FreeWill Acquires Grant Assistant, an AI-Based Platform to Speed and Simplify Grant Proposals for Nonprofits and International Development Organizations
- Grant Assistant's software helps grant applicants create winning proposals in a fraction of the time, offering access to billions in funding
- Acquisition will advance goal of driving $1 trillion for charity
NEW YORK, Oct. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- FreeWill, a social-good enterprise at the nexus of philanthropy and estate planning, announced today that it has acquired Grant Assistant, a state-of-the-art, AI-based platform designed to revolutionize the grant proposal process. Grant Assistant is a software solution that provides nonprofits and international development organizations with a proposal workflow toolkit that streamlines the entire grant application process.
Roughly one-third1 of total funding for all nonprofits comes from government grants and contracts, and another $100 billion2 in annual charitable funding derives from grant-making made by private foundations. The process of applying for a grant, however, is cumbersome, complex and painful. As a result, many nonprofits and international development organizations – particularly those with limited grant writing expertise – fail to secure funding they could otherwise obtain due to the time, cost, and experience needed to develop a winning grant proposal.
Grant Assistant launched in early 2024 to leverage best-in-class technology to create better grant proposals in one-third of the time by melding specialty skills with the power of AI. Grant Assistant features a straightforward, user-friendly process where organizations can generate summaries of RFPs, use templates to generate proposal structure, brainstorm and integrate program ideas, generate accurate and relevant content, and conduct a comprehensive compliance review before submitting their proposals.
"We are over the moon to welcome Grant Assistant into the FreeWill family," said Patrick Schmitt, co-CEO of FreeWill. "Grant Assistant is a truly innovative platform that fits perfectly within our long-term vision and our customers given previews of its capabilities in action have been absolutely blown away. We constantly hear existing customers rave about how much time they save and how they're winning more grants than ever before. It's all a testament to the Grant Assistant team accomplishing more in a short time than most companies do in a decade, and we're excited to have them on-board."
"When we started Grant Assistant, our goal was to help nonprofits and non-governmental organizations get as much funding as possible by making the grant writing process easier," said Mustafa Hasnain, CEO, Grant Assistant. "We quickly gained traction and got to know the management team of FreeWill, a company with an exemplary track record whose mission, brand, and path align perfectly with our own. Our relationship blossomed as we realized that merging could be a force multiplier for us, and a win for society. We couldn't be happier."
"Earlier this year, we had a tight deadline for a very technical proposal that normally would have taken at least four weeks," said Dr. Maggie Ehrenfried, Vice President of Advancement, LifeNet International. "With Grant Assistant, we were able to expedite the entire process, completing everything from program design to submission in just 10 days. Not only did Grant Assistant reduce the time, money, and stress involved, but it also helped us ensure the quality of the final submission."
Grant Assistant's full team, located in Washington, D.C. and Lahore, Pakistan, will remain part of FreeWill, whose employee footprint for the first time will span beyond the United States.
Terms of the transaction between FreeWill and Grant Assistant were not disclosed.
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. Through its partnerships with 1,500+ 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 more than $10 billion in planned and real-time gifts for more than 10,000 nonprofits while helping more than 1,000,000 consumers create wills and plan their estates.
About Grant Assistant
Grant Assistant is an AI-enhanced toolkit designed to make the grant application process faster and easier for organizations of all sizes. By providing a simple and structured workflow from initial grant evaluation to guided program design, AI-enabled drafting support, and integrated compliance review, Grant Assistant empowers organizations to create winning proposals with confidence. For more information, visit Grant Assistant.ai.
1 https://www.nonprofitimpactmatters.org/site/assets/files/1/nonprofit-impact-matters-sept-2019-1.pdf#page=21
2 https://philanthropy.indianapolis.iu.edu/news-events/news/_news/2024/giving-usa-us-charitable-giving-totaled-557.16-billion-in-2023.html
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