Read Now DAF Source Book: 100+ Questions, Answers, Suggested Resources & Opinions About Donor Advised Funds PDF
In a question and answer format, the DAF Source Book provides answers to many of the questions that potential DAF donors and nonprofit managers want to know. Readers can benefit without reading the DAF Source Book from “cover to cover” as questions and answers are organized by topic area. Readers can also use the table of contents to quickly move to the topic that is of most interest to them. DAF topics included, among others, are the growth and history of DAFs, the income tax benefits they can provide, the tremendous planning flexibility that they offer as well as the many uses of DAFs to further charitable giving. It also reviews the types of assets being routinely accepted by DAFs as well as more interesting assets, such as real estate, that people may want to use to fund a charitable DAF account. (Did you know that even a roller coaster has been accepted as a DAF contribution?) The DAF Source Book also provides a top-level view of the donor advised fund world by comparing some of the largest, most successful, DAF charitable sponsors operating today. Each of these 12 organizations has at least a billion dollars in DAF assets—and several have much more. This diverse group includes highly successful charitable spin-offs from large, well-known financial services companies and several large community foundations and as well as a number of other large charities with wide-ranging missions. It also includes several large DAF sponsors that are actively providing the startup and support services necessary for other charities to establish their own DAF programs and expand their fundraising efforts. While one of these DAF facilitating organizations has been operating since the late 1990s, all three of the DAF facilitating organizations highlighted have had DAF operations since at least 2001. These organizations have the skills and experience to help other nonprofits rapidly establish their own DAF programs thus expanding their overall fundraising efforts while providing more giving options to their donors. This source book also provides an approach, based on publicly available information, that enables a reader to do their own investigation of individual DAF sponsors that interest them based on the annual information that such sponsors must provide to the IRS. With a better understanding of the strengths, limitations, and policy preferences of various DAF sponsors, potential DAF donors and nonprofit managers will be in a better position to determine the best DAF sponsor to meet their particular needs.DAFs have their critics and this source book also provides a number of standard critiques of DAFs as an approach to charitable giving. Comments and potential answers to these various critiques are included. Finally, the source book briefly explores the future of DAFs. This includes both the potential for action by Congress and several possible legislative options. Also reviewed are the likely growth prospects of such DAF sponsors and well as their potential to positively impact the growth of charitable giving.
