A Donor Advised Fund (DAF) is a philanthropic vehicle that allows families to make charitable contributions and receive immediate tax benefits. When I last wrote about DAFS , I received some confused replies and I have been keeping my eye out for a user-friendly DAF ever since. I’m glad to say there is now an app-based DAF service.
First, some background.
To participate in a DAF, the donor surrenders ownership of everything they put in the fund. Though it is gone, it is not forgotten. The donor retains control over how their account is invested, choosing between the familiar risk profiles we’ve seen before. The hands-on stewardship of the investment extends all the way to how it is spent.
Daffy is an app designed to make DAFs more accessible — figuratively and literally — to the broader consumer market. Daffy is non-profit, and appears to be affiliated with a rich network of other nonprofits. Like Venmo, Daffy has a social media component that allows the user to follow friends and colleagues.
I have not personally reviewed Daffy, but it seems to share its central gimmick with the likes of Acorns and Stash; using technology to turn esoteric financial products into easy-to-use apps. I would be very interested to hear from anyone who has used Daffy.
Choosing the charity, whether through Daffy or a traditional DAF, is probably the most fun part about giving — but how do you choose a charity? There are a couple best practices for picking a charity, like looking it up on Charity Navigator. You’ll want to look for organizations where most of the money goes directly into the “doing” part of their missions.
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