Donor Advised Hoarding . . . private benefit and big deductions

From Inequality.org, August 3, 2023:

Donor-advised funds, or DAFs, are giant ‘nonprofits’ affiliated with behemoth wealth management firms that now receive over 20 percent of all charitable contributions by individuals.

These firms have been accumulating assets at an enormous clip, and now house some quarter of a trillion dollars. All of this is money that’s been donated to charity but not yet sent to actual charities. And current laws allow the money to sit there literally forever.  It’s not a good look.

Like clockwork these DAF sponsors put out press releases at opportune moments, touting the record sums they’ve given away in the last year — and promoting their affiliated companies’ wealth management services. Set up a giving account with us, they say, and you can get a hefty tax deduction and avoid capital gains taxes altogether.

What they don’t tell you – and what’s never apparent until much, much later, because they refuse to tell reporters either – is that they’re continuing to squirrel away money intended for charities at a far greater clip than they’re giving it away.

darryll k. jones