Nonprofit Donor Management
Nonprofit Management
Planned Giving Software for Nonprofits
Last updated: October 7, 2026 · Independent buyer’s guide · We do not sell rankings or coverage.
Planned giving software is the set of tools a nonprofit uses to illustrate, market, record and administer deferred gifts such as bequests, charitable gift annuities and charitable remainder trusts. In practice it is rarely one product: most US gift planning programs combine a donor CRM that holds the gift records, a calculation tool such as PG Calc’s PGM Anywhere or Crescendo’s CresPro for proposals, a marketing platform for legacy outreach, and, if you issue gift annuities, administration software that handles payments, reserves and Form 1099-R. This guide explains which job each tool does, what the vendors publish about price, and where your existing CRM is enough.
Key takeaways
- Separate the four jobs before you shop: gift records and pipeline, gift illustrations, marketing, and gift annuity administration. Few vendors cover all four.
- Bequest tracking usually belongs in your donor CRM. Raiser’s Edge and Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud both have planned gift records, but neither is documented as calculating remainder values or deductions.
- Among specialist planned giving tools, calculation software is the only category with clear published prices: PGM Anywhere costs $2,180 in year one for the first seat, according to PG Calc.
- If you issue charitable gift annuities, you need software or an outsourced administrator that produces Form 1099-R with code F and the reserve reports your states require.
- Most marketing and administration vendors, including FreeWill, Crescendo’s GiftLegacy plans and PG Calc’s GiftWrap, do not publish prices. Budget time for quotes.
Why planned giving needs its own tools
Bequests are now a large share of US philanthropy. Giving USA’s 2026 report estimated charitable bequests at about $62.2 billion in 2025, up 19.7% in current dollars and roughly 10% of all giving (NonProfit PRO reporting Giving USA, June 23, 2026).
A standard gift record captures a payment that happened. A planned gift record has to hold an intention that may never be documented, an estimated value, a vehicle with its own tax rules and, for gift annuities, a legal obligation to pay the donor for life.
How the process works and where it goes wrong
Bequests and other revocable gifts
A bequest moves through recognizable stages: an unconfirmed intention, a documented commitment (often with a copy of the will or a signed intention form), notification of death, probate, and partial or final distribution. PG Calc’s Bequest Manager, for example, uses the statuses intention, notification, in process, in probate, in litigation, partial distribution and full distribution, and records the percentage of the estate bequeathed and a confidence level (PG Calc, no date shown).
Programs usually go wrong in three places. Intentions sit in a gift officer’s notes instead of the CRM. Estimated values are entered as if they were pledges, which distorts fundraising reports. And probate deadlines and partial distributions are tracked in email, so realized revenue cannot be reconciled to the original expectancy.
Charitable gift annuities
A gift annuity is a contract: the donor transfers cash or property and your organization pays a fixed amount for one or two lives. Most charities use the American Council on Gift Annuities suggested maximum rates. Those rates took effect January 1, 2024, and give, for example, 5.7% at age 65, 7.0% at age 75 and 10.1% at 90 and over for a single life (ACGA, approved November 17, 2023, reconfirmed April 29, 2024). PNC’s July 2026 update confirmed the suggested rates remain unchanged from the January 1, 2024 schedule (PNC, July 8, 2026).
Gift annuities carry obligations that a CRM does not handle. You report annuity payments on Form 1099-R, with the total paid in box 1, the taxable amount in box 2a, any capital gain in box 3 and code F in box 7a (IRS, 2026 Instructions for Forms 1099-R and 5498, June 2026). States also regulate gift annuities. New York and New Jersey require a permit, California requires a gift annuity-specific registration, Washington requires a certificate of exemption, and several states including Florida, Hawaii and Montana require segregated reserves (ACGA state regulations, most recent entries April 22 and June 25, 2025). ACGA states that users are responsible for verifying its data, so confirm each requirement with the relevant regulator.
Calculations and rates
Every life income gift illustration depends on the IRS Section 7520 rate, which equals 120% of the federal midterm rate rounded to the nearest 0.2%. For a gift with a charitable deduction, the donor may elect the rate for the month of the gift or either of the two preceding months (26 U.S.C. 7520, Cornell LII, no date shown). The IRS lists 5.2% for August 2026, 5.4% for September 2026 and 5.6% for October 2026 (IRS, updated September 25, 2026).
IRA rollovers add another rule. For 2026 the qualified charitable distribution limit is $111,000, and the one-time election to send a distribution to a split-interest entity such as a gift annuity is capped at $55,000 (IRS Notice 2025-67, November 13, 2025).
How software handles it
Donor CRM: the system of record
Your CRM should hold the planned gift record, linked to the donor, so gift officers, the legacy society and campaign reports use one set of data. Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud has a PlannedGift object with gift types including Bequest, Charitable Gift Annuity and Charitable Remainder Unitrust, statuses such as In Probate, Realized and Matured, and fields for expected amount, revocability, payout rate and maturity date (Salesforce Developer Guide, Winter ’27, no date shown).
Blackbaud’s Raiser’s Edge has long supported planned gift vehicles including bequest, gift annuity, remainder trusts, pooled income fund, retained life estate and life insurance. Its Planned Gift Tracking Guide states that the software does not calculate the estimated remainder value, net present value or expected maturity year (Blackbaud, PDF last modified August 27, 2018). If you are weighing CRMs, our comparison of donor management software for nonprofits covers the mid-market options.
Gift illustration and calculation software
This is the category most people mean by planned giving software. PG Calc’s PGM Anywhere produces proposals for bequests, gift annuities, remainder trusts, lead trusts, pooled income funds and retained life estates, calculates deductions and the taxation of payments, and generates gift annuity agreements that PG Calc says meet the requirements of all 50 states and DC (PG Calc, no date shown). Crescendo sells three tiers, CresPro, CresEstate and CresLite. Its 2026 comparison matrix shows deferred gift annuities in CresPro and CresLite but not CresEstate, and pooled income fund illustrations only in CresPro (Crescendo, 2026 matrix, no date shown).
Both vendors also offer gift annuity state registration services. Treat their compliance claims as a starting point for your counsel.
Marketing and intention capture
Marketing tools turn prospects into documented intentions. FreeWill’s Planned Giving Suite offers a free will-making tool for donors, intent forms, alerts for new commitments and tracking of bequests made inside and outside its platform (FreeWill, no date shown). Crescendo’s GiftLegacy Pro and Intermediate plans bundle gift planning websites, eNewsletters, print materials and seat licenses for CresPro or CresLite (Crescendo, no date shown). PG Calc sells custom websites, direct mail and GiftCalcs, a website calculator that emails you when a visitor completes a calculation (PG Calc, no date shown).
FreeWill’s product page does not name a CRM integration, so ask every marketing vendor how a new intention reaches your CRM and who reviews it.
Gift annuity and life income administration
Administration software pays annuitants and keeps you compliant. PG Calc’s GiftWrap calculates state reserves and performs FASB liability calculations, and its optional Payment and Tax module produces 1099-R forms and beneficiary payments by check or EFT. Other optional modules cover pooled funds, workflow, death screening and Bequest Manager (PG Calc, no date shown). Crescendo Admin maintains immediate, deferred, flexible and term-of-years annuities, prints 1099-R and 1096 forms, creates ACH files, produces present value reports for regulated states and computes FASB liabilities (Crescendo, no date shown). Crescendo’s page does not mention charitable remainder trusts, so confirm trust support if you have them.
Comparison of planned giving tools
| Product | Job it does | Native strengths | Published price (checked October 7, 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| PG Calc PGM Anywhere | Gift illustrations | Wide vehicle coverage, CGA agreements, deduction substantiation | $1,255 one-time license plus $925 annual service; $600 year one per extra seat |
| Crescendo CresPro | Gift illustrations | Most gift programs of Crescendo’s three tiers, Gift Annuity Marketer | Page lists “Price: $635” without stating whether it is one-time or annual |
| PG Calc Bequest Manager | Bequest pipeline and estate settlement | Probate statuses, task checklists, document storage, cash flow reports | Not published |
| PG Calc GiftWrap | CGA and pooled fund administration | State reserves, 1099-R, FASB liabilities, optional modules | Not published; modules priced separately |
| Crescendo Admin | CGA administration | 1099-R and 1096, ACH files, state present value reports | Page lists “Price: $645” without stating the billing basis |
| FreeWill Planned Giving Suite | Marketing and intention capture | Free online will tool for donors, commitment alerts | Not published |
| Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud | CRM system of record | PlannedGift object with vehicle, status and payout fields | From $70 per user per month billed annually; 10 Core licenses free for eligible nonprofits |
| Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge | CRM system of record | Planned gift vehicles on the gift record | Not published |
What it costs
Among specialist planned giving tools, only calculation software has clear public pricing. PG Calc lists PGM Anywhere at $2,180 in year one, a $1,255 one-time license plus a $925 annual service fee (PG Calc, no date shown). Crescendo’s CresPro and Crescendo Admin pages show $635 and $645 but do not say what period the price covers (Crescendo CresPro, no date shown; Crescendo Admin, no date shown), so ask for a written quote that separates license and annual service.
Salesforce lists Nonprofit Cloud editions from $70 per user per month billed annually and gives eligible nonprofits 10 Nonprofit Cloud Core licenses at no cost through Power of Us (Salesforce, modified September 23, 2026). The PlannedGift object is available only with the Fundraising Access license, so confirm which edition you need before you budget. FreeWill, Crescendo’s marketing plans, PG Calc’s marketing services, GiftWrap, Bequest Manager and Blackbaud do not publish prices. Our nonprofit software pricing guide covers CRM and accounting costs in more detail.
Illustrative worked example
The figures below are an illustration, not real donor data. A 75-year-old donor gives $50,000 cash for a single-life gift annuity in October 2026. At the ACGA suggested rate of 7.0% for age 75, the annual payment is $3,500. For the deduction, the donor can use the Section 7520 rate for October (5.6%), September (5.4%) or August (5.2%). For an annuity, a higher discount rate lowers the present value of the payments and raises the deduction, so in this illustration the donor would elect October’s 5.6%. The illustration tool produces the proposal and agreement, the CRM stores the planned gift record, and the administration system pays the annuitant and issues Form 1099-R with code F.
Now the bequest side, also illustrative. Suppose your CRM holds 140 known bequest intentions. Of these, 35 have documentation and an estimated value, 4 are in probate and 1 made a partial distribution this year. If your reports count all 140 at an average estimate, your board sees a mostly unverified pipeline. A better report separates documented from undocumented intentions and shows probate cases with expected close dates.
Our independent take
Start from your CRM, not from a planned giving product. If your gift records, statuses and legacy society coding are clean, a calculation tool such as PGM Anywhere or CresPro will cover most of what a one- or two-person gift planning office needs, at a published price of a few thousand dollars or less.
Gift annuities are the exception. Once you issue them, payment accuracy, 1099-R reporting and state reserves become legal obligations, and you should either buy administration software or outsource the work. We did not find independent evidence that any one vendor is best across all four jobs, so we do not name an overall winner.
Three buyer scenarios
A regional nonprofit starting a legacy program. You have no gift annuities and a few dozen known bequest intentions. Record intentions in your existing CRM with a consistent status list, and add a marketing tool such as FreeWill or a gift planning website to generate documented commitments.
A university or hospital foundation with an active CGA pool. You issue gift annuities in several states and have a large expectancy file. You need illustration software, administration software with state reserve reporting and 1099-R, and a bequest workflow. Get bundled quotes from PG Calc and Crescendo and compare them with outsourced administration.
A Salesforce or Raiser’s Edge shop reviewing its stack. Your CRM already has planned gift records. Focus on importing calculation outputs (deduction, payout rate, remainder value) into the CRM record and on keeping the marketing platform’s intentions synced. If you are considering leaving Blackbaud, our guide to Raiser’s Edge NXT alternatives covers migration costs, including how planned gift data moves.
When you do not need dedicated planned giving software
You can manage without a dedicated product if you do not issue gift annuities or manage charitable trusts, and your program is mainly bequest marketing. In that case your CRM’s planned gift fields, a documented status process and occasional calculations are enough. PG Calc offers a Gift Calculation Service for organizations without software, which can cover the odd remainder trust or annuity proposal.
You also do not need administration software if a bank, trust company or administrator such as PG Calc’s Planned Gift Administration service handles your annuity payments and tax forms. Make sure the administrator’s reports reach both your finance team and your CRM.
How we researched this
We read the vendor product and pricing pages for PG Calc, Crescendo, FreeWill, Salesforce and Blackbaud on October 7, 2026, along with IRS, ACGA and statutory sources for the rates and rules. We reviewed the pages ranking for “planned giving software”, mostly vendor blogs, and focused on what they omit: prices, gift annuity compliance and the split between CRM and specialist tools. We did not test the software hands-on.
Related guides
- Pledge Management Software for Nonprofits (2026 Guide)
- Statement of Activities: Nonprofit Template and How-To
- Form 990 Schedule A: The Public Support Test Explained
Frequently asked questions
How much does planned giving software cost?
PG Calc publishes PGM Anywhere at $2,180 for the first seat in year one, made up of a $1,255 one-time license and a $925 annual service fee. Crescendo lists $635 for CresPro without stating the billing period. Most marketing and administration tools, including FreeWill and GiftWrap, are quoted privately.
Can my donor CRM track bequests?
Yes. Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud has a PlannedGift object with bequest and probate statuses, and Raiser’s Edge supports planned gift vehicles on gift records. Neither is documented as calculating deductions or remainder values, so you still need a calculation tool for illustrations.
What discount rate should a gift annuity illustration use?
The IRS Section 7520 rate, which was 5.6% for October 2026. For gifts with a charitable deduction, the donor can elect the rate for the gift month or either of the two prior months, which in October 2026 means 5.6%, 5.4% or 5.2%.
Do we need special software to issue charitable gift annuities?
You need a way to make accurate payments, issue Form 1099-R with code F, and meet state rules such as reserves and annual filings in states like California and New York. Administration software such as GiftWrap or Crescendo Admin, or an outsourced administrator, covers this.
Can donors fund a gift annuity from their IRA?
Yes, through a one-time qualified charitable distribution to a split-interest entity. For 2026 the IRS caps that election at $55,000, within the overall $111,000 qualified charitable distribution limit.
Sources
- NonProfit PRO, Giving USA 2026: Bequests Do the Heavy Lifting as Total Giving Tops $600B, June 23, 2026. nonprofitpro.com
- American Council on Gift Annuities, Current gift annuity rates, approved November 17, 2023, reconfirmed April 29, 2024. acga-web.org
- American Council on Gift Annuities, State regulations, most recent entries June 25, 2025. acga-web.org
- PNC, Planned giving flash update, July 8, 2026 (published by PNC’s institutional asset management group). pnc.com
- IRS, Section 7520 interest rates, updated September 25, 2026. irs.gov
- IRS, Notice 2025-67, 2026 Amounts Relating to Retirement Plans and IRAs, November 13, 2025. irs.gov
- IRS, 2026 Instructions for Forms 1099-R and 5498, June 2026. irs.gov
- Cornell Legal Information Institute, 26 U.S.C. 7520, no date shown. law.cornell.edu
- PG Calc, PGM Anywhere product and pricing page, no date shown, checked October 7, 2026 (vendor). pgcalc.com
- PG Calc, Bequest Manager, no date shown, checked October 7, 2026 (vendor). pgcalc.com
- PG Calc, GiftWrap, no date shown, checked October 7, 2026 (vendor). pgcalc.com
- PG Calc, GiftCalcs, no date shown, checked October 7, 2026 (vendor). pgcalc.com
- Crescendo Interactive, Donor proposal software comparison (2026 matrix), no date shown (vendor). giftlegacy.com
- Crescendo Interactive, CresPro, no date shown, checked October 7, 2026 (vendor). crescendointeractive.com
- Crescendo Interactive, Crescendo Admin, no date shown, checked October 7, 2026 (vendor). crescendointeractive.com
- Crescendo Interactive, Planned giving marketing plans, no date shown, checked October 7, 2026 (vendor). crescendointeractive.com
- FreeWill, Planned Giving Suite, no date shown, checked October 7, 2026 (vendor). freewill.com
- Salesforce, PlannedGift object, Nonprofit Cloud Developer Guide (Winter ’27), no date shown (vendor). developer.salesforce.com
- Salesforce, Nonprofit Cloud pricing, modified September 23, 2026 (vendor). salesforce.com
- Blackbaud, The Raiser’s Edge Planned Gift Tracking Guide, PDF last modified August 27, 2018 (vendor). help.blackbaud.com
Sherman Hsieh
Independent analysis of enterprise software — ERP, CRM and more
