This year may be the ideal time to ramp up your strategy to secure gifts from donor-advised funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Assets held in donor-advised funds topped $326 billion<\/a> at the end of 2024 \u2014 a figure that doesn\u2019t yet reflect a surge in late\u20112025 contributions that were propelled by stock\u2011market gains and looming tax changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Across the board, institutions that sponsor DAFs \u2014 like the charitable arms of investment firms, community foundations, and many other organizations \u2014 urged donors to open or add to their accounts and maximize their charitable deductions before the new tax law<\/a> went into effect on January 1. That means DAFs have never before been so flush with cash, just as many nonprofits are looking for new funding sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DAFs often serve as rainy-day funds, says Mitch Stein, head of strategy at Chariot<\/a>, which makes DAF gift-processing software. “Because there’s typically a lot of need when there is any kind of economic downturn,\u201d and because the money is already earmarked for charity, \u201cpeople are motivated to put that money to work,” he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We asked Stein and several other experts in capturing donations from DAF donors to share advice on how to unlock more giving. Here are their top tips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Giving through a DAF can be more attractive to donors than other giving vehicles because the money must be given to charity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “It’s as if they have an Amex in their pocket that’s prepaid for $10,000 and they have to spend it,” says Craig Shelley, CEO of the fundraising consulting firm Schultz & Williams<\/a>. It’s money they have already set aside, which makes it much easier to get them to give it, he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s as if they have an Amex in their pocket that’s prepaid for $10,000 and they have to spend it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n A wealth screening<\/a> may reveal the donors in your database who might already have one, he says. There are a variety of wealth-analysis products on the market, including KindSight\u2019s iWave<\/a>, DonorAtlas<\/a>, DonorSearch<\/a>, and Windfall for Nonprofit<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are raising money from high-net-worth individuals, it is likely that more of them have DAFs than don\u2019t, Shelley says. “If they don’t have a family foundation, you can almost assume they have a DAF.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you\u2019ve identified your likely DAF holders, you can better target your messaging to them and consistently include DAFs as a giving option. You don\u2019t have to reinvent the wheel \u2014 your outreach can mimic what you\u2019re already saying to your major donors.<\/p>\n\n\n Conduct a wealth screening to identify likely DAF holders.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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