Donor-Advised Funds: Warehouses of Wealth?

The Chronicle of Philanthropy's survey on the nation's largest donor-advised funds found that donor-advised funds are accumulating assets at a far faster pace than nonprofits and foundations. Worth almost a third more than they were before the recession, donor-advised funds received 46 percent more in donations in 2012 than 2011.

That's a stark contrast to nonprofits, which attracted just 7 percent more in contributions, according to The Chronicle's ranking of the 400 charities that raise the most, and big foundations, whose assets grew by 4 percent according to the newspaper's latest study. But the runup in donations--Fidelity Charitable is now as big as the nation's third largest foundation--has prompted critics to suggest that payout rules are needed so that the funds don't simply become warehouses of wealth.

On May 22nd, the Bradley Center hosted a panel discussion on this timely topic.

Required Reading
Alan M. Cantor, Donor-Advised Funds are Booming, but Nonprofits See Little Benefit, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, May 23, 2013.

Sarah Frostenson, Donor-Advised Funds Keep Up Rapid Growth, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, May 23, 2013.