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.
