Upcoming Features: October 2026
Release 3.0 extends PowerWorker Engage into planned giving and estate management, brings practical artificial intelligence into everyday donor work, and opens a secure online giving channel for supporters. It is accompanied by a broad set of quality improvements and by important groundwork that prepares organisations for the retirement of Microsoft Fundraising and Engagement.
Headline Features
Planned Giving and Bequest Opportunities
Overview: Introduces a dedicated opportunity process for managing prospective gifts left in a will. Fundraisers can guide each opportunity through four clear stages: Identify, Qualify, Cultivate, Intention and Pledged, and Confirmed in Will. The process supports consistent stewardship, records the supporter’s intentions and provides visibility of expected future gifts.
Benefits:
Provides one consistent process for managing gifts left in a will.
Gives every planned giving prospect a clear status and next step.
Helps fundraising teams coordinate sensitive, long-term supporter stewardship.
Improves visibility of expected future gifts and the planned giving pipeline.
Maintains a clear history of each opportunity from identification through to confirmation.
Automated Planned Gift and Estate Administration
Overview: When a Bequest opportunity is confirmed, PowerWorker Engage creates a related Planned Gift record so the gift can move from active fundraising into estate administration. The record guides estate teams through Pending Maturity, Estate Notified, Probate and Administration, Distribution, and Realised and Finalised. Teams can record responsible parties, monitor progress, manage related commitments and payments, and compare expected and received amounts.
Benefits:
Provides a smooth handover from fundraising to estate administration.
Keeps confirmed Planned Gifts separate from active opportunities.
Gives estate teams a clear view of each gift’s current stage and next action.
Supports consistent management from confirmation through to final realisation.
Provides a traceable history of commitments, payments and estate progress.
Major Gift Opportunities
Overview: Introduces a dedicated Major Gift opportunity process to help fundraising teams manage significant prospective gifts from initial identification through to a verbal commitment or pledge. The guided stages cover Identify, Qualify, Cultivate, Ask/Proposal, and Verbal Commitment/Pledged. Fundraisers can record relationship activity, planned next steps, ask details, supporter responses, forecast information and the final outcome.
Benefits:
Provides a consistent process for managing high-value fundraising opportunities.
Gives fundraisers a clear view of each opportunity’s stage and next step.
Brings cultivation, ask and supporter-response information together in one place.
Supports better coordination between relationship owners and other team members.
Improves visibility of the Major Gift pipeline and expected gift value.
Allows separate gift opportunities for the same supporter to be managed independently.
Provides a traceable history of commitments, payments and estate progress.
Contact Snapshot Summary
Overview: Each contact record can open with a short, readable summary that brings together the supporter's giving history, communications and key details. Administrators can switch the feature on or off.
Benefit:
Instant, plain-language picture of each supporter.
Faster, more consistent preparation for conversations.
Organisation and Household Snapshot Summary
Overview: Provides the same readable summary on organisation and household records, adapting to the type of record with a corporate view for organisations and a family view for households, and finishing with a suggested next step.
Benefits:
Understand corporate partners and families at a glance.
Supports more informed stewardship across every supporter type.
Donor Churn Risk
Overview: Helps fundraising teams identify supporters whose giving activity indicates they may be at risk of lapsing. At-risk supporters are brought to the attention of their record owner so the team can act early, while available giving history and donor insights help prioritise follow-up.
Benefit:
Identifies supporters whose giving relationship may be weakening.
Enables earlier, more focused retention activity.
Helps fundraising teams prioritise supporters who may benefit from personal follow-up.
Reduces the need to build and review donor-risk lists manually.
Supports a more proactive and consistent approach to donor retention.
Lapsed Donor Detection and Re-engagement
Overview: Identifies supporters who have lapsed or are approaching lapse and brings them to the attention of the responsible donor owner. For eligible lapsed donors, PowerWorker Engage can prepare a personalised re-engagement email using the supporter’s giving history. The owner reviews the draft and decides whether to edit, approve or reject it before anything is sent. Supporters with active commitments and records that should not be contacted are excluded from outreach.
Benefits:
Provides a ready-to-review list of lapsed and at-risk supporters.
Enables fundraisers to act before an at-risk supporter fully lapses.
Reduces manual list preparation and first-draft writing.
Creates more relevant communication using the supporter’s giving history.
Keeps fundraisers in control of every donor message.
Helps avoid inappropriate outreach to supporters who should not be contacted.
Records approved communication as part of the supporter’s engagement history.
Online Donation Page
Overview: A secure online donation page lets supporters make a one-time or recurring gift, captured directly in PowerWorker Engage as a transaction or a payment schedule. It validates supporter details, handles retries safely to prevent duplicate gifts, confirms the gift to the donor, and processes card details only through approved, secure payment components.
Benefits:
Modern, self-service giving channel.
Reduces manual data entry and improves the donor experience.
Online gifts flow straight into the platform securely.
Flexible Payment Schedules
Overview: Recurring payment schedules now generate individual scheduled dates rather than a single next run date, with a clear confirmation prompt if a change would affect a custom schedule.
Benefits:
Adjust a single instalment without disrupting the schedule.
Greater accuracy and control over recurring giving.
Enhanced Payment Security
Overview: Stored payment tokens are now protected with field-level security and hidden on forms.
Benefits:
Stronger safeguarding of sensitive payment information.
Supports compliance and donor trust.
Microsoft Fundraising and Engagement Transition Readiness
Overview: Includes work to identify and address dependencies ahead of the retirement of Microsoft Fundraising and Engagement on 31 December 2026, and enables PowerWorker Engage to be installed alongside it in the same environment.
Benefits:
Smooth move to PowerWorker Engage without service disruption.
Supports a staged, side-by-side transition.