A Complete Resource for Fundraising Professionals
What is a Donor-Advised Fund?
A donor-advised fund, or DAF, is basically a charitable savings account.
You put money — or appreciated assets like stock — into the account and immediately receive a tax deduction, even if you haven’t decided which charities you want to support yet.
Then, over time, you recommend where the money should go.
The account is usually managed by organizations like Fidelity Charitable, Raymond James Charitable, Vanguard Charitable, or local community foundations.
Your money can also be invested while it sits in the account, potentially growing tax-free over time so you can give even more to charity later.
When you’re ready, you simply tell the fund manager where you want the money distributed. For example: “I’d like $500 sent to this animal rescue.” Or, “I’d like $1,000 sent to the local food bank.”
The fund manager handles the paperwork, receipts, and distribution for you.
But there are a few important things to understand.
First, once you contribute money to a donor-advised fund, the sponsor takes legal ownership of the assets — but you retain the right to recommend where the grants go. That’s why it’s called a donor-advised fund. You advise. The sponsor approves.
Second, unlike private foundations, which must distribute at least 5% of their assets each year, donor-advised funds currently have no required distribution timeline. This has become a topic of ongoing policy discussion in the philanthropic sector. Whatever your view, if you open a donor-advised fund, the best practice is to distribute regularly and intentionally — your giving has the most impact when it’s active.
And finally, most donor-advised funds have minimum contributions to open an account — sometimes $5,000, sometimes $10,000 or more. Always check the requirements of the organization you’re considering.
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Nine of the twenty largest public charities in America are now donor-advised fund sponsors. Most nonprofits are still treating them like a footnote.
Fidelity Charitable alone takes in more in contributions each year than any operating nonprofit in America — more than twice what Feeding America raises. DAFs now hold hundreds of billions of dollars in charitable assets. That’s not a niche vehicle. That’s where the money is. For fundraisers, that’s not a footnote — it’s a mandate to understand how these accounts work, who holds them, and how to move money out of them and into your organization.
This resource center gives gift officers, planned giving professionals, and development directors everything they need in one place. No jargon. No donor brochures repackaged as fundraiser advice. Just practical intelligence.
1. What Is a Donor-Advised Fund?
The mechanics, the operative word, and what a DAF is not.
2. How a Donor-Advised Fund Works
Five steps from contribution to grant. The deduction happens once. Everything after that is relationship.
3. Pros and Cons
Every feature of a DAF cuts two ways. A field guide for fundraisers, not a product comparison.
4. How to Identify DAF Donors in Your Database
The donors are already there. The grants have already been made. What’s missing is the process to catch them.
5. How to Solicit a DAF Gift
The shift from persuasion to facilitation. Scripts, framing, and the trust move that changes the conversation.
6. How to Add DAF Giving to Your Website
The minimum every nonprofit needs. The next level. And the single sentence that belongs on every donation page.
7. How to Steward a DAF Donor
Mechanism-aware acknowledgment, year-round cultivation, and the protocol that converts DAF revenue from transactional to programmatic.
8. Top DAF Sponsors and Providers
Commercial, community foundation, faith-based, advisor-managed, emerging digital. A working directory organized by category.
9. DAF Sponsor Differences: What to Compare and Why
Eight variables that separate sponsors. A lens for fundraisers, not a shopping list for donors.
10. Ethical and Policy Debates Around DAFs
The payout controversy, the legislative landscape, and the only question that matters for your work.
11. Faith-Based DAFs
Catholic, Jewish, Christian, Muslim. When the sponsor is not a custodian but a community institution.
12. DAFs and Your Planned Giving Program
The legacy gift hiding in plain sight.
13. 10 Mistakes Nonprofits Make with DAF Donors
Ten mistakes, in rough order of frequency and cost. Most organizations make several.
14. Frequently Asked Questions
What donors, fundraisers, and boards ask about DAFs.
Seventy-two percent of DAF donors work with a financial advisor. Fewer than half rely on that advisor for charitable planning advice. The gap between advisor presence and advisor engagement is the most underused position in major gift cultivation today — and the 2026 DAF Research Collaborative data shows exactly where it opens.
If you’re new to donor-advised funds, begin with What Is a Donor-Advised Fund? — the foundational chapter that defines the vehicle, explains the operative word that changes every conversation, and clarifies what a DAF is not.
If you’re already familiar with DAFs and want to build a program rather than manage one gift at a time, start with DAFs and Your Planned Giving Program — the strategic integration chapter that shows where the compounding returns live.
Last updated: May 2026
GIVING Magazine
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