Smarter Giving

Those glossy ads for donor-advised funds (DAFs) next to pages featuring exclusive European vacations make you assume that DAFs are a rich-person thing, but they’re no longer limited to the wealthy. Frum DAFs are now targeting Orthodox donors, who prefer not to sit on their tzedakah money, but to make sure it’s distributed quickly — turning those DAFs into maaser machines. A walk through the new way to give in 2025

You’ve seen the ads, especially December time, telling you to open a donor-advised fund (DAF). They’re sleek and smart looking — and to be honest, they just look like a “rich-person thing.”

You’re not totally wrong; DAFs — which allow donors to make a charitable contribution, receive an immediate tax deduction, and then recommend grants from the fund — used to be an exclusively rich-person thing. But in the last ten years, a few frum DAFs have started targeting the Orthodox consumer, shifting from “gift giving” to “maaser machines.”

Today we’re going to get into it: What are DAFs, how do they work, what do you need to know before you get started, and most importantly, is opening one right for you? Let’s start at the very beginning. What is a DAF anyway?

In the simplest terms, a DAF is a charitable fund into which you can put all your charitable giving (a.k.a. tzedakah), and then you instruct the fund on which organizations your money should go to (that’s the donor-advised part).