It’s been another whirlwind year in the fundraising world, particularly as DAFs continue to become a larger part of the nonprofit fabric. Just in case you missed it, let’s slow down and look at some of the DAF-related happenings of 2025.
In This Economy?
This has been a challenging year for people’s pocketbooks, and by extension for nonprofit organizations. International stocks are outperforming US stocks for the first time since 2009. The US economy has been in flux all year due to federal budget cuts, tariff announcements, inflation, and more.
Specifically, this year’s budget bill had big implications on the nonprofit sector. The budget bill changed how donors will be able to itemize their charitable deductions.
The Council of Nonprofits was on the front-line fighting cuts to our industry and changes that could impact donor involvement. Their website published a number of policy papers this year on topics such as the Johnson Amendment, the effects of executive orders and how the recent government shutdown impacted nonprofits around the country.
UBS recently published an article on how to maximize 2025 DAF giving ahead of the new 2026 restrictions.
Offsetting the Challenges
In a Freewill webinar earlier this year, CEO Patrick Schmidt noted that DAFs are the best strategy for nonprofits in these uncertain times. This is because unlike donors of cash or other asset types, DAF assets are already allocated.
The National Philanthropic Trust reiterated this, stressing the need for nonprofits to engage DAF donors, as well as a re-framing of how some in the sector view DAF givers.
National movements, such as HalfMyDAF and DAFDay continued into 2025 to encourage people to spend more of their already allocated assets for their charitable giving.
Reporting From the Scene
There were several helpful reports published this year throughout the DAF ecosystem that explored different aspects of our field.
- Always insightful, the DAF Research Collaborative recently published a fascinating study: The National Survey of Donor Advised Fund Managers. While research studies tend to focus on nonprofit organizations or DAF donors, the trends and behaviors of sponsors is also important to know. While we highlighted the report earlier the year, some of the findings included:
- The majority of sponsor organizations feel that sponsoring DAFs helps them to achieve their mission, that their organizations are property staffed and prepared, and that donor recommendations mostly align with their mission statements.
- Many respondents felt that their organization had to compete with peer sponsors and felt that advisory services and donor support were crucial, yet underdeveloped.
- The 2025 Freewill DAF Report, focusing on the nonprofit perspective, helped to cement the growing certainty that DAFs are a crucial part of the fundraising infrastructure.
- The majority of respondents felt that DAFs will be more important than in the past and that securing more DAF gifts are a high priority for their organization.
- Respondents also felt that DAF gifts are a “gateway” to larger, more complex gifts, such as stock and other securities.
- The Chariot DAF Day Report, issued after the second annual DAF Day, demonstrated the real-time growth of DAF giving in the philanthropic sphere.
- From the first DAF Day to the second, participation grew to 4,400 nonprofits (more than 4x last year’s event), more than 30 sponsors and more than $2M in observable giving (more than 1,000 gifts).Per the 2025 report, DAF donors who converted from prior sources of giving (a donor who previously gave through cash or other sources and now gives via a DAF) increased their donations more than 100% from 2024 data.
- Organizations with less than $10M in annual revenue saw more than 143% growth in their share of revenue from DAFs in 2024.
- The Fidelity 2025 Giving Report, published by Fidelity Charitable the largest sponsoring organization in the U.S., continued to show the popularity of DAFs through their year-end report. Among its DAF donors, they found that:
- 2024 was a record-breaking year for the sponsor; donors recommended $14.9B, a jump of 25% from the prior year. Both the number of donors and the number of grants also increased.75% percent of contributions to Fidelity DAFs were dispersed within five years.
- A majority of gifts were made from non-cash assets, such as stock and cryptocurrencies. The median account balance was $23,534.
- In partnership with the Charity Reform Initiative, The Institute for Policy Studies published The Independent Report on DAFs. It noted that:
- Total DAF assets have grown to $254B in 2023, a jump of 67% since 2020.National sponsors’ assets have grown at the fastest rate, despite having the fewest sponsors of the three sponsor types -national sponsors, community foundations, and single-issue sponsors.The median payout rate across all sponsor types remained at 9.7%, approximately the same rate as 2020-2023.
- Private foundations donated at least $3.2B to national DAFs in 2022, which for some, may be a way to meet the legal requirement to pay out 5% from a private foundation annually.
Also Trending
Inequality.org projects that by 2028 more than half of individuals’ charitable giving will first be directed into a DAF or private foundation. In their report, it was noted that contributions to politically active charities are made from DAFs at a rate 70% higher than by via other giving channels. Similarly, this report found that hate group donors rely on DAFs 3.5 times more than those giving directly. Why is this? One possibility is that since DAFs offer a more opaque veil of privacy for those who want it, donors to potentially controversial or divisive causes may feel more comfortable giving this way.
Most of us are familiar with GoFundMe, but this year, it also became a DAF sponsor, allowing account holders to manage their giving through an app. However, the company was also roundly criticized for creating millions of nonprofit donation pages without permission.
Looking Forward
I do not have special powers and could never have imagined the events of 2025. Did you? What’s in your crystal ball for 2026? Let us know your predictions and we’ll see what comes true! How will your organization work with DAFs in the coming year? We would love to hear your thoughts and ideas.
