Donor-Advised Funds
A grant from your donor-advised fund (DAF) can help today's patients become tomorrow's survivors. Every St. Jude patient deserves a chance to live their best life and celebrate every moment. Your end-of-year DAF grant can help St. Jude give kids with cancer that chance.
St. Jude patient Anwar with his mom
Recommend a grant from your DAF through your fund administrator
You can recommend a gift to St. Jude by contacting your fund administrator, or by making a grant recommendation online. Find your fund administrator below.
Set up recurring grants from your DAF
You can set up recurring grants to help sustain the lifesaving mission of St. Jude. This can be done online or by contacting your fund administrator and choosing your grant frequency.
Name St. Jude as the beneficiary of your DAF
You can help continue the mission of St. Jude after your lifetime by naming St. Jude as the beneficiary of your DAF. Simply contact your fund administrator to do so. Learn more about legacy giving at St. Jude.
If you cannot find your financial institution or foundation in the links above, contact us by emailing DAF@stjude.org. You can also grant directly from your DAF sponsor's website.
Stories from St. Jude donors
Dr. Vernon Rayford shares why his family gives to St. Jude through a donor-advised fund.
Donor-advised funds:
FAQs
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Donor-advised funds (DAFs) are a type of charitable fund that organizations and individual donors can contribute as a way to benefit philanthropic goals. They provide an immediate tax benefit to you and allow you to recommend grants to your favorite charities.
DAFs are the fastest-growing charitable giving tool in the U.S., providing an easy and tax-advantageous way to support your favorite causes. These charitable accounts empower donors to give as often as they wish to the nonprofits they care about.
DAFs can be a sensible alternative to private foundations, providing flexible giving strategies with minimal overhead for you as a donor.
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DAFs are run by third-party organizations, classified as Section 501(c)(3) organizations. These sponsoring organizations are typically community foundations or public charities. However, some large investment firms may also sponsor DAFs, such as Vanguard and Charles Schwab.
You can donate multiple types of assets to a DAF, including cash, real estate, investments or other noncash assets.
When you contribute to a DAF, you donate to the organization sponsoring the donor fund, not to a charity directly. However, donors to DAFs can recommend the money pooled within the donor fund go to particular charitable organizations, as part of their advisory privileges.
The DAF then acts as a charitable giving vehicle for its donors, and each donor can immediately deduct the full amount of the donation from their taxes for the current tax year.
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DAFs are tax-efficient giving accounts and offer many of the same benefits as other philanthropic giving options. Some of these benefits may include:
- Avoid paying capital gains tax on long-term appreciated assets held for more than a year
- Get an immediate tax deduction for the full market value of the gift, up to specified limits
- Easily contribute a wide range of assets
- Consolidate all your charitable giving
- Support a charity you believe in through strategic giving over time
- Create a generational legacy
- Influence your DAF’s charitable gifts and your investment options, without the effort or funds required to run a private foundation
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To open a DAF, a donor selects a qualified sponsoring organization or financial institution and puts funds into an account. You can establish a DAF with a number of entities, including community foundations, charities and financial service companies such as Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard or Bank of America. It is usually best to work with a financial and tax advisor to discuss your philanthropic goals.
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Any individual, family, company, foundation or other entity can open a DAF account by contributing assets.
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The minimum initial contribution depends on the financial institution you choose when opening your DAF account. While some large institutions have very low to no minimums, initial funding requirements for others can range as low as $5,000 to as high as $250,000 to initially open a fund.
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A minimum payout is a certain amount of money that certain charitable funds are legally required to pay out to charitable organizations each year. For example, private foundations have to pay out 5% of the fund’s assets to nonprofits each year. DAFs don’t currently have federally imposed minimum payout requirements.
However, as current applicable tax laws may change in the future, it may be helpful to consider how a minimum payout requirement might affect you. It’s also important to note that some financial institutions do require accounts to make at least one grant within established timeframes to maintain their accounts.
ALSAC/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital does not provide tax, legal or accounting advice. This material is prepared and made available to you for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide or be relied upon for tax, legal or accounting advice. You should always consult a tax professional to determine your particular tax benefits that may result from any particular type of gift to charity.
Tax ID Number:
62-0646012
We are a tax-exempt, charitable institution listed in the Federal Internal Revenue Service Publication #78, "Cumulative List of Organizations," revised IRS Code 501(c)(3).
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A $250 grant from your donor-advised fund could help provide meals for a St. Jude family for one week.
St. Jude provides patients and their families with meal cards for breakfast, lunch and dinner in Kay Kafe, the hospital’s cafeteria.
Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food — so they can focus on helping their child live.
St. Jude patient Adriana
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A $1,500 grant from your donor-advised fund could help cover the cost of one day of chemotherapy for a St. Jude patient.
Chemotherapy is often part of a patient's treatment plan for a life-threatening disease.
Treatments developed at St. Jude have helped push the overall survival rate for childhood cancer from 20% when the hospital opened in 1962 to more than 80% today.
St. Jude patient Griffin with his mom
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A $4,000 grant from your donor-advised fund could help cover the cost of an ICU room for one day.
The intensive care unit provides world-class care for St. Jude patients with childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases.
St. Jude won't stop until no child dies from cancer.
St. Jude patient Winston
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A $15,000 grant from your donor-advised fund could help cover the cost of two CT scans for St. Jude patients.
A CT scan is a diagnostic test that is often needed as part of a patient's treatment and care.
No matter how much you grant, your support will help St. Jude continue its lifesaving mission: Finding cures. Saving children.®
St. Jude patient Za'Mya
*When you make a donation using this information, your donation will be used to provide breakthrough research, treatment and cures. Items listed here are representative of services and supplies that are part of the treatment and care of children at St. Jude. The cost of each item or service is an approximation and will vary based on actual costs incurred and individual patient needs. Your donation will be used for the general operating needs of St. Jude, where no family ever receives a bill for treatment, travel, housing or food.
Our Gift Planning department has a representative in your area who can provide further information or help you prepare the right questions to ask your financial advisor to determine if a DAF or another type of planned gift is right for you.
For questions about granting from your DAF, email DAF@stjude.org, or call (800) 910-3172. You can also fill out the form below (indicate: "Donor-advised funds" under "other"), and a St. Jude representative will contact you.
Your legacy is their future.
As an acknowledgment of your generosity when you give a gift to St. Jude through your will or estate plan, you become a member of the Danny Thomas – St. Jude Society, and we recognize your commitment to the mission of St. Jude in a variety of ways.
Learn How We Honor Your Generosity Explore More Planned Giving Options
St. Jude patient Aspen
ALSAC/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital does not provide tax, legal or accounting advice. This material is prepared and made available to you for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide or be relied upon for tax, legal or accounting advice. You should always consult a tax professional to determine your particular tax benefits that may result from any particular type of gift to charity.