For private foundations and public charities focused on grants to public charities, converting to a donor-advised fund (DAF) can often relieve trustee administrative responsibilities and enable a greater focus on grant making. We have worked with both types of charitable entities to establish donor-advised funds (DAFs) at Fiduciary Trust Charitable (our DAF sponsor) and provided input to help them through the approval process with the state attorney general’s (AG’s) office.

In one instance, we developed the award-winning Fiduciary Restricted Donor-Advised Fund™ which enabled a geographically restricted public charity convert to a DAF with equivalent restrictions, thereby enabling AG office approval. In all these situations, the trustees became charitable advisors for Fiduciary Trust Charitable DAFs, with reduced administrative responsibilities and other DAF advantages.

In the case of a religious organization converting to a DAF, we also helped them select a philanthropic consultant to establish an ongoing grant solicitation and evaluation process, funded from the donor-advised fund.