Steps to effectively incorporate Donor Advised Funds into your nonprofit’s digital strategy and keep up with the evolving landscape for digital fundraising
Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs) have rapidly become a critical segment of philanthropy and opportunity for nonprofit fundraisers. Over the past 5 years, both assets in DAFs and annual grants out of DAFs have roughly doubled - with over $250 billion in assets and $54 billion in grants in 2023. Such rapid growth has also come with a host of changes in giving behavior. This week, Paul St Onge from Doing Good Digital joined Chariot’s Mitch Stein to discuss how nonprofits can adapt their digital strategies to acquire and engage with more DAF donors.
Our digital DAF strategy recommendations fall into the following categories:
Understanding why DAFs are now relevant for digital strategies
Ways to incorporate DAF giving across your digital strategy
New Donor Acquisition
Converting current donors
Educating donors about DAFs
Segmenting DAF donor communication
Next steps
Just three years ago, a webinar focused on “Digital DAF Giving Strategies” would have likely left most attendees puzzled, as the concept of DAFs and digital giving seemed incongruous. This serves as a powerful reminder of how much has evolved in such a short period. A poll at the start of the webinar revealed that only 30% of participants had incorporated DAF giving into their GivingTuesday campaign assets, emphasizing the missed opportunity for nonprofits to fully engage their DAF donors in recent campaigns, particularly in today’s increasingly digital landscape.
“Three years ago, if we were doing a webinar called Digital DAF Giving Strategies, all of you in the audience would have been like, ‘huh? DAFs aren’t digital!’”
3 recent shifts that make digital strategies essential for DAF giving
More money
As DAF giving has grown exponentially, the giving vehicle has come to occupy a different, more prominent position in the fundraising landscape.
Unlike donations made via credit card, DAF gifts don’t affect a donor’s monthly budget. The funds in their DAF are already allocated for charitable giving, making it a prime giving option for both donors and nonprofits.
Further, recent studies show that donors give more when they use their DAFs than other kinds of giving tools. The average DAF gift in 2023 was $4,625 (according to Fidelity Charitable), making it 23x larger than the average credit card gift (according to the Blackbaud Institute).
The 2024 Fundraising Report found that a donor’s gift size increased by 96% on average when they started giving with their DAF.
More types of donors
There’s a persistent myth in our sector that DAFs are only used by the ultra-wealthy to make major gifts. This has led to many organizations confining DAF strategy to major or planned giving. While this may have been true 20 years ago, the demographics of DAF donors have changed dramatically. Today, over 3.5 million people use DAF, and they span a spectrum of income levels that want to use their DAF whenever possible. That includes everything from major 6-figure gifts, to supporting folks doing run/walk/ride campaigns and even monthly giving programs.
When donors use DAFpay, Chariot’s express checkout option for online DAF giving, the maximum gift in 2024 was nearly $700,000, the average gift was $1,000 and the median gift was $200. This indicates just how broad the spectrum of DAF donors and DAF giving levels really is - especially in the digital setting.
“It’s not a monolith; [the DAF market] is made up of a bunch of different kinds of donors.”
More donation settings
As more and more donors prefer giving online—63% of them, in fact—advances in DAF giving technology, such as Chariot’s DAFpay, have made it possible for donors to give with their DAF in 3 clicks wherever they are inspired to give online: a nonprofit’s main donation form, a giving day campaign, a peer-to-peer fundraiser, etc Once a donor has a DAF set up, it’s their preferred method of giving for any eligible donation. It’s critical for nonprofits to make it clear when it’s possible to use your DAF for something and make the experience easy.
4 opportunities to add DAFs to your digital strategy
DAF donor acquisition: Ensure new donors are using their DAF if they have one
Review all of the entry points for your donor journey - do you clearly encourage DAF giving? Are there any routes where donors might not be aware they can use their DAF for this purpose or think it will be arduous to do so? By identifying these gaps, you can ensure that every part of the donor experience encourages the use of DAFs.
While every organization’s fundraising strategies and potential donor touch points will vary, here’s a list of key digital assets to “audit” for DAF inclusion:
Main donation form
Check if your fundraising platform offers a native DAFpay integration
Campaign-specific donation forms
If you use separate forms for things like Giving Tuesday, year end campaigns or different email efforts, double check that they also have DAFs mentioned or DAFpay added.
Planned giving site
See Michael J. Fox Foundation as an example
Peer-to-peer donation forms
See Alzheimer’s Association Walk to End Alzheimer’s
In-person events, galas, etc.
Mention DAFs in spoken remarks, in printed materials and include a QR code to an easy DAF giving page on your tables.
DIY Fundraising
GoFundMe, Givebutter & Pledge all make it easy for individuals to fundraise for your organization and include DAFpay as a payment option
3rd party fundraising
A dedicated DAF page on your website is recommended for every nonprofit. This page should explain how to support your organization with a DAF, describe the benefits of giving with a DAF and including DAFpay if you have it. This page should be included at the top of your “Ways to Give” section of your website, and be part of donation button drop downs if you feature multiple ways to give there.
Having a dedicated page on DAFs also gives you something to link to whenever you mention DAFs in other places. When donors google “your org name” + “DAF,” this also gives them the best search result to take action. Some of the key details to include on your website’s DAF page:
EIN
Full legal name
Address
Point of contact for more questions
Brief explanation of what a DAF is, why it helps donors, why it helps your organization
Great place to include a tool like DAFpay, if you use it
There are many examples of quality DAF pages, so there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Here’s a list of some of our favorites you can learn from:
Converting current donors: Encourage existing donors who haven’t used their DAF yet to start supporting you with it
Too often, donors that have DAFs don’t use them when they make a donation. This typically happens when DAF donors decide to make a quick credit card gift online instead of taking the extra steps of a DAF gift in their portal (as discovered in this study by Giving Compass and The Lilly School of Philanthropy). The good news is that nonprofits can change this behavior by keeping DAF giving top-of-mind - and easy. Don’t overlook donors who have given in other ways for your DAF strategy, many of them are likely DAF donors “in hiding.”
There’s a variety strategies to “convert” those hidden DAF donors ranging from broad to hyper-targeted:
Welcome series:
A welcome series is the standard sequence of automated communications someone receives when they enter your email list - by donating, volunteering, attending an event or just signing up for your newsletter.
At some point early on in that email series, it’s smart to highlight other effective ways to support your mission - like DAF giving, stock contributions, etc.
If you’re able to see when someone clicked on a link about DAF giving, that’s a great opportunity to follow up.
Thank you letters
Even standalone thank yous for non-DAF gifts can include a mention about DAF giving in subtle ways. Try a P.S. below the signature to still capture their attention, but not overwhelm them with information.
Newsletter
Highlighting the benefits of DAF giving in your newsletter helps put the topic in front of your widest audience. It’s especially powerful to feature a donor story from one of your supporters that used a DAF to increase their giving to your mission.
Donor surveys
Another creative approach you can take is to include a quick survey in your broad donor communication. These are great engagement opportunities and can include questions like “Do you have a Donor Advised Fund?” or “Are you curious to learn more about Donor Advised Funds.” Answers to these questions allow you to then enroll supporters into more targeted sequences specific to DAF giving.
Segmented automations
Especially with larger email lists and good details in your database, you can test more specific DAF messaging with “likely” lists of DAF donors. You can create those lists with wealth screening tools, prior gift size (say, $250 or greater), giving frequency or consecutive years of giving.
3. Educate all of your donors about DAFs
Beyond just activating DAF donors in hiding, you can also increase the understanding of DAFs across your supporter base with great DAF content. When folks use a DAF for their giving, it’s proven to increase their philanthropy - by 96% on average, according to the DAF Fundraising Report. . More supporters using DAFs means larger gifts, higher retention and deeper engagement.
Providing high quality educational content on DAFs gives you useful materials to link to in your communications and generates more “leads” for donors interested in DAFs. In addition to that core DAF page, consider some of the following ideas:
A downloadable guide with more information on DAF giving
You could even partner with a local financial advisor or your local community foundation to help create the content.
This provides real value to your supporter, builds a partnership with key stakeholders and generates email you can follow up with when individuals download the report.
Check out what Michael J. Fox Foundation created here.
An educational quiz on DAFs
Make the learning experience even more engaging with a quiz to test folks’ knowledge of DAFs.
You could even have a prize or giveaway for folks that complete it. The Public Theater in New York included the chance to win tickets to a show for anyone who took their quiz!
A blog article on DAFs
Have some news to share about a transformative DAF gift or positive donor experience with a DAF? Turn it into a story for your blog that provides timely news and a valuable asset for SEO (search engine optimization).
An activation for DAF Day
The second annual DAF Day will be on October 9th, 2025 and it’s not too early to start planning! The more you educate donors in advance about DAFs, the more engaged they’ll be on DAF Day itself. Consider a dedicated landing page for DAF day or a series of communications leading up to DAF Day that promote DAF education.
A section on DAFs in a donor or board meeting
While not entirely digital (although they may take place virtually!), reserving time to discuss DAFs at gatherings of your key supporters is also a great opportunity to build awareness and connect donors to your DAF resources.
4. Target your DAF donors with tailored, exclusive messaging.
One of the best results of activating DAF donors through your digital strategy is that you’ll be able to track them in your database as a DAF donor - especially if they gave through DAFpay, which provides you with the DAF donor’s name and email instantly when they submit their gift. When you can reliably segment DAF donors, you can customize your communications to maximize their future giving.
Consider ways to adjust the messaging in your appeals specifically for DAF donors, such as:
Put DAF giving at the top of any list of ways to give or payment options
Refer to timing considerations specific to DAFs, such as market gains that have likely boosted their DAF balances.
Clarify opportunities to give where they might not know they can use their DAF - like tax deductible membership dues, capital campaign commitments, peer-to-peer fundraising efforts, etc.
Consider tactics that are typically reserved for “major gift” donors, even if a DAF gift isn’t quite at that threshold yet - like offering a phone call or a building tour. The average DAF account balance is over $140,000 - even if it was a relatively small DAF gift, there’s likely a lot more where that came from.
Don’t refer to tax benefits of making a gift before yearend, because DAF donors got their tax benefits when they contributed to a DAF, not when they grant money out of it.
Don’t include a tax receipt in your acknowledgement letter, because that’s just incorrect.
Next Steps:
While year end campaigns are already in full swing, there is still time to check if you can incorporate some of these tips into your campaign emails at the very least. Either way, 2025 is when DAF giving will become a standard part of digital fundraising across the industry and is a perfect time to incorporate these suggestions into your campaigns. If you’re cautious about trying these new things, isolate some small steps that you can test and build confidence around what works best for your organization’s unique needs. See if there are opportunities to deploy some of these strategies in your campaign emails.