Each year in the fall since 2007, the National Philanthropic Trust (NPT) has published its annual Donor Advised Fund Giving Report. The always-anticipated (and always fascinating) report tracks a subset of DAF sponsors in the United States to learn more about giving from DAFs and the trends that are important to follow with this increasingly important giving vehicle.
This year, the report covers data from 1,140 sponsors: 73 National sponsors (think NPT, Fidelity, Vanguard, etc.); 723 Community Foundations (like the Boston Foundation, the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, etc.); and 344 Single-Issue Charities (like the Rotary Foundation, the Jewish Communal Fund, and universities that sponsor DAFs). NPT obtains the data for the report from the sponsors’ IRS PF-990 forms.
Key things to know from this year’s report: (and please note, there are more sponsors in the United States than the 1,140 sponsors covered in this report).
Total assets in DAFs at these 1,140 sponsors in 2023 was $251.52 billion. In 2022 the total was $228.92 billion, so there was nearly a 10% increase in assets year on year. The compound annual growth rate for DAF assets from 2019 to 2023 was 14%, so charitable giving, asset investing, and donations to a DAF should all be considered when thinking about DAF assets.
The total amount that donors contributed to their DAFs in 2023 was $59.43 billion. In 2022, that total was $75.94 billion, a decrease of nearly 22%. The years 2020-2022 saw record-breaking giving, both to DAFs and to nonprofits from DAFs, so this could just be a brief rest after a flurry of support.
However, total grants paid out to nonprofit organizations in 2023 was $59.43 billion. In 2022, the total grants paid out was $55.53 billion, so while contributions to DAFs when down, the amount those DAFs granted was about the same.
The average DAF account in 2023 held $141,120. The year before it was $129,206, so there was a gain of 9.2% from 2022 to 2023. While this is an interesting statistic, I don’t tend to put too much weight on it. Some people treat their DAF like a money-in, money-out spending account and others like a family foundation with an endowment. If we want to encourage philanthropic giving, we don’t actually want this number to rise.
The number of DAF accounts has slowed slightly. After year-on-year explosive growth, the number of DAF accounts at these 1,140 sponsors only increased by 10,572, a rate of under 1%.
Unlike private foundations, which average giving of 5% annually, DAFs continue to shine in terms of payout rates. In 2023, the average payout rate was 23.9 percent, a nearly negligible dip from 2022 when the rate was 24.1%.
JUST LOOKING AT NATIONAL SPONSORS
Giving to National sponsors from donors decreased 20% from 2022 to 2023, and grants from National sponsors also went down over the period by 7%. Even so, national sponsors distributed 64.1% of all grants from DAFs in 2023.
JUST LOOKING AT COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONS
Giving to DAFs at Community Foundations from donors totaled $7.87 billion in 2023. This was a large decrease of 32.4% from the previous year. Regardless, giving from community foundation DAFs to nonprofits was up 3.1% over the previous year, from 12.09 billion in 2022 to $12.46 billion in 2023. Community foundation sponsors distributed 22.7% of all grants from DAFs in 2023.
JUST LOOKING AT SINGLE-ISSUE SPONSORS
Giving to DAFs at Single-issue sponsors from donors totaled $6.18 billion in 2023. This was a 14.9% decrease from the previous year. Even so, grants from DAFs at single-issue sponsors was up an amazing 26.3% over the previous year, from $5.69 billion in 2022 to $7.19 billion in 2023. Single-issue sponsors distributed 13.2% of all grants from DAFs in 2023.
These are just the highlights we wanted you to make sure you didn’t miss – there’s lots more to be found in this excellent landscape analysis at the NPT’s website.
