How to Find DAF Donors and Get Them Giving Year-Round
A wave of money is sitting in donor-advised funds. These fundraising leaders share how to get it flowing.
By Rasheeda Childress
Senior Editor, Fundraising
May 28, 2026 | Read Time: 7 minutes
To get ahead of the new tax law, donors poured billions into their donor-advised funds at the end of last year. That’s good news for charities — but only if the money actually moves out of the DAFs and into their hands.
If history is an indicator, the odds are good, says Genevieve Shaker, a professor of philanthropic studies at Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy who researches DAFs. Over the long term, she says, data shows “increased DAF contributions are often followed by increased grant making.” Sometimes there can be a lag, she says, as donors try to figure out where they want that money to go, but the data shows they are motivated to give after topping up their accounts.
Either way, now is the time to get in front of DAF donors. Shaker and others who spoke to the Chronicle say nonprofits can find and engage with DAF donors in multiple ways to help them find the right place to deploy the funds they’ve set aside for charity.
Start wide, then home in.
Because there is no nationwide directory of DAF donors, the only way to find out if your donors have one is for them to let you know — either in conversation or by giving from their DAF. This means nonprofits often need a two-pronged approach.
International Rescue Committee, says
the group works hard to match donors to
DAF gifts and keep track in its database.
Courtesy of Ishmam Raidah Rahman
The first is mentioning in general promotions that you accept DAF donations, says Trish Davis, vice president for major gifts and planned giving at Susan G. Komen. This wide approach allows donors to identify themselves.
Once a donor gives from a DAF, it’s important to track that information. The International Rescue Committee works hard to match donors to DAF gifts and keep track of that in the database, says Ishmam Raidah Rahman, director of audience and donor strategy.
Rahman notes the organization tells donors in conversations that their names sometimes don’t come through with the gift and asks them to make sure their DAF sponsor provides the information. That transparency with donors has improved the data they collect and lets them send different, more tailored pitches to them.
For example, a solicitation to someone who hasn’t given from a DAF would include a note asking if the person has considered giving from a DAF and then explaining what a DAF is. But when the database shows who already gave from a DAF — it’s a different story.
“It would feel really tone deaf for them to get a, ‘Do you know what a DAF is?’ postcard from us,” Davis says. Communications with those donors might ask if they’d like to make a gift from their DAF or thank them for a previous gift.
“We’ve added fields in order to track DAF gifts specifically,” Davis says. “It’s giving us a lot of great data and the ability to hopefully send a different thank you, making sure we don’t send a tax receipt.”
Encourage year-round giving.
While the end of the year is the biggest fundraising period, it doesn’t have to be that way for DAFs. It’s crucial to be talking to DAF donors year-round, says Shaker.
Sharing stories about DAF donors in newsletters and other places — and showing how their gifts are helping your organization — can spur more DAF gifts.
“If we can get more of those gifts coming in at different times of the year, it’s a lot easier for organizations to plan and do their work with a more steady rate in their funding,” she says.
Adam Nash, CEO of the DAF sponsor Daffy, adds that many donors on the platform give year-round. Their platform encourages donors to set a giving goal and shows them a meter throughout the year that tracks how close they are to reaching that goal. Those types of reminders, he says, get donors to be cognizant of giving throughout the year.
Davis says Komen sends a tax-smart postcard before the April 15 tax deadline to encourage giving by those who’ve previously given via DAF or qualified charitable distribution.
“In the off cycle, it makes a lot of sense to still be talking to a DAF donor, even if they made a gift already,” Davis says. “Because they have that money set aside and available, we should be talking to them all the time.”
Ask donors how they plan to use their DAF assets.
When donors are making gifts through DAFs, the best strategies involve working within those donors’ constructs, and it helps to chat with them about what their plans are for giving, Shaker says.
“An important piece is how to take what we know and glean from talking to donors about their DAFs and how they use them, to being able to have strategies in our conversations and in our requests for support that reflect that,” Shaker says.
The DAF Research Collaborative divides DAF donors into three categories: tubs, tanks, and towers. Tubs are like those who fill and drain a bathtub, moving money in and out quickly. Tanks tend to give out money in their DAFs on the medium term, over one to two years. Towers put in large sums and plan to spend it down over 10 or more years.
“Tubs, tanks, and towers — that helps us to realize that some donors who may have contributed to their DAF quite a bit at the end of last year may be likely to give it pretty rapidly this year,” Shaker says. “The more you have the personal relationships with about how they are using their DAF, the better we can be at timing and structuring the requests that we make.”
Show donors where their money is most needed.
As with any other donors, DAF donors want to give when they see a strong need, says Judy Altenberg, chief philanthropy officer at the Rose Community Foundation.
“It is really about being able to describe the need in a cogent manner,” Altenberg says. “It’s easy for donors to throw up their hands and say, ‘There’s so much need, I don’t know where to start.’ Nonprofits have to show donors where the needs are and how to start.”
Throughout 2025, when emergencies like the government shutdown cut food-assistance benefits, Altenberg reached out to donors with DAFs to let them know which organizations in the area were doing good work. As it seems likely that inflation and uncertainty will be longer-term concerns, Altenberg says it’s more important than ever to articulate where the need is and what impact DAF donors can make with their gift.
A common criticism of DAFs is that the money sits rather than being deployed, but Rahman with IRC, says that sometimes seeing that magnitude of money in a DAF can really inspire someone’s giving. When a nonprofit makes a compelling case, those donors “think we could actually change the world or do something positive today.”
Make DAF giving visible in your campaigns.
Sharing the word about how giving from DAFs is helping your organization also can spur more DAF gifts, the experts say. This includes sharing stories about DAF donors in newsletters or other places. For example, Nash notes that Daffy sees an uptick in giving when more people have said they’ve given to an organization.
“Just seeing the gifts and the reasoning that other real people have for giving money — regardless of the amount — seems to have the most effect on people’s generosity,” he says. “It matters when people see that they’re not the only one giving.”
Similarly, Davis has seen technology help DAF donors show up where they hadn’t necessarily previously — in Komen’s peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns for walks and bike races. In the past, the process of requesting a DAF check and having it sent exceeded the duration of a two-week fundraiser. But technology now allows DAF donors to give instantly.
“It’s made a big difference in people leveraging a tool like a donor-advised fund, where traditionally it would take weeks for it to show up on a thermometer,” Davis says. “People that have a DAF can participate in real time and support their friends or their colleagues. It’s very cool.”
