You might be seeing this already: donations from Donor Advised funds (DAFs) is going up. Way up.
In 2024, DAF donations totalled $64.89 billion, up 19% from the previous year. The number of DAF accounts hit 3,562,623, up 18%.
And here’s what should really get your attention: DAF giving made up 22.8% of all giving from individuals.
This rate of growth is not likely to slow down.
Are you ready?
Here’s a great post from the Veritus Group Blog, at Donor Advised Funds Series, Part 2:
- Train gift processors in tying directed gifts back to donors using a soft credit. Getting this wrong can create a hassle for donors at tax time. And failing to recognize DAF gifts is an error that will cost you!
- Allow gift processors the time they need to correctly link gifts coming from DAFs back to the originating donor record. This might be new to some. They may need more time to do this than you are used to giving them.
- Create an easy way for Relationship Fundraisers to alert gift processing about expected DAF gifts. Don’t let a DAF gift get lost in the shuffle!
- Clean up your Donor Type and Gift Type Codes to be more effective. Don’t lump DAF donations all into a single category with Organizations. They are people!
Want to know more about Donor Advised funds? Check out The Annual DAF Report 2025 from The DAF Research Collaborative. Available for download here.
Jeff Brooks has been serving the nonprofit community for more than 35 years and blogging about it since 2005. He considers fundraising the most noble of pursuits and hopes you’ll join him in that opinion. You can reach him at jeff [at] jeff-brooks [dot] com.
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