Donor Advised Funds with no minimum contribution requirements

Fidelity Charitable and Schwab Charitable recently eliminated the minimum initial contribution requirements for their donor-advised funds. 

Fidelity and Schwab are major financial services companies. Their nonprofit arms operate donor-advised funds (DAFs), which are tools to make donating more convenient and tax-efficient (see Aaron Hamlin’s succinct summary for more info). Like many financial services companies, Fidelity and Schwab previously required customers to contribute ~$5,000 in order to open a DAF. Now, they’ll let you open a DAF with any initial contribution.

This is particularly exciting for donors interested in patient philanthropy: the idea that we could maximize the impact of our donations by donating later. To learn more about patient philanthropy and see if this approach might be right for you, see:

• 80,000 Hours Podcast: Phil Trammell on patient philanthropy
• Phil Trammell’s paper on patient philanthropy
• Previous EA Forum posts: 
  • The case for investing to give later
  • Crucial questions about optimal timing of work and donations
  • Estimating the philanthropic discount rate
  • Are we living at the most influential time in history?

Now that it’s easy to open a DAF with a contribution of any size, it’s a great time to consider patient philanthropy.

Cheers to the Giving Season!!

 

*Special thanks to Cameron Meyer Shorb (Wild Animal Initiative) for the feedback!