What is a Donor Advised Fund?
The Stablish Foundation, a Community Foundation, is devoted to fulfilling the charitable and philanthropic dreams of our Stablish members. To accomplish these dreams, a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) can be established by an individual during his or her lifetime or upon their death to provide ongoing financial support for the donor’s stated philanthropic purposes. This support can continue for a significant number of years after the death of the donor.
While the Donor of the DAF is alive, he or she serves as the Advisor to the fund to recommend the annual charitable gifts. The Donor may also designate their children to serve as Advisors to the Fund upon the Donor’s death. There-fore, by continuing to make annual periodic payments to charities that meet the donor’s stated philanthropic goals, the individual is creating a LEGACY for themselves and their family.
How is this accomplished? Working with the staff at the Stablish Foundation, the donor creates a Statement of Charitable Intent indicating the charity or charities they wish to support. The Statement of Charitable Intent can be general or a specific. For example, the donation could be given to the Stablish Foundation with the stated charitable intent of support for the University of Minnesota General Fund, to be spent wherever the Trustees feel the need is the greatest; or, the stated charitable intent could be the specific support of brain cancer research at the University of Minnesota. Furthermore, the Statement of Charitable Intent can be added to or modified at any time as the Donor’s interests change.
Donors often have very specific philanthropic desires. Actual examples include:
- A DAF set up to create college scholarships for high school seniors with a C average.
- A DAF created at the death of a Donor whose wife and children died from Cerebral Palsy to fund Cerebral Palsy research and to aid families dealing with the disease.
- A DAF set up to provide operating (as opposed to program) support for the Donor’s church.
The funds in each DAF are in a segregated account, not combined with other DAF assets. Usually, the annual charitable contributions from the DAF equal 5% of the value of the fund at the end of the previous year. For instance, if the previous year’s value of a DAF is $100,000, the subsequent year’s contributions would total $5,000 paid to the proposed charities. Stablish Foundation is very proud to be involved in the gifts we manage for our Donors. Annually, Stablish Foundation distributes approximately $800,000 to charities from our Donor Advised Funds. We want to take this opportunity to thank our current and future Donors who are creating their LEGACY through the Stablish Foundation.