Do Your Good

#152 What’s the Big Deal About Donor Advised Funds? With Helen Flannery, Director of Research for the Charity Reform Initiative and the Institute for Policy Studies

Listen Later

Helen Flannery joins us to offer her perspective on donor-advised funds (DAFs) and her desire for the need for reforms to ensure the charitable sector's vitality and impact. For example, she discovered that of the top 20 charities in the United States, 11 of the top twenty are DAFs. She wants you to know that most people don’t realize that the top charities in the United States are DAFs. For example, Fidelity Charitable takes in 4 times the contributions as the largest working charity. Helen wants people to know just how big DAFs are becoming and what that means for our charitable institutions. 


Episode Highlights:


  • The rise of Donor Advised Funds


  • The ins and outs of Donor Advised Funds


  • The top considerations when understanding the pros and cons of Donor Advised Funds


  • Proposals to reform Donor Advised Fund structure and payouts 



Helen Flannery Bio:


Helen Flannery directs research for the Charity Reform Initiative at the Institute for Policy Studies. Helen’s research focuses on the relationship between philanthropy and inequality, including the policies and practices surrounding charitable mega-giving, private foundations, and donor-advised funds.


Prior to her current employment, Helen provided nonprofits with reporting, analytics, and industry benchmarking services through her work at Target Analytics and ROI Solutions. At those organizations, she also wrote extensively on charitable sector fundraising topics such as direct marketing, sustainer giving, and the economic factors affecting donor behavior.



Links:


  • The Charity Reform Initiative: https://inequality.org/



  • Charity reform recommendations: https://inequality.org/action/charity-reform-initiative/



  • IPS's full slate of charity reform proposals: https://inequality.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/IPS-Policy-Recommendations-for-Charitable-Reform.pdf



  • Helen Flannery’s blog post about the top 20 charities: https://inequality.org/great-divide/top-public-charities/



  • The California and Michigan studies on DAFs:


  • California: https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/media/donor-advised-funds-overview.pdf



  • Michigan: https://michiganfoundations.org/resources/payout-study



If you enjoyed this episode, listen to these as well:


https://www.doyourgood.com/blog/151-The-Ins-and-Outs-of-Donor-Advised-Funds-with-Andrea-Rush


https://www.doyourgood.com/blog/150-pooled-funds-that-protects-sharks


https://www.doyourgood.com/blog/148-Sybil-Speak-The-Ins-and-Outs-of-Donor-Advised-Funds-and-Pooled%20Funds

 

 

Crack the Code: Sybil’s Successful Guide to Philanthropy

 

Become even better at what you do as Sybil teaches you the strategies as well as the tools you’ll need to avoid mistakes and make a career out of philanthropy.


Sybil offers resources that include special free short video mini-courses, templates, and key checklists, and words of advice summarized in easy-to-view PDFs.    


Check out Sybil’s website with all the latest opportunities to learn from Sybil at

https://www.doyourgood.com

 

Connect with Do Your Good

 

  • https://www.facebook.com/doyourgood

 

  • https://www.instagram.com/doyourgood

 

Would you like to talk with Sybil directly?

 

Send in your inquiries through her website https://www.doyourgood.com/ or you can email her directly at [email protected]!





...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store
Do Your GoodBy Sybil Ackerman-Munson
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5

5

17 ratings