California would be first state law to reach DAFs

“The explosive growth of donor advised funds (DAFs) has been widely reported in both popular and trade media. The National Philanthropic Trust reports, using 2018 data, $37 billion in gifts to sponsoring organizations and $23 billion in grants from sponsors to public 501(c)(3) charities, amounting to 13 percent of all individual giving.

Mid-level and major gift officers who once struggled with the operational aspects of properly attributing DAF contributions have come to recognize and even embrace DAFs as a desirable gift vehicle for donors in their stewardship portfolios. But, the DAF boom has also brought forth a critics’ boom, some of it raising arguably important issues.

Generally lacking in much of the criticism has been data reinforcing the critics’ premises. “Policy concerns” are generally instances that “could” happen, regardless of whether they are actually happening. The following fact-checker parses popular hype from reality.” Continue reading.

Source: Robert Tigner for The Nonprofit Times