time of bequest notification emails to 9 am EST. Partners with real-time giving tools will continue to receive stock gift and QCD notification emails at 8 pm EST, for now.