The Rise of the Donor-Advised Fund
As lead analyst and reporter, I analyzed 134 of the nation's largest donor-advised funds and found that donor-advised funds were accumulating assets far more rapidly than both nonprofits and foundations combined.
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Worth almost a third more than before the recession, donor-advised funds received 46 percent more in donations in 2012 than in 2011. This compared to nonprofits, which attracted just 7 percent more in contributions and big foundations, whose assets grew by only 4 percent, according to Chronicle studies.
Critics of donor-advised funds have said that the funds give little directly to charity and argue that the funds should be subject to payout requirements like foundations. My reporting inspired a panel on the subject at the Hudson Institute, where I presented my findings.
