A DAF, a donor-advised fund, is “a charitable giving vehicle administered by a public charity created to manage charitable donations on behalf of organizations, families, or individuals,” according to Wikipedia.
Put another way, it’s a mini foundation that is managed by a larger nonprofit. DAF donors put some money they want to give away into their mini foundations and the larger nonprofit does so based on each donor’s broad instructions.
Typically, a DAF donor will say something like “donate to charities working on hunger, immigration, and education.” The staff of the nonprofit managing the DAF will then choose charities in those areas to donate to.
Boston has a higher percentage of upper-middle class and wealthy people than most other parts of the nation. So it stands to reason that many of them have DAFs. It’s a very common way for individuals and families to run their own donation program.
But few DAFs donate to nonprofit news organizations.
Community journalism is certainly an area getting more DAF funding in recent years, true. The Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism has gotten some DAF donations during this period. But in nonprofit funding circles, DAFs are considered to be like icebergs: For every one you hear about, ten more are operating beneath the surface of the icy waters that are the nonprofit sector. And it’s difficult for small nonprofits like BINJ to find DAFs unless their founders happen to donate to us.
Which is why we’re putting out the word to DAF donors before the giving season begins this year.
And, as it happens, there are a couple of excellent opportunities for DAF founders to donate to BINJ coming up soon. Thursday, October 8 is “DAF Day,” a special new marketing endeavor by Chariot, a financial technology company that works with DAFs, aimed at getting more DAF donors to donate more money.
But better yet from our perspective, November 1 through December 31 is our big two-month “NewsMatch” fundraiser—when each donation everyone makes up to $1,000 is doubled with a matching donation from the Institute for Nonprofit News and Miami Foundation. Plus we have an even larger match made annually by one of our anonymous donors.
Meaning we get two dollars donated for every one dollar that a DAF donor (or any donor) gives us during November and December.
If you have a DAF, we make it super easy to donate. When you go to our donation page, you’ll see an option called DAFpay (on the form that will come up after you choose a donation amount and indicate whether you’re giving once or regularly) that will let you donate to BINJ directly from your DAF. Rather than using a more common method like a credit card or PayPal. Which is a new twist (and a definite improvement) on the traditional DAF setup where DAF donors could only advise the larger nonprofits running their fund on areas to donate to.
So come November 1, my BINJ colleagues and I strongly encourage readers with DAFs who want to support our investigative journalism to donate using DAFpay via our regular BINJ donation page.
In these very tough times for community news organizations, BINJ can certainly use DAF donors’ help.
Jason Pramas is executive director of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism and editor-in-chief of BINJ.News.
