In September, I attended the DAF Giving Summit, a conference dedicated to exploring all aspects of the donor advised fund (DAF) industry. Now in its fourth year, this was my second time participating. As Valerie Anastasio shared in her 2023 recap, The DAF Giving Summit – Reflective of the DAF Ecosystem, the DAF landscape is […]
DAFinitively Speaking
How Will the Budget Reconciliation Bill Change DAF Donors?
After the passage of the budget reconciliation bill, HR 1, in July 2025, those of us in the prospect research field (and the greater nonprofit field) have thought about how this bill will impact charitable giving. Here at DAFinitive®, we are particularly interested in how it might impact donor advised funds. First, by way of […]
Fiscal sponsorship and DAFs: One of these things is not like the other (or is it?)
We generally focus solely on donor advised funds here at DAFinitively Speaking. That said, there are an increasing number of ways that philanthropists collaborate to tackle tough problems using DAFs in combination with other resources. This month we wanted to talk about the increasing opportunities via fiscal sponsorships (FSP Restricted Funds). They look very similar […]
The latest information on DAF sponsors
If you’ve followed this blog for very long, you know that we’re big fans of the DAF Research Collaborative (DRC), an academic team researching donor advised funds and sponsors. The Collaborative has strong relationships with the DAF sponsor community, and they are granted in-depth access to information that is generally unavailable. Fortunately, they aggregate it, […]
Stock Market & DAFs – Can Donors Save the Day?
As most of us know, the global financial markets have been tumultuous in the first half of 2025. As tariffs on foreign countries are announced, modified and recalled, the US stock market has seen the worst declines since the beginning of the COVID pandemic in 2020 and the worst April performance since the height of […]
Giving Vehicles Aplenty! Private Foundation vs. DAFs? Why Not Both?
For most of us, when we think of omni-channel fundraising, we think of the three most common giving vehicles: donating online with a credit card, mailing in a check, or providing payment information during a telemarketing phone call. However, the options for potential giving vehicles are way longer than just “The Big Three.” PayPal, give-by-text, […]
