On Friday the Wall Street Journal published online an article titled Tax-Smart Philanthropy Made Easy: Many Donors Should Consider a “Charitable Gift Trust” or “Donor Advised Fund”. The article documents the continued growth of donor advised funds, with total assets reaching $26 billion as of June 30, 2014, with new contributions and grants for the 12 months before that date reaching $7.4 billion and $4.1 billion, respectively. The article also provides an interesting glimpse into the giving priorities of DAF donors, as the largest holder of DAFs – Fidelity Charitable – provided a breakdown by program area of where the $2.1 billion in grants it made in 2013 went. Over a third went to education, with the next biggest areas being religion (16%), “society benefit” (14%), and human services (10%). The article attributes the continued and indeed growing popularity of this vehicle to a bull market, increasing mergers and acquisitions, and the risk of future changes in the tax laws that make it particularly attractive to lock in a charitable contribution now while still being able to put off final decisions regarding where to give.
Lloyd Mayer
