In Episode 14 of the Disruptors for Good podcast I speak with Jenny Xia Spradling, the Co-founder and Co-CEO of FreeWill, an online will creation platform aiming to channel $1 Trillion towards charity over the next 10 years!

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About Freewill

FreeWill is a social enterprise that’s generated more than $650 million in committed funds for non-profit organizations around the country.

Partnering with organizations like the American Red Cross, United Way, Save the Children, Human Rights Watch, and Defenders of Wildlife, FreeWill is currently facilitating about $3M pledged to charity every single day!

They did this by building an intuitive and warm estate planning platform that encourages charitable giving during the process.

Serving the 70% of Americans without an up to date will, it takes 20 minutes or less, is completely free, and generates legally valid wills in all fifty states.

FreeWill is aiming to channel $1 Trillion towards charity over the next 10 years.

Jenny is a veteran of McKinsey and Bain Capital, where she helped to launch the firm’s first impact investment fund. She is the cofounder of Paribus (acquired by Capital One). She holds a degree in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University and also holds a MBA from Stanford University.

Interview Transcript

00:00

Grant: What’s up everybody? This is Grant at Causeartist. Today we are chatting with Jenny Xia Spradling, the co-founder and CEO of FreeWill, a social enterprise that has generated over $650 million in committed funds for nonprofit organizations around the country.

They partner with organizations like the American Red Cross, United Way, Save the Children, Human Rights Watch, and Defenders of Wildlife. FreeWill currently facilitates about $3 million pledged to charity every single day.

They built an estate planning platform that encourages charitable giving during the process, serving the 70% of Americans without an up-to-date will. It takes about 20 minutes or less, is completely free, and generates legally valid wills in all 50 states. FreeWill aims to channel $1 trillion towards charity over the next 10 years. So, hope you guys enjoy the conversation with Jenny. Let’s dive in.

01:14

Grant: The first thing I’d like to ask is how was your journey to get to this point? What has your career path been like to lead you to start FreeWill and impact the world through this company?

01:25

Jenny: Great question. I guess it all kind of started with math. I grew up being a math kind of girl, and during college, I thought I was going to be a math major. But I realized that true math majors are like philosophers. What I actually enjoyed was using math to understand the world around me.

I ended up being a math and econ major, and I realized over time that following money is a good way to understand how the world works, where power resides, and where it doesn’t. An interesting area I started looking into more was philanthropy.

I was always interested in it during college but didn’t think I could make a career out of it. So, I ended up in consulting and finance, using math to understand companies and what makes them successful or not.

In finance, I found it odd that we weren’t applying the same thought process and rigor to philanthropy. Many people were lost when it came to giving—who to give to, how much, and when. Fast forward a few years, and I was lucky to meet my co-founder, Patrick Schmitt.

He came from a different background, committed to social change and the public sector, and knew a lot about email fundraising. We had instant founder chemistry.

On a walk, he pitched the idea of FreeWill—a free online wills platform encouraging charitable giving during estate planning. The average gift in a will is $70,000, which is three times the cumulative lifetime giving of an average individual. This was a lightbulb moment for me. It’s an opportunity for normal folks to give significantly, even if they don’t have $10,000 to give during their lifetime.

We created FreeWill to unlock that opportunity and make estate planning easy and free. We just ask people if they want to give to charity in their wills, and the answer is often yes. It’s like organ donation—people are willing if asked at the right time. We can create a dual impact by simplifying estate planning and encouraging charitable giving. So far, we’ve raised over $600 million for charity.

05:43

Grant: How does the platform work? Is it like Legal Zoom where I create a will specific to my state, and then at the end, there’s an option to give to nonprofits?

06:09

Jenny: Great question. People can donate to any charity they choose. This was important to us because it’s in our name, FreeWill—we want to honor people’s freedom to choose. We realized that many people want to give but don’t know who to give to. We provide resources and suggest trusted organizations based on the cause areas people care about, like education or the environment.

08:05

Grant: Is there an option to give to multiple organizations, like dividing a percentage among several nonprofits? Do people do that often?

08:24

Jenny: Yes, people can give to multiple causes, and it’s very common. Most people actually give to more than one charity, creating portfolios of different organizations.

09:40

Grant: From the initial conversation to launching the product, how long did it take?

09:45

Jenny: It was pretty quick. We wanted to get an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) out there fast. We learned from professors at Stanford, including Jeff Epstein and Steve Blank, who taught us the importance of testing ideas early. We had an MVP within a couple of months, using a simple Squarespace website with a type form.

Patrick and I put it together in a weekend to see if people were interested in doing their wills online. The response was yes, and we found that people cared about charity when prompted. From there, it took another four or five months to build a solid product.

11:43

Grant: Was there a particular course or class at Stanford that was crucial to your journey?

11:48

Jenny: Yes, for Patrick and me, it was Lean LaunchPad. The curriculum is based on the lean startup methodology by Eric Ries and Steve Blank. It’s a rigorous class where you build an MVP and run weekly experiments and interviews. We talked to over 200 people to validate our idea. This process gave us the confidence that no one else could provide, not even the most experienced entrepreneurs or VCs.

13:20

Grant: Do you present the product to just consumers, or do you also work with businesses like law firms or hospitals?

13:28

Jenny: We do talk to those folks. It’s important to understand your entire business model, including channel partners and resources.

Neither Patrick nor I are lawyers, so we needed legal experts to help us translate complex statutes into a tech product. We also had to understand the needs of people who would use the wills and those who would support the legal aspects.

15:08

Grant: How is the great wealth transfer of $35 trillion over the next 20 years calculated, and what does it mean for nonprofits?

15:20

Jenny: It’s called the great wealth transfer because it’s the largest transfer of money in human history. The opportunity for nonprofits is significant, but it’s important to educate them on this and emphasize that the opportunity won’t last forever. Nonprofits need to invest in this now.

It can be challenging because talking about death with donors is tough, but it’s a crucial moment for philanthropy.

18:03

Grant: We’re in an era where technology is finally impacting the philanthropic sector. How does FreeWill allow people to fill out a will for free?

18:20

Jenny: We’re supported by amazing nonprofits. Over 160 nonprofit partners pay us for customized versions of our web app that they can send to their donors, encouraging them to consider their organization in their estate planning. This allows us to provide our services for free.

It also gives nonprofits insights into their planned giving efforts, something that’s been hard to measure traditionally.

20:49

Grant: So nonprofits can essentially white label the platform for their use?

21:00

Jenny: It’s similar but mostly FreeWill-branded because people want to know there’s a wills expert behind the product. This also allows nonprofits to have insights into their planned giving efforts.

21:56

Grant: Any advice for people passionate about an idea and wanting to take the next step?

22:05

Jenny: Find the right partner, someone you trust and who gives critical feedback. Then, just jump in. People often debate whether the idea or the founder is more important, but in my experience, it’s the people. The right partner makes you better, and then you just have to take the leap.

23:07

Grant: Thank you so much for your time, Jenny. FreeWill is an innovative tool, and technology is empowering more philanthropy and impact. Best of luck in the future!

23:33

Jenny: Thank you, Grant. It’s been great talking with you.