How the Alpha-1 Foundation secured $812K+ in primary bequests and a $100K+ stock gift through FreeWill

The Opportunity

As Senior Director of Development at the Alpha-1 Foundation, Linda Rodriguez oversees a wide range of fundraising responsibilities, from major gifts and corporate giving to year-end appeals and planned giving. The Alpha-1 Foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to finding a cure for Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency, a rare genetic condition, while supporting the patients and families living with the disease.

But with just six people on the development team, building a robust planned giving program alongside those responsibilities required a scalable approach.

“We’re small but mighty,” Linda says. With a small team supporting planned giving and no individual donor portfolios, the team needed a way to consistently reach donors without adding more work to an already full plate.

I wanted to make planned giving a broader offering for our constituents.

Linda Rodriguez
Senior Director of Development

When Linda first learned about FreeWill, she was drawn to the opportunity to rethink what planned giving could look like for the Alpha-1 Foundation. Rather than limiting planned giving conversations to older donors, she wanted to make it a broader offering for the organization’s community, including younger supporters and donors interested in different ways to give.

“I wanted to make planned giving a broader offering for our constituents.”

The Solution

FreeWill became an extension of Alpha-1 Foundation’s small development team, providing the tools, content, and strategic support needed to integrate planned and non-cash giving into its existing fundraising strategy.

FreeWill’s customized outreach calendar gave the team ready-to-use content they could easily incorporate into their communications. Because the content reflects the Alpha-1 Foundation’s voice and mission, the team can spend less time coordinating internally and more time getting resources in front of donors.

“Having ready-to-use content from FreeWill allows us to just plug it into our system and provide our donors the tools they need in no time at all.”

The partnership also helped the Alpha-1 Foundation broaden the way it thinks about its donor pipeline. As the team identifies donors’ interests and giving behaviors, they can connect them with relevant opportunities, from planned gifts and bequests to stock, DAF, and QCD giving.

FreeWill’s educational resources have made those conversations easier, too. Rather than leading with a direct ask, the Alpha-1 Foundation can give donors helpful information that allows them to explore their options on their own time.

That approach recently led to the organization’s largest stock gift to date: more than $100,000 through the embedded non-cash giving widget.

The gift came from a longtime donor who had historically given smaller annual gifts. After continuing to receive the Alpha-1 Foundation’s FreeWill content and reconnecting with the organization in person, the donor visited the Alpha-1 Foundation’s website to learn more about stock giving. She saw the embedded non-cash giving widget, clicked through, and completed her gift.

When Linda followed up, the donor told her:

“I saw the widget on your website, and I just clicked on it. I just went through the pages, and it was just so easy to make my gift.”

For Linda, the experience demonstrated how a simple donor experience can turn an educational resource into meaningful action.

Beyond the technology itself, Linda credits FreeWill’s strategic support with helping her team stay consistent. Her FreeWill strategist, Lizzie, has gotten to know the Alpha-1 Foundation’s fundraising calendar, communication channels, and voice, proactively identifying opportunities to incorporate planned and non-cash giving into existing outreach.

“FreeWill just feels like an extension of who we are. You’re another member of our development department.”

With FreeWill, the Alpha-1 Foundation has been able to make planned and non-cash giving a natural part of its fundraising strategy without requiring a larger team or a separate program to manage.

FreeWill just feels like an extension of who we are. You’re another member of our development department.

Linda Rodriguez
Senior Director of Development