A Big Year for the Charity Reform Movement
Our 2022 findings, publications, conversations, and political prospects made it clearer than ever that we need meaningful charity reform – and that a strong majority agrees.
Helen Flannery
Philanthropy
Charity Reform Webinar: Recording and Resources
Watch our webinar on why food banks and other nonprofits should support philanthropic policy change — and learn how you can, too.
More than 1,600 people registered to attend our October 19th webinar, “Where Has All The Money Gone?” — making it as clear as ever that there’s huge appetite for philanthropy reform.
In the webinar, which was co-hosted with Oregon Food Bank, NonprofitAF, CalNonprofits, and Crisis Charitable Commitment, we explored the growing diversion of charitable dollars into private foundations and donor advised funds (DAFs). Our panel of experts also discussed ways to reverse that trend and direct more money to working charities.
Said Chuck Collins, Director of the Institute for Policy Studies Program on Inequality and the Common Good: “Philanthropy is becoming more and more an extension of the power and influence of the very wealthy. It’s time to modernize the rules governing philanthropy.”
Vu Le of the blog NonprofitAF: “We just cannot be this patient any more. If we can mobilize, if we can start organizing and being louder and more assertive, I think that we can get the resources that we need.”
Ray Madoff, Co-founder and Director of the Boston College Law School Forum on Philanthropy and the Public Good: “We count on charities to do the most critical work in this country and we are starving charities by our failure to stand up for these rules that are intended to get money to charities and the beneficiaries they serve.”
Susannah Morgan, CEO of Oregon Food Bank: “Let’s all join together in demanding that we fix this and then when we show we can do that, we can move on to even bigger and better things together.”
Inspired by the webinar? Get involved.
Take immediate action: use our online tool to send a letter to your representatives in Congress.
Learn more:
Gilded Giving 2022: How Wealth Inequality Distorts Philanthropy and Imperils Democracy
This updated edition of the Institute for Policy Studies’ biennial Gilded Giving report describes the extent of the capture of our charitable sector by the wealthy, the risks this poses, and how it has been exacerbated by the pandemic and other external factors. It also proposes strong reforms that would reverse these trends and realign our charitable system to serve the public interest.
Top-Heavy Philanthropy Explained in 8 Charts
8 graphics that explain how the concentration of wealth is warping the giving sector.
Visualize This: Donor-Advised Funds As Largest Recipients of Charitable Gifts
A stunning time lapse illustration of the rise of donor-advised funds (DAFs) as the largest recipients of charitable gifts.
Fixing what’s broken with DAFs
There is a fundamental design flaw with DAFs which allows donors to reap immediate tax benefits but provides no incentive to fulfill the public interest by moving funds in a timely manner to active charities. The solutions outlined in this proposal are aimed at correcting this flaw.
New Ipsos Poll Shows Broad Support for Bold Charity Reform
By very large margins, Americans do not want the U.S. tax code subsidizing wealthy donors to create perpetual private foundations and warehouse wealth in DAFs. And a broad, bipartisan majority wants donors who are receiving preferable tax treatment for their charitable contributions to move funds quickly to active charities on the ground.
Calls for reform: the ACE Act and more
Vu Le: We need to support legislation on philanthropy’s crappy, inequitable practices
CalNonprofits Endorses ACE Act for Philanthropic Reform
Initiative to Accelerate Charitable Giving
An Open Letter to Funders
A call to action from the Washington BIPOC Executive Directors Coalition
DAFs: what the data does and doesn’t say
New Data Tells Us Where Donor-Advised Fund Dollars Go—And Don’t Go
A new research database reveals that many donor-advised fund donations take years to make it to the coffers of operating nonprofits. The case for public policy reform has never been clearer.
National Philanthropic (Mis)Trust
Donor-advised funds are making misleading claims in response to criticism that they are warehousing wealth instead of boosting charitable giving.
This Spin Won’t Wash
Al Cantor presents some of the most common assertions about donor-advised fund payout from DAF advocates, along with data-based refutations of each of these talking points.
