Last year, Giving USA’s Annual Report called donor-advised funds (DAFs) one of the “hottest topics in the philanthropic community.”¹ Between 2007 and 2016, assets in donor-advised funds nationwide skyrocketed from $32 billion to $85 billion,² and this trend continues today. Who uses DAFs? How can your nonprofit collaborate with DAF advisors to meet your goals? I explore these questions below.

The following article is cross-posted from Alliance magazine blog. Based out of the UK, Alliance magazine is the leading global magazine on philanthropy and social investment.

Donor advised funds (DAFs) are a growing segment of philanthropy.

On the other side of the Atlantic, DAFs have been in existence since the 1930s and have combined assets of more than $80bn in assets under management. They have attracted high profile donors including Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan who gave away $1bn worth of Facebook shares to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

Vanguard Charitable has launched the GuideStar National Nonprofit Directory, a comprehensive and easy-to-use charitable giving research tool featuring information on more than 2.6 million nonprofit organizations. Vanguard Charitable is the first donor-advised fund to offer this service to its donors, boosting their ability to make informed and thoughtful charitable giving decisions. The in-depth information included in the Nonprofit Directory, which would typically cost $1,000 annually per user, is available to Vanguard Charitable donors free of charge.

Two questions:

1. Do you use GuideStar Premium or GuideStar Pro to verify a nonprofit's eligibility to receive grants and charitable distributions?
2. Are you acting on behalf of a private foundation, community foundation, or other sponsor of donor-advised funds?