Many philanthropically minded individuals have found donor-advised funds to be strategic and tax-efficient vehicles through which to channel their charitable giving. The funds are housed with a sponsor nonprofit with grants distributed upon the donors’ direction to any U.S. organization with an active 501(c)(3) status.
Recently, three of the largest DAF sponsors in the country elected to deny grants to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a 501(c)(3) organization with a long history of fighting for justice, equity and democracy. Fidelity Charitable, Vanguard Charitable and Schwab Charitable all refused to honor donors’ grant requests to the center, citing self-imposed policies to not make grants to nonprofits with pending judicial charges.
With the closing off of grants from these three major DAF platforms, the Department of Justice has significantly restricted an important fundraising channel for the center. Given all the actions we’ve seen from this administration, many people are concerned that these criminal charges brought against the center are politically motivated, with the aim of constricting a pipeline of grant dollars to the organization.
Good news: It’s not only megafinancial institutions that host DAFs. We have a terrific alternative here in our own backyard! Since 1916, the Cambridge Community Foundation has served the people and organizations of Cambridge as a civic leader, a grant maker and a philanthropic partner. The foundations holds donor-advised funds for individuals and families such as my own and provides creative solutions to optimize philanthropic impact in addition to valuable knowledge of local issues and nonprofits.
As advisers to our DAFs, we can direct grants to any 501(c)(3) organization, whether it’s a small nonprofit focused on food security in Cambridge or a national charity tackling climate change … or the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The writer is a fund holder and board member at the Cambridge Community Foundation.
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