With over $230 Billion in Donor-Advised Fund assets, these “charitable” funding tools take in one-fifth of individual charitable giving, according to Helen Flannery, researcher with the Charity Reform Initiative at the Institute for Policy Studies. Her recent paper shows that as wealth inequality increases, charities depend on fewer wealthy and influential donors, and Donor-Advised Funds are tax-deductable tool of choice — one with little transparency, little control, and no requirement to even give the money in their funds to charity.

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