2020 a Great Year for Giving from Donor-Advised Funds

There is no doubt that 2020 was a tough year and that philanthropies, such as the Community Foundation, distributed much-needed grant funding to keep nonprofit organizations doing their essential work to help those most affected by the pandemic.

But the Community Foundation’s donor-advised funds (DAFs), which include Charitable Investor Funds and Charitable Checking Accounts^SM, did their part to help, too. From January through December last year, these funds recommended nearly $23 million in grants to nonprofits locally and beyond. Thank you!

This generosity in a time of great need is part of a national trend that saw more than $6.7 billion granted to nonprofits from donor-advised funds at 84 community foundations in 28 states and Washington, D.C. This DAF grant total is 41.1 percent or nearly $2 billion more than what was distributed in 2019.

Our DAFs provided critical support to local and national nonprofits, many on the front lines helping individuals and families with a variety of emergency and emerging needs during the pandemic. In addition, several dozen Foundation DAFs contributed to the Community Crisis Fund, which was launched by the Community Foundation and United Way of Greater Rochester and distributed $6.8 million throughout our nine-county region from March 2020 through January 2021.

This data was collected and collated by the Community Foundation Public Awareness Initiative and its consultant, Peter Panepento, a Henrietta native who graduated from McQuaid Jesuit High School.

To read more about the national trend and how fundholders here contributed to that outpouring of support, click here.