WHEN CHARITABLE DOLLARS WAIT
As DAFdayCLT gets underway, Charlotte is looking at the time between charitable intention and community impact.
By Brandi Cagle
Donor-advised funds (DAFs) are already moving billions of dollars into nonprofit organizations every year. At the same time, billions more remain invested in DAFs, already committed to charitable purposes and available for future giving.
Both are important parts of the story. On October 8, DAFdayCLT, an inaugural local movement led by Charlotte philanthropic leaders Amy Jacobs and Julie Yenichek, will be the first community-wide campaign to join the national DAF Day effort. The invitation to Charlotte-area donors is straightforward: if you have a donor-advised fund, consider making a grant.
First, What Exactly Is a DAF?
For those outside of philanthropy and wealth management, donor-advised funds can sound more complicated than they actually are. A helpful way to think about a DAF is as a charitable checking account.
A donor contributes cash, stock, real estate or other assets to an account managed by a sponsoring charitable organization and may be eligible for a charitable tax deduction at that time. Those assets can then be invested and grow tax-free while the donor recommends grants to qualified nonprofit organizations over time.
Once those assets enter the fund, the sponsoring organization takes legal ownership of them. The money has already been given for charitable purposes. What remains undecided is where, and when, those charitable dollars will go.
Generosity has happened. Impact happens when those dollars reach community.
Two Truths, Side by Side
According to the Donor Advised Fund Research Collaborative’s latest national analysis, DAF assets reached $327.87 billion in fiscal year 2024, spread across approximately 3.59 million accounts. During that same year, $64.60 billion was granted to nonprofits.
DAF holders are already directing significant charitable capital into communities. Fidelity Charitable’s 2026 Giving Report offers another view of that movement: its donors recommended a record $18.3 billion in grants in 2025, and Fidelity reports that about three-quarters of dollars contributed to its DAFs are granted to nonprofits within five years.
So this is not a story about people placing money into charitable accounts and never giving it away. The more interesting question is what happens in the time between contribution and grantmaking.
Unlike private foundations, donor-advised funds do not have a federally mandated minimum annual distribution requirement. Some donors intentionally allow those dollars to grow so they can give more later. Others have not decided where to make the next grant. Sometimes the DAF simply falls off the radar.
Jacobs and Yenichek have seen all of it. Most DAF holders they have spoken with are giving from their funds, Jacobs says. But they have also encountered people who forgot they had a DAF, others encouraged to let the assets grow, and some overwhelmed by the number of worthy organizations they could support.
Sometimes the intention is clear. The decision just gets pushed to later.
Bringing the Conversation Home to Charlotte
For Jacobs and Yenichek, DAFdayCLT started over coffee at Community Matters Cafe, a Charlotte Rescue Mission life-skills program and a familiar meeting place in Charlotte’s nonprofit community.
The two have been friends for more than a decade and previously worked together in philanthropy. That conversation turned to the amount of charitable capital held in DAFs across the country and what that could mean locally. How could they help Charlotte nonprofits better access those dollars while helping DAF holders better understand their options for putting them to work in the community?
Their research led to a striking estimate: Jacobs and Yenichek believe between $8 billion and $10 billion may be held in donor-advised funds across Greater Charlotte. They developed that range by reviewing Form 990 filings and annual reports from local community and faith-based foundations, then accounting for Charlotte-area assets likely held by national DAF sponsors.
“Honestly, $8–10 billion might be low,” Jacobs says.
These are not dollars Charlotte still has to convince someone to set aside for charitable purposes. The charitable commitment has already been made. The question is what becomes possible when more of it moves.
DAFdayCLT is not asking donors to empty their funds or abandon long-term philanthropic plans. This week, the ask is simply to consider making a grant, with October 8 serving as the signature day.
Urgency Without Guilt
In its guidance to nonprofits, DAFdayCLT makes an important distinction: “create urgency without guilt.”
There are legitimate reasons charitable dollars may remain invested. Allowing those assets to grow can produce a larger pool of money for future giving. That is real.
But waiting also has an opportunity cost.
“Where did we get this idea that giving more away later is better than giving some away now?” Jacobs asks.
If a nonprofit cannot retain a staff member today, delays a program for two years, turns people away because it lacks capacity, or watches a community problem become more expensive and difficult to address, the future value of a larger charitable gift cannot be considered in isolation from what did not happen while the money was growing.
That does not make long-term philanthropic planning wrong. It does make time part of the equation. A dollar available to a nonprofit today and a potentially larger dollar available years from now do not necessarily create the same kind of impact.
Jacobs says Charlotte nonprofits are facing real financial pressure this year while community needs continue. Smaller organizations can face another hurdle: they know significant charitable capital exists in DAFs but may have little understanding of who holds those funds or how to effectively fundraise from them.
The point is not to choose between planning for tomorrow and responding to today. It is to consider whether both deserve a place in the plan.
What Happens After October 8?
There may never be a clean number showing exactly how many dollars moved because of DAFdayCLT. Grants can come from hundreds of sponsors, arrive electronically or by check, take weeks to process and include varying levels of donor anonymity.
For Jacobs and Yenichek, success goes beyond a dollar amount.
It could look like more DAF holders understanding how their funds work, more financial professionals talking with clients about grantmaking, and more nonprofits knowing how to engage DAF donors. Jacobs also hopes DAFdayCLT sparks a broader conversation about what she calls the “responsibility and privilege” of the DAF community to move more charitable capital into communities, in Charlotte and beyond.
That is where October 8 can become more than a one-day push.
DAFdayCLT is encouraging nonprofits to incorporate DAF giving into their ongoing development strategies. DAF holders can carry the conversation forward, too: how do future philanthropic plans live alongside the needs and opportunities already in front of us?
Charlotte is already a generous community. Nonprofit leaders throughout the region are tackling difficult problems, strengthening neighborhoods and building toward what they want their communities to become. There is also charitable capital already set aside to support work like theirs.
Generosity has happened. Impact happens when those dollars reach community.
October 8 gives Charlotte a reason to consider not only how much moves, but when.
Sources & Further Reading
DAFdayCLT — Local campaign information, DAF education and resources for donors, nonprofits and financial professionals.
Donor Advised Fund Research Collaborative: Annual DAF Report — Revised Spring 2026 analysis of national DAF assets, accounts, contributions and grantmaking based on fiscal year 2024 IRS Form 990 data.
Fidelity Charitable: 2026 Giving Report — Current data on grantmaking and donor activity among Fidelity Charitable Giving Accounts.
Community Matters Cafe — Background on the Charlotte Rescue Mission life-skills program where the initial DAFdayCLT conversation between Jacobs and Yenichek took place.
