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This is Dr. Rob Harder with the nonprofit Leadership podcast, Making youg World Better. What does it take to be an effective nonprofit leader today? What are the biggest challenges? What are the biggest obstacles? How should nonprofits fundraise in an economy that is constantly changing? All these reasons combined led me to start this show. And it's my hope that through this series, people can learn not only what it takes to be an effective nonprofit organization, but to hear from effective leaders who are who are successfully making a positive impact in their communities. We hope you enjoy the show as together we hear how they are making their world better. Hey, everyone, this is Rob Harder, and you're listening to the Nonprofit Leadership Podcast. Thanks so much for tuning in today. So I've got another great guest on today's show. I wanted to start, though, with a conversation I had with a colleague today. She's a fellow nonprofit leader in the social impact sphere, and she was relaying to me a lot of the concerns and some even the anxiety around the uncertainty of our fundraising climate and the fact that there's still a lot of cuts going on, not just in the federal level, but just a lot of people are giving less to nonprofits in general. If you look at the trend line, there's still fewer people giving to nonprofit organizations overall. Now there are those outliers, and some people that are giving are giving bigger gifts than they have before, which is wonderful. But overall, there's less people giving to nonprofits individually. And so that may be you. And maybe you're just struggling right now in your position. So just if that's you, my hope is that, number one, you be encouraged. What you're doing is so important. And my hope is that you're leaning into other people around you that can support you, that can encourage you. And then also, of course, maybe one of the reasons why you're listening to this podcast is to continue to get new ideas as to how you can improve your fundraising. And today's episode really is all about that. It's going to be something I'm sure you've heard of before, but I think it's something that a lot of nonprofit organizations do not have a clear strategy when it comes to the topic we're talking about today. And what is that topic? It is dafs, or Donor Advised Funds. My guest today is Mitch Stein. He's the head of strategy at Cherry, the fintech company focused on donor advice fund payments. This is a fascinating conversation with Mitch. He's going to talk all about, first of all, if you're new to dafs and donor advice funds, and not even sure exactly what that means. He'll explain that. He'll talk about how it works, what the tax benefits are, and one of the things he'll mention to you is that the trend line is showing that about now 20% of the gifts and donations are coming to nonprofit organizations are coming from DAFs donor advised funds. So there's a huge shift in philanthropy. And he'll share a few things today about how they work. First of all, what the benefits are. Kind of talk about some of the misconceptions around them like payout rates and accessibility. But he'll talk about also just the importance of having an actual intentional strategy to utilize DA's because they're being so used by donors. So even if you're not as familiar with them, your donors are, because this is becoming one of the best ways and easiest ways actually to give significant gifts to your favorite causes. So this is a conversation I think you're going to really pull some great data from. I'm going to have lots of different things in the show. Notes, links to Mitch's organization, a little bit more about him too, because he's just a wealth of information when it comes to DAFs and how they can benefit your nonprofit organization. So if you're sitting there figuring out how do I increase my giving this year, how do I get more people giving and even giving larger gifts, this is the conversation you want to listen to. All right, well, thanks as always for tuning in. Now onto the show. This podcast is sponsored by DonorBox, DonorBox, helping you help others with the best donation forms in the business. Welcome to the Nonprofit Leadership Podcast with Rob Harder. I'm Lena Larew, based currently in Mexico, and I'm a listener just like you who cares about the nonprofit world and the people leading it. If you're looking to learn and grow as a nonprofit leader, you're in the right place. Thanks for listening. Now here's Rob. Well, welcome everybody back to the Nonprofit Leadership Podcast today. I have Mitch Stein on the show today. He's the head of strategy at Chariot, which is a fintech company focused on donor advised funds or DAFs. And Mitch, I'm really glad you're here. As we said before, we hit record, this is an area that's really exploding in a good way for nonprofits, meaning people. Donors are utilizing DAFs more than ever. And so if you're listening today and you're a development director, you're an executive director, and you're not sure if you're really Utilizing dafs. You definitely want to lean into this conversation because there's so many opportunities for you to allow for your donors to be able to maximize their gift to support your mission. And so that's why I'm really glad to have you on the show, Mitch, as we focus on dafs.
B
Yeah, thanks for having me, Rob. It's my favorite topic. So excited to discuss. Yeah.
A
Okay, good. All right, so let's talk all about donor advised funds, or DAFs. Let's start with the recent growth of DAFs and how donor advised funds have become such a significant share of overall philanthropy now in recent years. What are you seeing as donor motivations that are driving that growth?
B
Yeah, I think I'll start off by just making sure everyone knows the latest stats. When we talk about DAF growth, I find that people know it's big or that it's growing and they hear it a lot of places, but maybe don't realize just the magnitude of what that means. So the annual DAF report for 2025 came out a few weeks ago. At the end of 2025, it actually has numbers for the full year, 2024 for the full market. And it showed us that at the end of 2024, there was $326 billion in donor advice. Funds that's already committed to giving can only be used for giving. It can never be taken back out. And that the annual amount of grant making to nonprofits out of those DAs reached $65 billion in 2024. And so about one in every five dollars donated to charity is coming from a donor best fund. So It's.
A
That's incredible. 20%, essentially.
B
Yeah, 20%. Almost 20%. And it's, it's huge and growing at over 20% a year for the past few years. So just to anchor us in, like, the scale of the conversation, I just wanted to bring that up first. And to your question, really, what's. What's motivating donors? It's a great place to start because I think at the end of the day, it's staffs are a choice and a tool for donors. And so it's one of those things you even ask beginning. Or if, if you're thinking, are we using DAFs effectively or are we maximizing this? I think it's important for everyone to remember because some people might say they don't like DAFs, or I don't know about dafts. Like, it's not up to you. The donors have this tool, and if you want to be raising more from those Individuals you need to be set up to do so. So I'm sure we'll talk more about that today. When it comes to the reasons it's so popular, it's. It's not any one reason, because daft. There's like millions of people that are now using donor advised funds. So it's obviously a spectrum and a wide range. A couple of the key benefit areas that we certainly hear a lot about, first and foremost is people talk about how it helps organize their giving. So the function of the DAF is that you are determining a set amount of money or assets that you want to contribute into your own personal fund. For philanthropy. I like to compare it to a 401k or like an HSA, but for giving. So that's like a designated fund for your retirement or a designated fund for your healthcare expenses. Those both have tax advantages. DAs are kind of similar. So it's a designated fund where you set funds aside for your giving. You can invest the assets while they're in there and then make grants out of it over time. So that allows people to be a lot more organized with their giving. So that's the number one thing I hear from donors is they're like, it's so nice. I've got one place, I see all my gifts, I've got one tax receipt, I can manage everything from there. I think another group of donors, especially larger ones, are also maximizing the tax benefit. So they can write that initial contribution off their taxes in full in year one, if that's appreciated assets, even better. And then the money in the account grows tax free. So there's some serious tax benefits. And then I would say the last piece is how it actually changes someone's experience with giving. The psychological impact of setting funds aside that are irrevocable. There's no takesies, backsies. Once it's in a daf, it has to ultimately be used for giving. And so that changes your connection to that money. You know, it's like having a gift card. And the way that you give when you have designated funds to do so changes. And so I hear people speak about how it results in them being more generous, more engaged in their giving. And that's something they often find out after the fact, like they signed up for the tax benefits or the, the streamlining and then they stayed for the increased generosity.
A
Well, you mentioned something. There are few people that are skeptical perhaps about DAFs. So maybe let's talk to some of the common misperceptions now about DAFs, whether it be around Payout rates, accessibility, the idea that DAF hoard money. How do some of the facts differ? Now that you of course are involved with this, what should my listeners know about DAFs that can kind of answer those misconceptions?
B
Yeah, it's a great topic that we should dig into. I think the number one piece of advice I have is just there's so much data on this now. So I encourage people to engage with and be familiar with the research. There's the annual DAF report I referenced already, which is historically was run by National Philanthropic Trust, but last year it actually moved hands to be run by the DAF Research Collaborative, which is a group of academic researchers. And so I would say that it has improved the research, it's expanded it and given it a bit more independence versus it being published by an individual DAF provider each year. So that's a great resource. Chariot also leads a research effort every year with our partners at K2D Strategies called the DAF Fundraising Report. And that's actually a benchmark study on nonprofits data related to DAF giving. So we analyze their historical donation data and compare DAFs versus non DAF giving and see how DAF giving changes over time. Those are both really good sources of information to better understand the dynamics around DAFs from both perspectives. The perspective of the provider and the data that they publish and the perspective of nonprofits and the data we have from them receiving DAF gifts. So that's first and foremost we can link to those reports in the show notes.
A
Oh, that'd be great. Thank you.
B
Because I think you can say what you think or feel about a daf. But it really comes down to what ultimately are we seeing? What are the positives, what are the negatives? So some people take issue with the fact that a donor can contribute funds into a donor advised fund account. They get a tax write off immediately because the donor advised fund manager is also a C3 qualified charity and there is not a national mandated payout requirement on those funds. Okay, so that is something people have pointed as an issue. There's two things I'd point out in response to that. Number one, even if there isn't a national requirement similar to private foundations have to pay out 5% annually. The actual sponsoring entities, your Fidelity Charitable, your Vanguard Charitable, Community Foundations, et cetera, almost all of them, especially the largest ones, have a policy on inactive accounts. Meaning like Fidelity, for example, if you go one year without making a grant, they reach out and engage with you. If you go a second year without making a grant they start pushing distributions that make up 5% of your account. So even if there isn't a national law that is generally enforced at the fund level to some extent, the second piece is just, okay, that's not a requirement. But what does the data actually show on payout velocity? And the past almost 20 years, 15 plus years that we've had research reported on this, it's shown the payout rate over 20% every year. I think this year it was around 25.
A
Over 20%.
B
Okay, yeah, this year was around 25%. So in the latest report, so there isn't a requirement. But I think, like, the fundamental structure of a DAAF is not perpetual capital. It's not how people generally think about it. And like the tax benefit, it's only a benefit if you plan on donating that money. If not, like, so. So if you got to write off 40% of your contribution, but you never want to donate the other 60, why would you ever do that? It doesn't.
A
Right, Good point.
B
Yeah. So I think people just often, I understand why that structure has elements to it that could make someone more uncomfortable, but I'm a pragmatist focused on like, what are the outcomes and what's the reality of how this is being used, by and large, and it's resulting in a high velocity of grants. And from a nonprofit's experience, when you look at the data, at what happens when their donors use the DAF instead of something like a credit card, we've shown that the average increase in their giving is 10x when they switch the way they give to a DAF from a credit card.
A
Wow. Okay, this is good. Because as I mentioned again, before we hit record in my consulting business, just this past fourth quarter of 2025, I was working with two different organizations and stressing to them the importance of their communication about DAFs and their strategy. And both of those organizations realized that they didn't really have an intentional strategy. They certainly received DAF the past, but they didn't really have an intentional strategy. So let's maybe now shift to that. When it comes to nonprofits, what are some of the most common mistakes, if you will, with their daft strategy, Whether it be with donor identification or how they message daft giving options, where can they improve? As for my listeners that are leading nonprofits, where can they really improve to again, maximize the use of DAFs?
B
I would point out that the biggest mistake with DAF strategy is still not having one that's still very common. Right. And it's, it's Interesting to see it's just changing in real time in the landscape because now in the past year or two, I've started to see at larger nonprofits, they are now hiring specialists that focus on daft strategy in the same way that they hire a plan giving or a mid market specialist. So it's a field that's developing and fundraising in real time, which is cool to see. And I think the first piece is just, do you have a strategy? Like, have you sat around as a team and thought about this? And so that's step one, Step two is understanding your own data. Are you tracking gifts from dafts? Like, there's no point in taking establishing some new tactic to increase daft giving if you don't know where your baseline is because you can't assess the impact. So it's a little counterintuitive for a lot of people. But the very first thing you should do is, is look at your team and say, how much did we get in daft getting last year? And if they can't answer that question right away, then you have a problem with your data. Because if it's not easily searchable and tracked and managed of what's a daft gift, how you're coding that in your CRM, et cetera, you can't go anywhere from there. So data first and foremost, if you've got a good handle on that or maybe in tandem, some other things you can add on are making sure you're communicating with your donors about dafs. Now a lot of people when I say that, are like, well, don't they know they have a daf? Why do we need to tell them? Because they're human beings and everybody needs reminders about these things. And I just say, well, DAFs have a lot of benefits. Oftentimes if someone is donating to you, responding to an email, they're on your website. Maybe they're donating on a giving day or someone's like peer to peer fundraiser and it's just easy for them to finish the checkout with a credit card. That's a really common phenomenon that daft owners sort of bifurcate their giving. So they've got like their core organizations they support like where they're on the board or where their kid goes to school, their church, and they do that through their daf. And then the more like inspiration based giving that they do as it comes up throughout the year, like it'll be easier, I'll just do a quick credit card gift instead. And so I think intercepting that wherever you can is really valuable because it's again, back to my gift card example and the stat I mentioned about that 10x increase. When you've got money set aside for giving that can only be used for giving that had all these tax advantages, you're going to be way more generous with that than something that hits your credit card statement that month. So evaluate or audit those experiences where donors are interacting with you and what do they see? Language about DAFs everywhere. You know, if you have you're using a fundraising platform, check and see if they have a DAF payment option that you can enable. DAF Pay is the tool Cherry works on. So that could show up right by Apple Pay and Google Pay integrate Get. So I would say auditing your experiences, your website. Do you have information on dafs? How easy is it to find your ein on your website? It's a bit of a checklist. You can go down and put yourself in the shoes of the donor. I'd say my last thing on the checklist is get your own DAF account as a fundraiser. Every fundraiser donates to at least one nonprofit every year. And why not set up a daft so that you have firsthand experience using it to support yourself and other organizations. You're going to see what the experience is like to give. Do you get thanked? Do you get thanked correctly? And so you're going to learn a lot. And then in conversations with donors, you'll be a lot more comfortable talking about it. And you, oh, well, I have a daft too, right? It's a lot of anytime I say that to fundraisers, they're like, oh, well, I'm not a billionaire. Like, why would I have a daft?
A
Exactly right.
B
It's changed. This is not just a gift for a way to give for super wealthy people anymore. And you can take advantage of these accessible DAF accounts that have minimum gift sizes that are $18 zero minimum balance. Like, just give it a try.
A
I'm so glad you mentioned that because I've done that, you know, individually for the organization. I used to lead as a CEO and then, you know, as a consultant when I'm helping people with fundraising particularly, I always try out there just I'd go through the credit card process, right. Of online, I give and say what is that process? Like, what's their website like? And for the exact reason you said, once you go through it yourself, have a different perspective. Right. And if there are problems, you'll know right away. And so I love that idea of the daft now that they're yeah, there's no minimum requirements in terms of how much you have to have in the balance. There's no, you know, maximum or, sorry, minimum how much you have to give. So I think that right there, for a lot of people, they didn't know that. So that's important. You can just open one up and yeah, give $18 to your favorite nonprofit and you learn about the experience, so then you can speak about it to your donors. Love that. So, okay, kind of building off of that, talk about a little bit more, one or two, maybe more standout opportunities and examples when it comes to actual daft focused campaigns or initiatives that you've seen work that have really significantly moved the needle on revenue or donor engagement. Any examples come to mind for that?
B
Yeah, so two things. One, there is actually a shared industry event called Daft Day that takes place in October. So in 2026, that's going to be on Thursday, October 8th. So you can start planning that now. But especially, yeah, if you've never done something related to DAFs and you're like, when do I. It'd be weird that I just, out of the blue, reach out to people about DAFs. It's not out of the blue. Everyone's doing it. And that's even better for you because they're hearing about it from a lot of places and it's relevant for any organization. I was speaking at a conference in San Antonio in September and I was generally talking about daft fundraising and we got to questions as someone raised their hand and they were like, I saw you speak a year ago about Daft Day. And I'm at this small school in Wisconsin and I got so excited that my boss told me that we shouldn't send an email on it. And I went ahead and did it anyway. And we got seven DAF gifts from first time daft donors that ended up totaling $12,000. And that was huge for us. First time doing it. That's big.
A
Well done.
B
And so that was just super exciting for me because we created Daft Day with this goal of like, if we can create a shared day that people can activate, then everyone benefits. The more that donors are hearing about this. And that's one example from a small organization. On the other end you have Susan G. Komen last year raised over 300 daft gifts on a single day. Cross channel promotion, a much more integrated strategy. So I'd say it can run the gamut, depending on what you've got the capacity and resources for. But that isn't awesome day to activate around that you can kind of build your calendar for. The other example I'd point to is yes, you can do your own separate standalone campaign around dafs. I know like the ACLU has experimented with some of the ACLU foundation experimented with some of this last year. So if you have, you know, a larger donor pool and you know, a little bit more bandwidth. But also like existing campaigns, there is a great example from the Public Theater, which is based here in New York City, where they were doing a capital campaign mailer and they had a minimum for these campaign contributions to be a named participant in the campaign for $5,000. So they sent this mailer out and someone on their team pointed out like, oh, you don't have anything here about DAFs. People can contribute to this with their DAF. You should change on the buck slip and payment options like give an option for dafs. You need to link them with a QR code to their webpage where they had daft pay as a way for someone to finish that gift digitally as well. And they ended up seeing that out of it was around 90 gifts that that campaign generated. 25% of them are from donor advised funds.
A
Wow.
B
And half of those were first time donors and their increased gifts. First time daft donors and their increase in gift size was like 10 Fs from their prior donation size.
A
That's remarkable. Yeah, that's amazing.
B
So putting in front of people and reminding them, I'm telling you, it works wonders. And then the extra mile is like if you have anything that's digitally enabled because they had another six donors that finished it online. And for then it was like, all right, we've recovered our bases. We're meeting the donors where they are, helping them finish this gift from the best source of funds for them and the easiest way for them.
A
We'll be right back. Are you looking for an easy and effective way to boost your nonprofit's donations? Well, look no further than DonorBox, the online fundraising platform that streamlines your fundraising efforts, maximizes donations, and simplifies giving for your supporters. With Donorbox, you can create beautiful donation forms, accept digital wallet payments, track donations, and send auto receipts. And the best part, there are no setup or monthly fees and no long term contracts required. So what are you waiting for? Visit donorbox.org today to get started. That is www.donorbox.org. Well, okay, this is good because I was thinking about that we have Giving Tuesday. We often people have their own campaigns, as you mentioned. Maybe they're in the midst of a capital campaign. What's your recommendation of how. Yeah, you've already kind of got to that, but it's other ways. Maybe how if they wanted to lean into Daft Day or integrate a daft emphasis within their existing campaign or Giving Tuesday, what kind of prep window would you recommend that they can realistically need? And what kind of pieces do they need to put together in order to that to be successful? Whether it's a standalone to really lean into Daft Day, or if it's integrated into something else they're doing.
B
My first reaction is like, do something. So like there's so many options. And I know I emphasize, like, start with your data and laid out some of these foundational elements that might sound intimidating for people that are busy, stretched thin. The most important thing is to do something because otherwise this wave and trend is just going to pass you right on by. It's growing so fast. Like, you could start with something. That'd be my first suggestion for people. If you've gotten this far in the conversation and you're feeling overwhelmed, do something. Yeah, I love that. Okay. Just start with something, take some step forward. And then I think it's really with that do something attitude, like figure out the steps forward you can take on any of these efforts. Right. And I think that's where it's really important to be coordinated across your team so that anyone could identify that they have a mailer going out that doesn't say anything about dafs on it, or that you've got a donation form that doesn't mention dafs or your website doesn't mention dafs anywhere. So I think there's sort of that like audit and prep work and mindset that every, everyone on your team should feel empowered to be calling attention to that. And so I think that's a good way to think about it is like that first step could be put it on your schedule for your team wide meeting that you're gonna talk about dapps, have someone read an article about it before you listen to this podcast and you're gonna bring it to where do people think there we have this opportunity, what are we not doing today? And like crowdsource some ideas. So I think that's, that's a good actionable step everyone can take because in terms of like the timeline to prepare for specific fundraising days or events is like, it can just be a part of whatever preparation you're already doing. It doesn't need to be something extra because it's just about making sure you've incorporated dafs, the language of like Remember, this is a donor eligible for Donor Rise Fund giving. Here's Daft Pay or here's a link to our website page on dafs. However you want to attract people. So. But I truly don't unless it's something that's not eligible for DAF gifts. So like a gala sponsorship or vine tickets, anything else you want to be talking about dafs and it doesn't matter what the channel is. Like the International Rescue Committee saw a bunch of success with text message conversion to Daft Gifts around DAF Day. So people are getting creative and experimenting and I would just encourage you to do the same. There's no downside. That's another big takeaway is a lot of people think like, oh well, if we talk about DAFs to an audience that maybe doesn't know about it, like are they going to be confused or alienated? And I think we've had partners that have tested this to no end, like tried to keep modeling the right audience and eventually all of them are just like, we should send this to everybody.
A
Exactly.
B
Because if they do know about DAFs, it's going to speak to them and show that you're paying attention and that you understand them in the way that they like to give and you're making easier. Amazing. If they familiar with dafs but don't have one, they're likely going to be curious to learn more. And if they've never heard about it before, you're providing value, you're explaining something to them that might be relevant to them. That's amazing.
A
Well, you already started this episode talking about 20% approximate of gifts are already coming from DAFS. Where do you see the trend line moving in the future and is there anything like with regulations that may change the trajectory of DAFT giving to nonprofits? Tell us a little bit more of how you see this in the future because I think you said something really interesting just a second ago that people that are kind of hesitant or they just don't feel like they have the time to look into DAFs, they're going to kind of get passed by because this is such a fast growing trend. As you mentioned, donors already know about it. So let's maximize that for your mission for your organization. Anyway, so talk about the future trends, where you see this going.
B
Yeah, love that. Brainstorming, looking in my crystal ball. And yet to your point, that is the foundational thing is to recognize that you can decide whether or not you want to engage. But that's not going to change the fact that people are using this tool. And so if you don't engage, you're probably going to get less of those gifts and not steward those donors as well, because you don't have a plan around how to do so. But if you do, you can, you know, ride this wave and be benefiting from the growth that people are seeing at Daft giving. And I just don't see any reason that's going to slow down. I mean, last year you brought up policy changes, there was a big tax bill change. Practically speaking, the ins and outs of that bill aren't going to impact the vast majority of people that use DAFs. But it was still a change that had a lot of attention. And so I think any financial advisor was using that as like, hey, we should talk, there's a new tax bill. Like let's talk about how that might change your planning around giving. Because they want to have conversations with people. Exactly.
A
Sure. That's right.
B
From all the dafts that I have been speaking with, they all saw just absolutely explosive Q4 in terms of contributions. And so I think because those changes were coming in 2026 that more and more people sort of front loaded their contributions into their daf. And so I think that the result of that is that giving is going to be, there's going to be a step wise increase in DAF giving this year and subsequent years because those accounts are loaded, literally loaded with fresh funds to be given. And so it's just such a good time and engage with this. I think another trend that I pay attention to is how DAF size and private foundation size and the amount of gifts from those two are comparing. Because there's going to be a point in the next five to 10 years when DAFs are actually larger than private foundations, is my opinion.
A
Okay, is that okay? That's huge.
B
That's a big change because today there are the private foundation assets are about five times larger than DAFs, but the payout rate or the volume of grants from private foundations vs dafs is only 2x. So like that differential should show you how I view that as a positive trend for more people to be adopting DAFs to manage their philanthropy versus private foundations as far as nonprofits are concerned. And that trend line is like last year I think was also the first time that contributions into DAFs were higher than private foundations. So that trend is pointing in an obvious direction where I think we could be looking at a trillion dollar DAF market in the next five to 10 years. I mean, last year we grew from 250 billion to 326 billion in assets and Dapps in one year. And so I think more and more gaming is going to move in that direction, which means a higher and higher percentage of individual gifts are also coming from dafs. So I'm a little biased, but I'm biased. We're really, really close to the data and the trends here and so I think that it's only going to keep accelerating.
A
Well, again it's such a fascinating conversation for my listeners. I know how important dapps are and they continue to be as you've heard from Mitch, you were talk already 20%, it's going up from there. And some of the other predictions you just shared Mitch, that that'd be fascinating if they start really rivaling private foundations in terms of how they impact nonprofit organizations. I have a feeling my listeners may want to find out a little bit more about you and Chariot and just different things that you're doing there. So how best can they connect with you? Where's the best place for them to reach out and get to know a little more information?
B
Yeah, of course I am very active on LinkedIn so you can always find me there and I share a lot of advice and tidbits and stories and everything else related to donor vest funds. So would love to connect there and then Chariot, our website is givecherry.com I would say any nonprofit can claim your account with Chariot for free. If you have a fundraising platform today, you can likely activate TAF pay on it. If not you can also ask those your platform provider request that that integration be introduced. We have some 70 platform partners today so they're missing out if they don't have it. So definitely encourage them to do so. And the other thing that we didn't get into but Chariot also assists with the actual grant disbursement from many DAF providers. So when you claim your Chariot you're also enabling electronic gifts from a growing number of DAFs which you get them faster, more securely, better information. So I would encourage everybody to go there and also tons of resources on the site, blogs, our research report, et cetera.
A
Okay, so that's interesting. So yeah, so like say they set up a Chariot of account basically that's kind of almost a one stop shop. If they want to give through a daft. That sounds like what you've set up for people.
B
They have access to DAF pay in their donation forms which lets donors use their DAF like another as if they were paying with Apple Pay or Google Pay right on a donation form. And then you also into Your charity account can receive your DAF gifts from our partners that send grant payments through our platform. So a growing number of DAFs using that as well. That's great.
A
No good. Well, congratulations to get that going. And again, thanks for just the education behind dafs and how it works and the benefits of them, because, again, I know that's something. I talk to nonprofit leaders all the time, you know, particularly when it comes to fundraising. That is always on their minds. Right. And I think with now we're in a situation in American context where a lot of funding has been cut. There is a lot of concerns still. I just had a conversation today, actually, about a leader in the nonprofit field that's worried about their organization, you know, getting huge cuts still or things that are kind of up in the air. And the concern is, you know, what's the future going to be? So always looking for new opportunities to help have donors give and make it easy for donors to give. Like dafts to me are so important and they're going to become more important. So anyway, thanks for your time and sharing all that you did, and I appreciate you being on the show.
B
Yeah, of course. I hope it's helpful, everybody, and reach out with any questions.
A
Hey, friends. Well, I wanted you to know that this podcast can be found on itunes, Spotify, Amazon, Google podcasts, and wherever you listen to other podcasts. I also want to encourage you to, like, subscribe and share this podcast with others. This will actually help us get this great content out to more nonprofit leaders just like you. You can also join the nonprofit leadership podcast community, find other resources and interviews of past guests, all on my website, nonprofit leadershippodcast.org well, thanks again for listening, and until next time, keep making your world better. This podcast is sponsored by DonorBox Donor Box, helping you help others with the best donation forms in the business.
Nonprofit Leadership Podcast with Dr. Rob Harter
Guest: Mitch Stein (Head of Strategy at Chariot)
Date: February 15, 2026
This episode explores the explosive growth of Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) and how nonprofit leaders can maximize their fundraising through this rapidly growing channel. Dr. Rob Harter is joined by Mitch Stein, a leading expert on DAFs from Chariot, a fintech company specializing in donor-advised fund payments. Mitch dives deep into the trends, best practices, prevalent misconceptions, and actionable strategies for nonprofit leaders who want to ride the wave of DAF-driven philanthropy.
"At the end of 2024, there was $326 billion in donor advised funds… the annual amount of grant making... reached $65 billion." — Mitch Stein [05:18]
"About one in every five dollars donated to charity is coming from a donor advised fund." — Mitch Stein [06:14]
"Once it's in a DAF, it has to ultimately be used for giving. That changes your connection to that money... it results in them being more generous, more engaged in their giving." — Mitch Stein [08:27]
"The past almost 20 years… it’s shown the payout rate over 20% every year. I think this year it was around 25%." — Mitch Stein [12:56]
"This is not just a way to give for super wealthy people anymore... minimum gift sizes that are $18, zero minimum balance." — Mitch Stein [19:12]
"The biggest mistake with DAF strategy is still not having one… it's changing in real time in the landscape." — Mitch Stein [14:49]
"If they can't answer that question right away, then you have a problem with your data." — Mitch Stein [15:43]
"Auditing your experiences, your website. Do you have information on DAFs? How easy is it to find your EIN on your website?" — Mitch Stein [18:25]
"We got seven DAF gifts from first time DAF donors that ended up totaling $12,000. And that was huge for us." — Audience story via Mitch Stein [21:29]
"Out of... 90 gifts... 25% of them are from donor advised funds. And half of those were first time donors... their increase in gift size was like 10x." — Mitch Stein [23:43]
"The most important thing is to do something because otherwise this wave and trend is just going to pass you right on by." — Mitch Stein [25:33]
"We should send this to everybody... If they do know about DAFs, it's going to speak to them... If they've never heard about it before, you're providing value." — Mitch Stein [28:29]
"We could be looking at a trillion dollar DAF market in the next five to ten years." — Mitch Stein [32:28]
In Dr. Harter’s words:
"DAFs to me are so important and they're going to become more important. So always looking for new opportunities to help have donors give and make it easy for donors to give." [35:35]
Perfect for: