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Julie Sunwoo, President of DAFgiving360™, outlines why donor-advised funds continue to gain momentum as a flexible, tax-efficient vehicle for charitable giving. By allowing contributions of appreciated assets, immediate tax benefits, and ongoing investment growth before grants are distributed, DAFs help maximize the total dollars ultimately reaching nonprofits. Increasingly, donors are using them not just for cash, but for complex assets—unlocking more value for charitable impact.
She emphasizes the critical role advisors play in this ecosystem, with the majority of DAF users working alongside financial professionals to manage and grow their charitable portfolios. Strong 2025 giving trends—including nearly $10 billion in grants and expanding participation across both donors and charities—highlight a broader shift: charitable giving is becoming more strategic, more accessible, and more integrated into overall financial planning.
If you’d like to learn more about working with DAFgiving360 and the benefits to both you and your clients, review their online resources or request more information.
Related: Charitable Giving Strategy in a New Tax Era with Fred Kaynor
DAFgiving360™ is the name used for the combined programs and services of Donor Advised Charitable Giving, Inc., an independent nonprofit organization which has entered into service agreements with certain subsidiaries of The Charles Schwab Corporation. DAFgiving360 is a tax-exempt public charity as described in Sections 501(c)(3), 509(a)(1), and 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Contributions made to DAFgiving360 are considered an irrevocable gift and are not refundable. Once contributed, DAFgiving360 has exclusive legal control over the contributed assets.
A donor's ability to claim itemized deductions is subject to a variety of limitations depending on the donor's specific tax situation.
Contributions of certain real estate, private equity, or other illiquid assets may be accepted via a charitable intermediary, with proceeds transferred to a donor-advised fund (DAF) account upon liquidation. Call DAFgiving360 for more information at 800-746-6216.
Market fluctuations may cause the value of investment fund shares held in a donor-advised fund (DAF) account to be worth more or less than the value of the original contribution to the funds.
DAFgiving360 does not provide legal or tax advice. Please consult a qualified legal or tax advisor where such advice is necessary or appropriate.
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Transcript:
[00:00:02] Doug Heikkinen: This is Advisorpedia's Power Your Advice podcast, and I'm Doug Heikkinen. Today we'd like to welcome Julie Sunwoo, who is the President of DAFgiving360, to the podcast. Julie, welcome.
[00:00:16] Julie Sunwoo: Thank you, Doug. Happy to be here.
[00:00:19] Doug Heikkinen: This is your first time joining us. . .
[00:00:27] Julie Sunwoo: Yes. Again, so excited to be here for the first time with you. I am Julie Sunwoo, President of DAFgiving360 since last year. DAFgiving360 for those in this audience that may not be aware, is one of the largest donor-advised funds in the country. We are an independent 501(c)(3) public charity, and really our mission is to help people give to charity.
So increase charitable giving overall in the US. We take that mission very seriously, every single person in our organization, and love to play our part helping people give to the nonprofits of their choice. I know that we'll get into later, Doug, what DAFs are and how they operate, but we believe them to be a really simple, efficient, tax smart way to give to charity. It's become popular over time, and an excellent vehicle for people to support the charities and causes that are important to them.
[00:01:21] Doug Heikkinen: So DAFs are a pretty unique approach to charitable giving. Can you run us through some of the benefits that make DAFs so popular?
[00:01:29] Julie Sunwoo: Yes, and I think one of the ways to do that is to just talk you through the three main steps of a DAF process. First, you contribute to a DAF, and DAFs can really take in any form of security that can ultimately be liquidated. In fact, most of the people that make contributions to our DAF, contribute in the form of non-cash assets.
So maybe appreciated stocks. Mag Seven stocks, for example, appreciated ETFs, collectibles, crypto, any of those things. And so with DAFs, you're able to make contributions of any of those types of assets. We help liquidate them. And, from a tax perspective, what's really beneficial is that at the time of the contribution is when you receive the tax benefit, whatever the value is of that contribution that we are able to liquidate for you.
So that's one. The second is once you've contributed assets, you can invest those assets in a variety of vehicles. And we have a collection of mutual funds, ETFs, other securities and pooled vehicles. And then we also have a large number of our donors that work with registered investment advisors to manage their DAF portfolio, just like they do other aspects of their financial portfolio.
So that investment grows over time as you invest them. In fact, last year, our donors, because the markets were so strong, earned another $8 billion through investment appreciation. And that money is all earmarked to go to charity. So imagine that much more money, through these investments, being targeted for nonprofits around the country.
And then the last piece is, people can be really thoughtful about how they want to grant out to charities. They can do it according to their plan, according to their timeline. And we facilitate grants out to any charity that's an eligible charity according to the IRS. And we did that for over 165,000 charities last year for our donors.
So that's how DAFs work.
[00:03:34] Doug Heikkinen: It sounds like advisors can play a very critical role in charitable giving. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
[00:03:42] Julie Sunwoo: Yes. So advisors are able to advise the DAF portfolio, much like I said, like they would any other aspect of our donor's investment portfolios. And over 70%, actually, of the donors within our product, DAFgiving360, work directly with a registered investment advisor. We are one of the biggest DAFs that enable this feature, to have advisors work with, our donors. And they're an important part of our community. I think advisors play such an important role, as you and I know, in helping people with their financial lives. And to enable them to do the same thing with a charitable portfolio, I think is a really important thing.
[00:04:29] Doug Heikkinen: That's great to hear. You recently shared very strong granting data from 2025. What are some charitable giving trends DAFgiving360 observe with its donors.
[00:04:42] Julie Sunwoo: Yes, we did see a big season, as I'm sure my counterparts at other DAFs did as well. Our donors granted nearly $10 billion to charities last year.
It was the highest number that we've ever had on record. And I think that points to a few trends. So first, I think, DAFs as a vehicle are growing in popularity. So this is the, for several years in a row, we have seen year over year growth in our granting numbers through DAFs, as I know my peers in the industry have as well.
2025 for example, we saw a 28% year over year increasing in granting. And that was the fourth consecutive year that we had in double digit growth, in granting, for ourselves. And so it's really exciting to see, given what I mentioned at the top of this conversation, that charitable giving and facilitating that charitable giving is the most important thing to us as an organization.
I think, a couple of other points to think about, trend-wise. So second, I talked about the 74% of contributions that people made in the form of non-cash assets. I think people are seeing the benefits of leveraging a vehicle like a DAF to take care of their appreciated assets in a smart way.
And I think one of the benefits of doing it through a DAF that people are seeing is that when you eliminate the cut from a capital gains tax by contributing to a vehicle like ours, that also means that more money can go to charity. So up to 20% more can be earmarked for charity. And I think people are understanding as DAFs become more ingrained in the charitable giving space, understanding how the vehicle works.
And then one other stat I'll share with you, I think that we're always looking to help people try to widen the tent. So we hope to widen the tent of people that are charitable givers, philanthropists, through the DAF. But donors are also increasingly open to supporting new causes.
So last year, 54% of donors donated to charities that they had not previously supported. So We are also widening, I hope, the tent in terms of the nonprofits that we support.
[00:06:57] Doug Heikkinen: What an incredibly impressive year for giving. That's wonderful. Are you finding that DAFs are growing in popularity as a giving vehicle?
[00:07:06] Julie Sunwoo: We are. We are. And I think the granting numbers talk about that, that I just shared. Phenomenal numbers, to have close to $10 billion going out to charity. I think the other thing, so if I expand on widening the tent in terms of philanthropists that we create, I think one of the important things for us in our organization is to make sure that DAFs and charitable giving are accessible.
So that's why, for example, for us, we don't have a minimum on our product. Like you can open it with very low amounts, a hundred dollars, whatever it may be. In fact, when we look at the median grant amount that went out last year, it was $500. Sometimes you can view the DAFs as a vehicle exclusively for people on the higher end of the wealth spectrum, and it is an excellent vehicle for that, given all the benefits that I just discussed. But it is also, I hope, an accessible vehicle for many to facilitate their charitable giving.
[00:08:07] Doug Heikkinen: Those are all really interesting observations. Where can our listeners learn more?
[00:08:12] Julie Sunwoo: You can come to us. So we, at DAFgiving360 have, as you could imagine, a wealth of online resources.
We have a website. On that website. We have articles, guides, we have calculation tools for donors and the advisors that serve them to explore. And we keep on adding to it. So we're excited about keeping that library up to date and of use to all the people that want to learn more about charitable giving.
And then we also have, of course, have a team of people, and especially the advisors that are listening to this podcast, I know that you leverage our team of charitable consultants on a regular basis. They exist to support you. So also a team of SMEs out there in the field to answer questions.
[00:08:58] Doug Heikkinen: Thanks, Julie. Is there anything else you'd like to share with our listeners?
[00:09:03] Julie Sunwoo: I am so impressed always by the generosity of the donor community. The donors and the DAFgiving360 community, and the advisors that help our donors give to charities. And I'm so impressed by this last season. I know there have been some changes to the tax bill that we're looking at, and so I encourage people to understand what those are, to think about how to revise their plan going into 2026 and to keep giving to the charities that they are passionate about.
There is a great need. DAFs can help you fill that need, and we're excited to be a part of that process.
[00:09:41] Doug Heikkinen: Julie, what you and your team do is just incredible, and we thank you so much for being with us today.
[00:09:47] Julie Sunwoo: Thank you so much for the opportunity.
[00:09:49] Doug Heikkinen: Learn more about DAFgiving360, please visit DAFgiving360.org.
We are on all social media platforms @Advisorpedia. Please give us a follow. For our producer Tory Miller and everyone at Advisorpedia, thanks so much for listening.