Fred Hutch Adds 357 New DAF Donors with DAFpay

Before DAFpay, Fred Hutch's team spent hours chasing down DAF gifts for their Obliteride P2P campaign participants. Now those gift recommendations show up instantly in their Chariot account.

  • 80%

    of DAFpay donors were first-time DAF donors, including those who had given through non-DAF methods before

  • $1,000

    Avg DAFpay Gift Amount

  • 11 weeks

    Full-time work weeks gained to focus on other Obliteride activities and relationship stewardship

"What DAFpay has been able to do is keep the donor-centric experience in the forefront — saving time for participants, not chasing someone's $500. It's showing up on their fundraising page so they can continue to fundraise. That's the biggest component."
Nohe KaExecutive Director, Gift Services & Data Management, Fred Hutch Cancer Center

Fred Hutch Cancer Center is one of the world's leading cancer research institutions, based in Seattle, Washington. Their development operations team processes around 200,000 transactions and manages 24,000 tax acknowledgments annually.

DAF giving, in particular, has been growing quickly at Fred Hutch for years. With that growth came a processing challenge that Nohe's team felt most acutely during Obliteride, Fred Hutch's flagship peer-to-peer (P2P) cycling and 5K walk/run event.

Nohe Ka has worked with Fred Hutch for nearly twenty years and has been leading their Gift Services and Data Management team for the past eight years. When tracking and reconciling Obliteride's DAF gifts became unsustainable, she knew the team needed a better way.

The Problem

Obliteride, like many P2P campaigns, runs on momentum. Participants set fundraising goals, watch their pages fill up, and use that progress to motivate more donations. But DAF gifts — routed through Fidelity Charitable, DAFgiving360, or over 1,000 other sponsoring organizations — can take weeks or months to arrive. That gap created a persistent customer service nightmare.

"Someone’s mom sent a DAF gift, and we're looking for this gift." That kind of call was a regular occurrence. Fundraisers would contact the Obliteride team, the Obliteride team would contact Gift Services, and Nohe's team would spend hours tracing gifts that sometimes arrived — and sometimes didn't. Meanwhile, participants' fundraising pages sat frozen, not reflecting donations their donors had already made. Donors were frustrated. Participants were frustrated. And Nohe's team was caught in the middle, endlessly hunting for gift confirmations to support their participants.

The Solution

Fred Hutch implemented DAFpay on the Obliteride donation forms in 2024. For donors, it's a seamless experience: with a few clicks, they can recommend their gifts directly from the donation page. For Nohe's team, it meant gift data arrived immediately with full donor details attached — no more hunting down anonymous gifts or contact emails.

The improvement in the participant experience was immediate. By providing real-time updates to participant pages through DAFpay, Fred Hutch eliminated a 14-day waiting period where donors and participants previously flooded their inboxes with inquiries.

With DAFpay, once a donor completes their gift, it’s registered on their participant's fundraising page right away, even before Fred Hutch actually receives the funds. Participants can now fundraise with their DAF donor momentum. Donors feel acknowledged. And the Obliteride team can stop fielding calls about tracking gifts.

Here’s what DAFpay provided:

  • Embedded DAF payment option — Donors give from their DAF provider directly on the Obliteride donation form.
  • Donor gift details — Fred Hutch’s team is instantly notified of the gift and can track its receipt and thank donors faster. No more anonymous gifts.
  • Fundraiser momentum & visibility — Obliteride participants can display their DAF gifts on their participant fundraising pages in real-time, even before the gift is received.

The Results

After implementing DAFpay on the Obliteride 2024-2026 donation forms, Fred Hutch experienced:

  • $785K+

    DAFpay revenue since launching in FY24

  • $1,000

    Avg DAFpay donation amount

  • $250

    Median DAFpay donation amount

By implementing DAFpay on their donation forms, Fred Hutch removed the friction for DAF donors to give with their DAFs. Of the 446 unique DAFpay donors,

  • 20%

    were existing DAF donors

  • 29%

    were first-time donors to Fred Hutch

  • 51%

    switched from another non-DAF giving method

According to the DAF Fundraising Report, when donors switch their giving method to DAFs, annual support increases ~10x on average (2x median).

A Monumental Change for the Gift Services Team

"It's a lifesaver for our team. What it's allowed us to do is spend more time on other process improvements — rather than looking around for a DAF that somebody sent."

Freed from the manual burden of tracking down DAF gifts and fielding participant and donor inquiries, Nohe's team can now handle the increased volume of DAF gifts without spending any additional time reconciling gifts.

Nohe’s team can now dedicate their time towards better analytics, process improvements, and frontline fundraiser education.

Advice to the Field

Although DAFpay was implemented with process improvements in mind, the results showed immediate success for fundraisers. Nohe's biggest piece of advice for peer nonprofits? Bring the whole team in from the start, especially if you’re running P2P events.

"I would approach it with a more holistic team at the table," she said. "Annual Giving, Donor Marketing, Gift Services — not just the back-end operations team. We approached it at the grassroots level, and we still saw great results. But if we'd had everyone at the table from the beginning, I think we could have done even better."

Looking Ahead

Now entering their third year with DAFpay, Fred Hutch is ready for another phase of growth. For the first time, their Donor Marketing team is at the table as part of a cross-functional working group with Planned Giving, Acquisition, and Direct Response to develop a coordinated strategy for DAF Day in October.

When asked how she’d feel if she no longer had DAFpay, Nohe shared that she’d be upset, “This is a tool that we have to have, absolutely.”

This year, Obliteride Day is August 8th. If you’d like to donate to Fred Hutch, you can use DAFpay to give on their online donation form here.

Want to save your team gift processing time and make DAF giving easier for your donors? Reach out to our team to learn more about the gift processing plan that might be right for you.


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