As part of JB+A’s 15th Anniversary celebration, we hosted an educational program last November about the growing prevalence of donor-advised funds. Featured guests Matt Nash from Fidelity Charitable and Debbie Wilkerson from the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation joined Jeffrey Byrne in exploring the role of donor-advised funds in the powerful future of philanthropy. You can read a recap of our special event here.
Fidelity Charitable recently shared its granting numbers for 2015, which proved to be another record-breaking year:
- A total of $3.1billion in grants was distributed through donor-advised funds
- 733,000 grants were made in 2015, an 18% increase over 2014
- 106,000 different charity organizations were recipients of grants
- 329 grants of $1 million or more were awarded, a 27% increase over 2014
- Contributions of non-cash assets to donor-advised funds increased 18% over 2014
Many of the donors responded to the growing refugee crisis as well as to natural disasters, utilizing donor-advised funds as “ready reserves” to respond quickly as needs arise. With more 100,000 donors participating in Fidelity donor-advised funds, and the growing number of donors creating and organizations accepting these contributions, we can expect to see this trend continue to grow and become a permanent fixture in modern philanthropy.
Learn more about Fidelity Charitable here.