Donor Advised Funds: From small seeds to serious growth.
DAF Giving 101
Nonprofit professionals are hearing a lot about DAF these days, and for good reason. DAF giving has rapidly emerged as a massive driver of increased income for the nonprofits that have embraced a real strategy around it.
For those who need a quick DAF 101, here's an overview. A donor advised fund is a charitable giving account, similar to a savings account, but one that's set aside exclusively for donations. Unlike a savings account, however, the assets are no longer legally owned by the donor once they are contributed.A donor opens this account with a sponsoring organization (Fidelity Charitable or DAFGiving360) and deposits cash, stock, or even crypto into it. The moment those assets go in, the donor gets an immediate tax deduction, even if they haven't given a single dollar to a nonprofit yet.
From there, the money sits in the account and grows tax-free. Whenever the donor is ready, they log into their DAF portal and "recommend" a grant to a nonprofit they want to support. The sponsoring organization then sends the funds directly to that nonprofit.
All About DAF: The Numbers Are Actually Remarkable
This is a good time to clarify that DAF giving is actually much more than just a “buzz”, or simply another fundraising channel. The numbers are outstanding and worth taking time to educate yourself if you are a nonprofit leader.
According to the Donor Advised Fund Research Collaborative's 2025 Annual DAF Report, total assets held in DAFs grew 27.9% in fiscal year 2024 alone, reaching $327.87 billion. Contributions into DAFs jumped 38.6% to $90.57 billion, and grantmaking out of DAFs to working nonprofits rose 17.9% to $64.60 billion. Every one of those numbers continues to move up and to the right.
Chariot's 2026 DAF Fundraising Report, built on $26.1 billion in real giving data from 54 nonprofits, gives us another insight: median DAF revenue growth from 2021 to 2025 was 75%, compared to just 9% growth in non-DAF revenue over the same period.
Why does DAF matter now?
This answer may begin back in 2017 when the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act nearly doubled the standard deduction, making annual charitable giving tax-invisible for most households unless they 'bunched' several years of gifts together. DAFs became the obvious vehicle for that strategy, since they're dramatically cheaper and faster to open than a private foundation, with no minimum payout requirement, no excise tax, and no public disclosure.
The stock market is filling the accounts. DAF assets nearly doubled since 2020, hitting $327.87 billion in fiscal year 2024, largely from market gains on assets already inside (Donor Advised Fund Research Collaborative, 2025 Annual DAF Report). This is also coupled with the surge of non-cash giving. A record 74% of DAFgiving360's 2025 contributions were non-cash assets like stock, real estate, and crypto, since donating appreciated assets avoids capital gains tax entirely (CNBC, "Donor-advised fund giving surges as tax cuts expire and stocks soar," Jan. 2026).
OBBBA sparked a rush. Advisors pushed wealthy clients to front-load DAF contributions before OBBBA cut the top-bracket deduction from 37% to 35% in 2026, helping drive a 28% jump in DAFgiving360’s 2025 grants (CNBC, Jan. 2026).
It's simply easier. Tools like DAFpay make giving from a DAF as easy as a credit card swipe, fueling an 11.5% projected annual growth rate for DAF platforms through 2034 (Intel Market Research, Charitable Giving and DAF Platform Market Report, 2026).
How do I know if I should get involved in DAF?
This is a very easy Streetlight POV we’re freely sharing with all our nonprofit clients and friends: you should.
When existing donors switch to giving through a DAF, the average increase in their giving is more than 10x their prior level, and nearly half of those who make the switch more than double their annual giving (Chariot & K2D Strategies, 2026 DAF Fundraising Report). Through DAF, donors are able to give more and more consistently when they start routing their generosity through a DAF. Also, certain fundraising platforms like FundraiseUp, are now offering DAFpay to their online fundraising options, making donating from DAFs even more friction-less.
OBBBA: How does this new bill impact DAF giving?
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), signed into law in July 2025, reshaped the charitable deduction landscape starting in the 2026 tax year, and it changes this conversation in two important, yet opposite directions (Fidelity Charitable, "One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB): Impact on charitable giving").
For casual, non-itemizing donors: OBBBA introduces a new above-the-line deduction of $1,000 for single filers and $2,000 for joint filers on direct cash gifts to public charities. Good news for everyday giving, except contributions to DAFs are explicitly excluded from this deduction. In other words, this new incentive nudges small, occasional donors toward direct giving, not DAFs.
For itemizing donors, especially higher-income ones there are more financial incentives. OBBBA introduces a new 0.5% AGI floor on charitable deductions (the first 0.5% of a donor's income given to charity is no longer deductible at all) and caps the deduction's value at 35% for top-bracket taxpayers, down from 37%. Because that floor applies per tax year, donors who “bunch” several years of giving into a DAF in a single high-income year only absorb that 0.5% haircut once, rather than paying it annually. That makes DAFs measurably more valuable as a tax-planning tool for exactly the donors most likely to make larger gifts.
The OBBBA Conclusion
While OBBBA creates a stronger tax incentive for direct giving among some non-itemizing donors and increases the planning advantages of strategic, bunched DAF contributions for higher-capacity donors, DAF usage is not driven by tax considerations alone. Many donors continue to use DAFs because they offer convenience, flexibility, and a structured way to manage charitable giving over time.
This is an important nuance to build into your fundraising strategy. The biggest tax-planning opportunities may exist with major donors, but nonprofit organizations shouldn't overlook their mid-level donors, many of whom are already comfortable giving through DAFs. That means your mid-level and major donors are the audiences most likely to benefit from proactive education about DAF giving options. Sending personalized outreach and alerting them to options with DAFpay is a great way to strengthen that relationship with your mid-level and major gift level donors.
DAF Day: Your Immediate Opportunity
We hope this article will help you prepare for DAF Day 2026, which falls on Thursday, October 8. Founded by Chariot in 2024, DAF Day is essentially the Giving Tuesday of DAF philanthropy: a single day when donors, nonprofits, and DAF providers all focus on moving DAF dollars out of accounts and into the field. Tens of thousands of donors are expected to participate this year.
This is the perfect moment to build a coordinated DAF Day push into Q4 planning: get ready to develop dedicated landing pages, DAF-specific email sends with instructions on how to move forward, and social content in the weeks leading up to October 8th.
DAF Day: What to get lined up now
Go ahead and run through this checklist leading up to DAF Day. It’s not too late to build messaging for your donors before October 8:
Add a DAF giving option to your donation form. Keeping the payment option directly on your site (like FundraiseUp DAFpay) reduces friction and allows supporters to give without leaving your website.
Make your EIN and legal name easy to find. Put them directly on a dedicated DAF giving page, not buried in an obscure place on your website.
Build a dedicated DAF landing page. Explain what a DAF is very clearly, show the step-by-step giving process, and give donors a direct link or button to act.
Segment your donor file for DAF holders. Even a simple manual flag in your CRM for known DAF donors lets you tailor messaging instead of sending generic asks.
Send at least one dedicated DAF education email per quarter. Don't assume donors already understand how DAFs work; many need someone to explain it clearly.
Plan a DAF Day activation for October 8. Get listed on the DAF Day giving page, send a dedicated appeal in the days leading up to it, and consider a matching gift or challenge to create urgency.
Review your messaging against the OBBBA nuance. Make sure mid-level and major donor communications acknowledge the bunching opportunity, not just generic “DAFs are tax-smart” language.
Talk about it everywhere! Make sure you’re talking about DAF giving across all your channels, including event fundraisers, social media, emails, etc.
A recent Chariot webinar highlighted how one nonprofit doubled their annual revenue solely through DAF Giving. Now is the time to make sure your nonprofit is up and running to support DAF donations. This is the low hanging fruit nonprofits everywhere should be excited about, especially in a fundraising landscape that is rapidly changing.
