Summary: <p>Donor-advised funds (DAF) have become one of the <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.thenonprofittimes.com/news-articles/daf-accounts-soared-2017/" target="_blank">fastest-growing vehicles for philanthropy</a> in the past decade. They also have become a lightning rod in the debate about charitable giving, described by skeptics as a <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.propublica.org/article/the-wall-street-takeover-of-charity" target="_blank">“Wall Street takeover of charity.”</a></p> <p>Other critics argue that that <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.thenonprofittimes.com/news-articles/the-great-daf-debate-timing-of-payouts-continues-to-spark-discussion/" target="_blank">donors can receive a tax deduction for contributions to their DAF account</a> but the money can potentially be years away from going to an actual charity. There also can be issues of transparency when it comes to donors and tracking specific distributions and contributions.</p> <p><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.memphis.edu/padm/people/danielle-vance-mcmullen.php" target="_blank">Danielle Vance-McMullen</a> and <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.sp2.upenn.edu/people/view/dan-heist/" target="_blank">Dan Heist</a> join this episode of the Fresh Research podcast to discuss their recent paper, “Understanding Donor-Advised Funds: How Grants Flow During Recessions,” in which they examine payout rates and flow rates of DAFs over the past decade. A .pdf of the <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.sp2.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Heist-Vance-McMullen_Understanding-Donor-Advised-Funds_working-paper-002.pdf" target="_blank">51-page paper can be found here</a> and <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://daniellevancemcmullen.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/executive-summary-understanding-dafs.pdf" target="_blank">executive summary here</a>.</p> <p>The paper compiled Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data over a 10-year period (2007-2016). Almost 1,000 DAF sponsors were examined among three categories: national, community foundations, and special issue. Growth during this time has been dominated by commercial DAF sponsors but community foundations often feature the oldest DAFs.</p> <p><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.memphis.edu/padm/people/danielle-vance-mcmullen.php" target="_blank">Vance-McMullen</a>, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in public and nonprofit administration at the University of Memphis. <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.sp2.upenn.edu/people/view/dan-heist/" target="_blank">Heist</a> recently completed his Ph.D. at the Un</p>
