DAF

A Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) is a US tax-deductible philanthropic vehicle administered by a public-charity sponsoring organization, allowing donors to make charitable contributions in one tax year and direct grants from the fund to operating charities over subsequent years.

DAFs operate at significant scale in the US Jewish philanthropic infrastructure. Major DAF sponsors with substantial Jewish-donor activity include:

— Jewish Communal Fund (the largest US Jewish-anchored DAF sponsor) — Jewish Federations of North America affiliated DAFs at the local-federation level — UJA-Federation of New York DAF programs — Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies and other major Jewish foundations operating DAF-equivalent structures — Fidelity Charitable, Schwab Charitable, Vanguard Charitable, and the broader non-Jewish-specific DAF infrastructure (which holds substantial Jewish-donor assets)

DAF assets under management across all sponsoring organizations have grown substantially through the 2010s and 2020s, with aggregate US DAF assets exceeding $200 billion per recent NPT National DAF Report data.

For Israel-directed philanthropy specifically, several structural pathways operate. US DAF sponsors can grant to US-501(c)(3) Israel-focused intermediaries (P.E.F. Israel Endowment Funds, Jewish National Fund, and adjacent intermediaries), which in turn fund Israeli amutot (registered nonprofits). Direct DAF grants to Israeli amutot are not typically permitted under the US tax architecture, requiring the intermediary structure.

DAF reporting transparency is more limited than private-foundation reporting. Donor-level grant decisions within DAFs are not typically publicly disclosed.

See also: /glossary/jfna/, /glossary/501c3/, /philanthropy/daf-architecture/