Photo by Unsplash+ in collaboration with Getty Images
DAFgiving360, one of the largest national providers of donor-advised funds (DAFs), reported its donors increased their charitable giving by 31% in fiscal year 2024, to more than $6.6 billion. Donors recommended more than 1.1 million individual grants to 141,000 charities during the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2024. The total dollar amount granted was $1.5 billion more than in fiscal year 2023.
This represents a milestone for the organization, which operated under the moniker Schwab Charitable for a quarter-century. Schwab Charitable was renamed Dafgiving360 in June.
“Our donors are continuing to give to charity at unprecedented levels, reflecting an exceptional commitment to supporting a diversity of needs throughout the world,” Sam Kang, president of DAFgiving360, said in a press release. “We are immensely grateful for their inspiring generosity as we celebrate the 25th anniversary of our organization.”
Fred Kaynor, managing director of relationship management, marketing and strategic partnerships at DAFgiving360, added some perspective in the release: “When you look at all the grants our donors recommended in the last fiscal year, it averages out to more than $18 million donated to charity each day, or about three-quarters of a million dollars donated every hour.”
Continued and New Support
DAFgiving360 donors recommended grants 13 times on average throughout fiscal year 2024, and 35% of grants were set up as automated recurring gifts to charities. During the 12-month period, more than three-quarters of donors (79%) recommended grants to charities they previously supported, and 70% of donors recommended grants to charities they had not previously supported. The majority of grants made in the fiscal year (72%) did not specify a purpose, which enables the charities to use the grants where they see the greatest need.
“Because assets are already contributed to donors’ accounts, and because of our efficient DAF interface, it takes just a few clicks to get dollars out to charity when it’s needed most,” Kaynor said in the release.
DAFgiving360 will continue to inform donors where there are charitable needs due to natural disasters and humanitarian crises. Most recently, it provided information about charities and resources involved in assisting victims of Hurricane Beryl, which made landfall in Texas on July 8 and later spawned tornadoes and flooding across multiple states.
Non-cash Assets Dominate
In fiscal year 2024, the majority (about 63%) of DAFgiving360’s donor contributions were non-cash assets. By contributing appreciated non-cash assets that have been held more than one year to a donor-advised fund, donors can increase the amount available for charities by as much as 20%. That’s because the donors can potentially eliminate their capital-gains tax liability on the assets.
Since the organization’s inception in 1999, DAFgiving360 donors have recommended more than $35 billion to charity through 7 million grants that have supported over 255,000 charities.
