As I was searching, trying to find an appropriate Tax Day 2023 topic to post on (not as easy as you’d think when you’ve been doing this for a while), I came across Fidelity Charitable‘s annual Giving Report.

What is Fidelity Charitable? It’s a sponsor for donor advised funds (a topic I’ve written about here). A DAF is essentially an account that a person sets up within a charitable sponsor. That individual can donate money to the account and take a charitable deduction for the donation in the year it’s made. The DAF itself doesn’t do charitable things, though; rather, it holds the money and, at some point, distributes it to actual charities. As a legal matter, the sponsor (that is, the entity like Fidelity Charitable) has the right to determine where to send the money. But the donor gets to “advise” about where the money should go. As long as the donor’s advice is within certain parameters (essentially, it goes to a 501(c)(3) organization), the sponsor will generally follow the donor’s advice.