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Hello, Humble Dollar community!! This is my first post, please excuse me in advance if not as articulate as so many of you who contribute to this site.
I am wondering if any of you have recommendations or thoughts on simple DAF platforms for charitable contributions
I have some highly appreciated stock (APPL at ~$250/share with a very low basis) and use this for most of my larger charitable gifts. I am a devoted Vanguard customer and make direct donations thru Vanguard but tend to find the process a bit tedious – tracking down DTC number, verification that stocks are transferred and notification to the non-profits has caused me many headaches over the years.
I make many smaller donations ($100 or less) throughout the year and so AAPL at $250 won’t work for these donations.
I am planning to set-up a DAF for my smaller donations, probably $2-3k or less a year, and have been researching Daffy.org which seems like a great platform for transfer of appreciated stock (and even crypto). A DAFFY.org account is $3/month if transferred securities stay under $25k. Once I transfer securities, they liquidate and have options for me to invest.
Donations go to nonprofit as cash, not securities they need to liquidate, and are identified as coming from me. I can also set-up a charitable fundraising campaign for a non-profit.
There are a few other DAF platforms with low annual fees and minimum account balance that seem like good options. Of course, I could open a Vanguard DAF but this requires a $25k minimum transfer to open and minimum donations of $500/gift.
Any other recommendations? Daffy.org is only ~4 years old, Charityvest.org look like another simple platform with a $100 minimum annual fee. Thanks!!
I started using Daffy a year ago and have made about 6 contributions from my Vanguard account. Nice that I only have to use 1 DTC number for Daffy through Vanguard’s gifting process. To try out Daffy, I transferred a small number of Vanguard mutual fund shares to Daffy and donated part of the proceeds to a charity. Once I saw this work well, I was very comfortable contributing much larger amounts. You might try this with one or two Apple shares.
Thanks so much for sharing your experience with Daffy. I learned about Daffy from a Stanford Alumni webinar … this is link for anyone who may want a bit more information on DAF’s, this is open for anyone:
Everything Everywhere All at Once: Charitable Giving Edition on Vimeo
Welcome and thanks for your post!
To demonstrate the power of AI, take a look at this comprehensive comparison of various features of DAFs. Quite unbelievable, actually!
https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/98c3b7e9-a539-4f9b-91ff-96d3b76776f7
Thanks!! Yes, in fact I found Charityvest through an AI search. Seems the most similar to Daffy.com. I learned about Daffy thru a foundation event and thought best to get input before opening an account. Thks!!
I switched from Vanguard Charitable to Charityvest for many of the reasons you mentioned, especially for the low grant minimum of $15 ($500 with Vanguard) and to avoid the minimum annual $250 maintenance fee, which is too high for small balances (Charityvest has a $100 annual fee minimum). Chartityvest uses Vanguard’s low expense ratio funds.
Overall, I’ve been very happy with Charityvest. There are only two drawbacks: 1) they only communicate via email, which is one way they keep their administrative fees so low (so understandable). They have always been very responsive, though; 2) they do not allow designatation of which investment to sell to fund grants. With Vanguard, I could hold cash in a money market fund and make grants through that account; Charityvest requires grants to come from all investments you hold in your account proportionately. Hopefully, that will change soon, as it appears this is just a software programming issue.
Thanks for sharing your experience, Charityvest seems like the next best option, although Daffy so inexpensive at $36/year.
I used Vanguard Charitable in the past, but I didn’t like how they completely close the account anytime it goes to zero. It was frustrating. I switched to CharityVest and have been very satisfied. Simple, clean platform, and all very intuitive.
You may want to investigate whether a local community foundation offers donors access to a DAF. I have since moved away, but I previously maintained a DAF at a community foundation which charged no fees. My fund was commingled with many others for investment purposes and the (very low) operating expenses of the foundation were shared pro rata. They wrote checks at my direction and either gave them to me to distribute or credited them to local charities who maintained their accounts with the foundation.
Thanks. I have some longer-term plans with a local foundation, but that comes at a bigger cost and effort relative to a tech solution.
I’ve also used Fidelity Donor Advised Fund for years. No minimum deposit; $50 min per grant; $100 or 0.6% fee per yr, whatever is greater and all investment choices. You may want to consider giving a larger donation to take advantage of the tax deduction. Good luck
I have used Fidelity Charitable Giving for many years. I was already in the “Fidelity Universe” with my brokerage account, and it was a logical step.
i make large (for me) donations of appreciated stock and some cash every other year. This lets me “bunch deductions” and itemize every other year as well.
the fidelity platform is very easy to use, and most 501c3s are already registered. I have made donations to my church (a small one), a large international charity, PBS, several colleges, etc.
i always get recognized fir the donation, and I can put my monthly gifts on “autopilot.
i am a big believer in the dad concept, and fidelity platform in particular.
QCDs start for me in 5 years, and that may change my behavior, but for now fidelity charitable giving is the way to go. Just now finalizing my plans for year end 2025 gifts.
I generally like Fidelity because their tech is so user-friendly and reliable. I am over 70 1/2 so use QCDs instead of a DAF for donations and Fidelity makes it so easy, all online and the donation goes out within a day or so of the request.
Thanks. Fidelity was also on short list and will take closer look.
Me too, Fidelity for our DAF since around 2018 or so. It’s been terrific. We’ll probably switch over to making donations via QCDs when we’re 70.5–about five years from now—and I’m going to miss how easy and user-friendly our DAF is.
I too use fidelitycharitable.org and find it superb. Lots of great features and the easy transfer of securities, at least from my Fidelity brokerage account. I don’t let DAF funds accumulate, and so I am charged the $100 annual fee. That is well worth the convenience alone. Other ways to justify fees include saving me money by no longer writing checks or mailing them, and saving charities usage fees if donating on digital platforms. The only drawback I’ve found is the typical three-day delay between donating securities and having them accepted into the DAF, which means the value of the donated securities may change during that time.
I found Fidelity Charitable DAF quite easy to use. The minimum grant you have to make is $50. They have many options to”invest” your funds while you wait to make a grant.There is a small fee involved.Vanguard is I believe $500 minimum for a grant.
Thanks for the post Suzee.
This is a timely article about donor advised funds (DAF). I was not previously aware of Daffy, all of the tax work I did with clients over my working years was with DAF’s housed at the large brokerage firms.
Daffy has a nice comparison summary on their website of their costs and the major broker DAFs costs. Based on that comparison I am not aware of a lower overall cost DAF custodian for DAF’s with smaller balances.
I would also add another cost question. If you are not a DIY 1040 return preparer then will you incur an additional tax preparation cost to your preparer to deal with the additional noncash charitable reporting?
For tax years after December 31, 2025, OBBBA permanently restores the deduction for cash charitable contribution for non-itemizers and increases the limit to $1,000 ($2,000 for MFJ). However, for itemizers, the OBBBA imposes a new 0.5-percent AGI floor on charitable contributions. Key – OBBBA charitable rules applies starting tax year 2026, not tax year 2025.
Sometimes tax planning encourages taxpayers to bunch deductions in one tax year and use a standard deduction in other tax years. Many people will bunch multiple year DAF contributions, typically highly appreciated stock, in the year they will itemize along with bunching other itemized deductions.
Charitable contributions by individuals do have adjusted gross income (AGI) limitations based on the type of income (ordinary vs. capital gain) and the type of donee organization can also have AGI limitations which may limit your current tax year deductible contributions. Understanding charitable tax limitation rules can help prevent unwelcome deduction limitation surprises on your return.
Some taxpayers with large deferred tax accounts (i.e. tIRAs, t401(k)s, etc.) who have previously made large DAF charitable contributions change to making qualified charitable distributions (QCD) from their required minimum distributions (RMD) when eligible to do so. QCDs are possible after age 70 1/2 while RMDs currently start beginning at age 73. There are other requirements in addition to being age 70 1/2 to allow a QCD to be excluded from income.
Thanks for mentioning tax considerations. I do my own taxes and keep close eye on tax considerations, and upcoming changes. I’m not a tax professional but enjoy getting into the weeds to help family/friends understand tax opportunities. I’m happy to see SALT limit of $10k increase to $40k for 2025, feels like this should boost nonprofit giving. I have mixed feelings on 2026 changes – great that non-itemizers will get some benefits for donations but not certain how I feel about the 0.5% floor. Thks!
Susie – Glad you felt comfortable to post! Thank you. And thank you for having the goals to donate to charities.
Regarding DAFs. From a financial perspective, I have found that DAFs are a wonderful tool. But not for everyone. It really depends on the tax bracket that you are currently in. Otherwise, it may pay to simply donate (and maybe write off if exceed standard deduction levels). The site you suggest might work, but the other site, at $100 annual fee, means that you have to consider the % of your total donation. If your gift is $1000, then that represents a 10% fee, and not worth the DAF path to donate. If you donate $10,000, then the fee is only 1%. At that level, consider the Vanguard DAF (which is closer to 0.61%).
Thanks for your article suzee, I’m just gutted I can’t contribute to the comments…oh wait, I just have 😀