For DAF Day, we examined search trends, donor conversations and the online behavior of people researching donor-advised funds (DAFs). We wanted to know how familiar people are with DAFs and what their questions can teach nonprofits.
Search interest is growing. Is the audience becoming more informed?
In our October 8 research, Google Trends showed U.S. relative search interest in the topic “donor-advised fund” running 50% higher in 2026 so far than in 2025.
“What is a donor advised fund” hit its five-year peak in December 2025. Year-end giving and tax planning offer a plausible explanation, and the approaching 2026 charitable deduction changes may have added urgency. In August 2025, the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta encouraged donors to “front-load several years of giving” into a DAF.
Six months later, in June 2026, “best donor advised fund” reached its five-year peak. The timing coincides with DAFgiving360's June 30 fiscal year-end, so sponsor activity may have contributed.
Searches about understanding DAFs peaked first, and searches suggesting people were comparing providers peaked after.
Could this indicate a maturing audience, with more people moving beyond basic awareness and evaluating their options? Google Trends can't tell us whether the same people made both searches, but the pattern is one we want to keep investigating.
The basics still need an answer
Semrush estimates 3,600 monthly U.S. searches for “what is a donor advised fund,” 170 for “why use a donor advised fund” and 480 for “how to set up a donor advised fund.”
People are also asking about tax benefits, donating appreciated stock and choosing providers.
Someone learning about DAFs needs introductory information. A donor who already has a DAF may be looking for a cause to support and needs a direct path to recommending a grant.
What donors value, and what frustrates nonprofits
In the Reddit discussions we reviewed, donors appreciated being able to give intentionally and anonymously. Nonprofit professionals described the difficulty of identifying donors, acknowledging gifts and building relationships when grants arrive without contact information.
Our SparkToro research, focused on people preparing to recommend DAF grants, shows strong affinities with Charity Navigator, Candid and GiveWell. Nonprofits could test whether evidence of their impact is as easy to find as their mission stories.
Can AI find your DAF content?
SparkToro also estimates that 37.6% of this audience uses ChatGPT at least monthly, compared with 35.8% nationally, a 5% relative overindex. For Claude, the figures are 20.7% versus 5.3%, a 292% overindex.
These figures cover platform usage on every topic, including activity unrelated to DAFs. Even so, they make a case for examining AI search alongside traditional search, and Semrush lists Google AI Overviews among the search features for all six queries in our question graphic. For nonprofit marketers, we'd suggest two tests.
Can AI retrieve your DAF content? Give a web-enabled LLM your DAF page URL and ask it to find your legal name, EIN and grant instructions. Verify that it actually retrieved the information. Check search-crawler access separately.
Can AI find your organization without being given the URL? Ask questions a prospective DAF donor might ask. Examine which organizations and sources appear in the response. Where the platform exposes its search activity, inspect the follow-up or fan-out queries, including any site: searches, to see which content the platform considers and cites.
Google confirms that AI Overviews and AI Mode may conduct multiple related searches to develop an answer.
What to do before year-end
Review your DAF page for someone learning about the option and someone ready to recommend a grant. Make your legal name, EIN and grant instructions easy to find. Explain what donor support makes possible and invite donors to share their contact information voluntarily so you can acknowledge their gifts.
Then check how your nonprofit appears when people ask AI tools about DAF giving.
How is your organization preparing its DAF content for traditional and AI search? Reach out to Streetlight Digital. We'd be interested in comparing notes.
Research sources: Google Trends, Semrush U.S. keyword research, SparkToro audience research and a Reddit Pro discussion summary. Search estimates and audience findings are directional.
