Work

Give Me Some Slack: Donor Advised Fund Granting During Crises

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: In 2020, the philanthropic sector faced unprecedented demands as it responded to the global pandemic and urgent calls for racial and social justice. Early evidence indicated that US-based donors using donor advised funds (DAFs) responded to those demands by increasing grantmaking. This article uses the concept of organizational slack to explain how and why DAFs allow donors to respond to emergent needs. We apply the concept of slack to the DAF context, creating a conceptual framework that explains variation in DAF giving patterns. We hypothesized that a DAF’s size, number of prior grantees, previous payout rates, contribution frequency, and endowment status predict the amount of slack a donor will have in their DAF to grant to emergent needs. We found that DAF accounts that were larger, had lower payout rates, received frequent contributions, and were non-endowed gave more in 2020. Fundraisers should especially target DAFs with these characteristics during crises.

Source: Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly

DOI: 10.1177/08997640251374264

Authors: Danielle Vance-McMullen, H. Daniel Heist, Lindsey Walker Eftin

Institutions: DePaul University, Brigham Young University

Language: English

Topic: Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Partnerships for the goals

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,650