August 18, 2016 | Read Time: 2 minutes
The president of Fidelity Charitable, one of the fastest-growing charities in the country and a lightning rod for critics of donor-advised funds, is stepping down, officials said Thursday. Amy Danforth will be replaced by Pamela Norley, another Fidelity executive, effective September 6.
The organization cited “personal reasons” for Ms. Danforth’s resignation. She will move to a different job with Fidelity Investments, the charity’s for-profit affiliate, according to a Fidelity spokesman.
The country’s largest commercially affiliated donor-advised-fund group, and a lightening rod for for critics of donor-advised funds, Fidelity Charitable experienced meteoric growth during Ms. Danforth’s two-and-a-half-year tenure. Debuting on The Chronicle’s Philanthropy 400 list in 1992 at number 312, the nonprofit is now among the largest charities in the country by measure of public support, ranking No. 2 for the past four years and quickly gaining ground on United Way Worldwide.
Donors contributed more than $4.6 billion to Fidelity Charitable’s donor-advised funds in fiscal year 2015, and those funds paid out more than $2.8 billion over the same period, according to the organization’s latest IRS Form 990. The organization reports that it saw a 57 percent increase in dollars annually granted under Ms. Danforth’s management.
She also leaves behind a different legacy at Fidelity Charitable: controversy over the organization’s refusal to disclose the salaries of its top executives. Although the IRS requires charities to make public their executives’ salary information, Fidelity Charitable skirts the rule by paying salaries from its corporate arm, Fidelity Investments. It’s not alone: Seven of the country’s 11 largest donor-advised fund groups controlling more than $30 billion don’t report their top executives’ pay.
The Fidelity spokesman said the charity hires Fidelity Investments to provide services, and the fee it pays includes compenation. “Fidelity Charitable does not report individual salaries because it does not itself pay compensation directly to any officers or other individuals,” he said.
Ms. Norley currently works as executive president for enterprise talent and relationships groups for Fidelity Investments and serves as co-chair of Fidelity’s community committee for corporate citizenship. As president of Fidelity Charitable, she will support its mission of “democratizing philanthropy,” Alfred E. Osborne Jr., chair of the board of trustees, said in a statement.
Peter Olsen-Phillips contributed to this article.
Note: This article has been corrected to say that Fidelity Investments is an affiliate of Fidelity Charitable, not the parent company.
