June 2, 2016 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Title: “2016 Giving Report: Insights Into Fidelity Charitable Donors and the Different Ways They Give”
Organization: Fidelity Charitable
Summary: People with donor-advised funds at Fidelity Charitable gave $3.1 billion in grants last year, up from $2.6 billion in 2014, according to the charity’s fourth annual report on its account holders released Thursday. Total giving increased as the number of accounts grew 11 percent, to 80,152.
The more than 132,000 donors behind the accounts gave to more than 106,250 organizations last year, up from 97,000 in 2014. The money went to groups of all sizes and with various missions, the report says. International aid charities in particular saw large spikes in giving from account holders due to disasters such as the Nepal earthquake in April 2015 and Syrian refugee crisis, the report says.
Since 2006, the number of nonprofits supported by Fidelity donors has doubled as the number of accounts has grown. The funds allow people to get immediate tax benefits for irrevocably placing cash, stocks, real estate, or other assets into an account that will be used for charitable purposes.
The funds have attracted critics who say Congress should enact mandatory payout rules for the accounts. But Fidelity notes in the report that account holders have given away 61 percent of all contributions since the charity’s inception in 1991.
Fidelity Charitable is the second-largest grant maker in the nation behind the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Among the other findings:
- As in last year’s report, many Fidelity account holders say they will use their funds to sustain their giving in retirement, with 62 percent of retired Fidelity donors saying they are confident they can continue or increase their philanthropy. That’s 10 percentage points higher than affluent donors without such funds, the report says.
- The average age of a donor who establishes a fund is 62. Most people establish accounts in their 50s.
- Although the average grant from accounts has mostly remained consistent over time — at about $4,000 — donors are giving more of them now. The average number of grants from accounts has risen from five in 2006 to nine last year.
- Last year, donors made 329 grants of $1 million or more, a 27 percent increase from 2014, and grants over $50,000 account for 62 percent of gifts.
- About 62 percent of funds have more than one person designated with advisory privileges for how the funds will be used, often spouses or other family members.
- Some 61 percent of accounts had less than $25,000 in them, while almost 8 percent had more than $250,000. The median account value was $15,000.
- Half of the grant money went to nonprofits in donors’ home states, but giving to groups outside the United States or organizations with a global mission has doubled since 2011.
