Philanthropy, incorporated for the public good, can and should make all its investments accordingly. In 2021, Senators Angus King (I-Maine) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced a bill to more tightly regulate donor-advised funds, commonly referred to as DAFs. While the Accelerating Charitable Giving (ACE) Act’s reforms were far from sweeping, the bill set off a bitter debate over who controls charitable funds: the donor or the public. The Act’s supporters plausibly argued that wealthy donors could use the increasingly popular philanthropic instruments for personal gain, and that DAFs allow them to hoard and perpetually control what becomes public money once [...more...]

Eva RhodesBanker for J.P. Morgan Private Bank, Santa Barbara A Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) can be a great strategy for charitable giving as it provides an easy, cost-effective way to give. One client who had been using a DAF had a $200mm liquidity event and engaged our team to not only work on the asset allocation, but to also discuss their philanthropic vision and desire to create high-impact programs. We immediately brought in a regional specialist from our Philanthropy Centre and set up an in-person meeting to discuss.  The family shared that they aspired to be more creative and independent in [...more...]