Hello DAFinitive® Community! Our partnership with Kaleidoscope is helping us fast-track new features and platform improvements! We are excited to announce the season’s updates within the DAFinitive® platform: Enhancements to Source Links Table A cleaner, easier-to-use source list is now available fund profiles. The additional resources shown at the bottom of a Notes section identify […]
DAFinitively Speaking
Case Study in Donor Engagement Strategies: Community Foundation of the Lowcountry
This month, we were fortunate to speak to Dawn Jordan, Development and Donor Services Associate at Community Foundation of the Lowcountry (CFL), based on Hilton Head Island, SC. Established in 1994 to serve Hilton Head Island, the foundation expanded in 2001 to further serve three additional counties in South Carolina. It is now the largest […]
DAFinitive® + Kaleidoscope: A New Strategic Partnership
Hello DAFinitive® Community! We’re excited to announce a new strategic partnership between DAFinitive® and Kaleidoscope, a leading provider of centralized securities, regulatory data, and 990 information for the nonprofit market. At its heart, this partnership is about making prospect research more connected, more efficient, and more actionable. DAFinitive® will continue to do what it does […]
Sponsor Discretion, Donor Choice, and the Southern Poverty Law Center Case
In April 2026, a federal grand jury in Alabama indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1971. The indictment includes charges of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Prosecutors allege that the SPLC improperly used donor funds to compensate […]
Case Study in Donor Engagement Strategies: Rochester Area Community Foundation
Building on last month’s DAFinitively Speaking post defining the common types of charitable funds managed by community foundations, I was fortunate to connect with Mary Hartstein, Director of Donor Engagement and Impact at the Rochester Area Community Foundation, (RACF) to discuss her organization’s process for donor engagement, depending on the fund type. Background on RACF […]
Beyond DAFs: Common Types of Charitable Funds
Many people are familiar with donor advised funds (DAFs)—charitable giving vehicles that allow individuals, families, or organizations to make tax‑deductible contributions, place those assets in a dedicated fund at a sponsoring organization, and then recommend grants over time to qualified 501(c)(3) charities. Because the donor retains advisory privileges while the sponsoring organization maintains legal control […]
