Schwab Charitable Donor-Advised Fund Contributions Reach $3.3 Billion

Contributions to Schwab Charitable totaled $3.3 billion in its 2018 fiscal year, which closed June 30, the donor-advised-fund sponsor reported Wednesday. It was an increase of 9 percent over the $3.1 billion in contributions it generated in 2017.

Schwab Charitable, which is affiliated with the bank and brokerage company Charles Schwab, is one of the biggest donor-advised-fund operators in the country. It is the sixth largest charity in the nation, according to the Philanthropy 400, the Chronicle’s annual ranking of nonprofits that raise the most money from private sources.

Donor-advised funds — which allow donors to take an immediate charitable deduction at the time a gift is made — have existed for decades, but their growth has accelerated in recent years.

Other data provided by Schwab Charitable:

• Half of existing account holders added money to their donor-advised funds in fiscal 2018.
• Account holders directed more than 420,000 grants totaling nearly $2 billion to nonprofits during the fiscal year. From January through June, they directed more than $925 million in grants, a more than 40 percent increase over the same period the year before.
• The total dollar amount in grant making in fiscal 2018 was 20 percent higher than that in 2017. The money went to 78,000 nonprofits; among the most widely supported were Feeding America, the Red Cross, Planned Parenthood, the Salvation Army, and Doctors Without Borders.

Tax-Law Changes

In January, the organization announced that from July to December 2017, the number of new accounts climbed 91 percent over the same period in 2016. The surge coincided with a major legislative overhaul of the U.S. tax code, which included big implications for access to the charitable deduction for many taxpayers. The majority of the giving in the second half of 2017 came in the form of noncash assets such as securities, restricted stock, and real estate.

In a statement on Wednesday, Kim Laughton, president of Schwab Charitable, said that “strong market performance, disaster relief, and uncertainty about tax reform drove giving in the second half of 2017.”