Donor Advised Fund

A donor advised fund (DAF) is a charitable account you can establish with the ELCA Foundation permitting your current gifts to be used for future support of the ministries and charities that matter the most to you.

The ELCA Foundation Donor Advised Fund is invested in the Endowment Fund Pooled Trust, meaning these accounts receive stable quarterly distributions with underlying growth through market investments.

With the ELCA Foundation Donor Advised Fund you can have confidence in your account being invested alongside the endowments of not only the ELCA but also more than a thousand ELCA congregations, synods and ministries. These investments all follow the Corporate Social Responsibility guidelines of the ELCA, which ensure that your investments make a difference before they’re even distributed.

Here’s how it works:

You establish and name a donor advised fund with the ELCA Foundation through your work with a regional gift planner. The fund will be established with named adviser(s) ― typically you, the donor(s) ― who will recommend grants from the fund. Your regional gift planner will assist you in deciding the future of the donor advised fund by establishing successor advisers, a future transition to a named endowment or final distribution of assets.

The DAF can be funded through gifts of cash, stock, marketable commodities or other assets, including gifts of real estate, closely held stock, subchapter S corporate stock, LLC interests and partnerships.* You receive an immediate tax deduction when you contribute cash, securities or other assets to a DAF. Funds in your DAF are able to grow tax free, and distributions can be made via a grant recommendation from the advisor(s) of the fund.

These distributions can support your congregation, ministries and favorite charities. By involving family members in making grant recommendations, many families use their donor advised fund to teach younger generations about giving.