More than 1,200 nonprofits joined dozens of DAF providers and fundraising platforms for the industry-wide day dedicated to DAF giving on October 10th.
NEW YORK CITY, Oct. 15, 2024 -- Chariot, the Donor Advised Fund (DAF) payments company, has announced preliminary results of the first DAF Day. October 10th was the first national giving day dedicated to DAFs, with a goal of boosting usage and adoption of this essential giving vehicle that has been proven to drastically increase donation volume for individuals. Many of the 1,250+ participating organizations have already reported record-breaking raises and levels of participation.
The Donor’s Fund, a Donor Advised Fund that recently surpassed $1 billion in total grant volume, saw their daily giving increase by 4x on DAF Day, resulting in a $3 million surge. Daffy, a high-growth, mobile-first DAF provider, saw a 440% increase in their daily donations on DAF Day. "We were thrilled to see the surge in engagement surrounding DAF Day,” added Adam Nash, Co-Founder and CEO of Daffy.
“This industry-wide initiative not only highlighted the power of DAFs in increasing individual giving but also aligned perfectly with our mission—to help people be more generous, more often. It gave our members a meaningful opportunity to join a larger movement and make an even greater impact.”
Chariot was the organizing force behind the DAF Day movement, and equipped all participants with a robust marketing toolkit and educational webinar series. These efforts ultimately led to millions of emails, texts, mailers and social media impressions about Donor Advised Funds to the donating public. Chariot also provided many of the participating nonprofits with DAFpay technology leading up to October 10th. DAFpay enables an “express checkout” experience for DAF donors within a nonprofit’s donation forms, akin to Google Pay or Apple Pay.
While a more complete picture of DAF Day’s impact will take some time to assess, given how much DAF giving still happens “offline” from over 1,100 DAFs to more than 1 million nonprofits, the early indications are that the first year of this grassroots effort sparked tremendous results. “No matter how you measure it, the level of engagement was absolutely incredible,” shares Mitch Stein, Chariot’s Head of Strategy who spearheaded the initiative.
“We saw a record number of organizations getting DAF Gifts through DAFpay in a single day, 4x the prior high water mark - which was actually set just the day before on October 9th!”
The number of gifts on October 10th was 10x the year-to-date daily median and the dollar volume was 8x the year-to-date daily median through Chariot’s DAFpay payment option.
Participating nonprofits deployed a wide variety of tactics to boost DAF donor giving on DAF Day - from a Wall Street Journal advertisement for Doctors Without Borders, to Google ad words for Candid, to a million-dollar match campaign by the ACLU Foundation.
Many of the nonprofits that helped launch DAF Day in late July are also sharing exciting initial results. The ACLU Foundation saw more digital DAF giving than anyone when they rolled DAFpay out to their full donor audience for the first time on October 10th, and their average DAFpay gift was $1,200. “Giving days are incredibly motivating to our supporters,” says Meghan Lee, Associate Director of impact giving for the ACLU.
“As we’ve watched the rapid increase in DAF usage over the past few years, it made perfect sense for us to partner in a giving day dedicated to this critical donor segment.”
Susan G. Komen has already been a top recipient of DAF gifts through DAFpay over the course of 2024, but still saw a surge on DAF Day - 2x their own prior record. “DAF giving has become a core part of our overall fundraising strategy,” shares Trish Davis, Komen’s Vice President of Major Gifts & Planned Giving.
“Combining the technology of DAFpay with an exciting and collective movement in DAF Day is clearly spurring a new wave of DAF giving - one that nonprofits everywhere are in desperate need of.”
As word got out about the first-ever DAF Day, the number of organizations participating grew exponentially: 40 nonprofits signed on before the announcement on July 30, reaching 300 by Sept. 25, to 500 on Sept. 30, all the way to more than 1,200 total by Oct. 10.
“We were proud to participate in the first-ever DAF Day as a way to educate and inspire our community to learn more about donor advised funds and how they can make an immediate impact on Parkinson's research, while creating a legacy of philanthropy,” shares Sarah Chatham, Vice President and Head of Individual Giving at The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, which was also a launch partner for DAF Day.
“Like many nonprofit organizations, we have been working to build appropriate strategies that engage this fast-growing donor segment. DAF Day gave us a collective focal point to rally around – both within our organization and among DAF donors.”
In the coming weeks, Chariot will collect more comprehensive DAF Day data and feedback from all participants. That additional data will be released by Chariot later this year, providing more specific insights into the impact of the inaugural DAF Day and the potential for many years to come.
Next up: DAF Day 2025 is slated for Thursday, October 9th of next year.
About Chariot
Chariot is the payments company dedicated to Donor Advised Fund (DAF) giving. DAFpay, Chariot’s 3-click DAF payment option, allows donors to give with their DAF anywhere they are inspired to give online. This enables donors to use their DAF in more places, more often, and unlocks more DAF gifts with better information for nonprofits. Chariot powers direct DAF payments for many of the largest nonprofits in the country, such as the American Cancer Society, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
Media Contact: Consort Partners
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