Insights from CBA’s Coffee Chat Webinar, The DAF Opportunity: How Nonprofits Can Capture More Donor-Advised Fund Gifts. Watch the full webinar below, or read on for the key takeaways.

There’s $326 billion sitting in donor-advised funds, already committed to nonprofits by donors who have set it aside specifically for charitable giving. The question is whether your organization is making it easy to receive it.

That was the central conversation in our most recent CBA Coffee Chat, where CBA Vice President of Client Partnerships Christina McPhillips sat down with Briel Steinberg, Director of Partnerships at Chariot, to cut through the noise around donor-advised funds and share what’s actually working for nonprofits today.

Here are the three things we think every fundraiser needs to understand.

1. DAFs Are No Longer Just for Major Donors

The donor-advised fund landscape has changed dramatically. What was once a vehicle for ultra-high-net-worth donors is now a mainstream giving tool. Platforms like Fidelity Charitable and Schwab Charitable allow accounts to be opened with $0 down, and minimum gifts as low as $50. More than 3.5 million people now have DAFs, and the average account size has dropped from roughly $300,000 to around $90,000; a sign of democratization, not decline.

What hasn’t changed is the size of the opportunity. $65 billion was granted from DAFs in the most recently fully reported year, and that number keeps growing. Your donors very likely have a DAF. Many of them are simply waiting for an easy way to use it for your organization.

2. The Gift Size Difference Is Striking, and Actionable

Here’s the number that tends to get people’s attention: the average credit card gift on a nonprofit donation page is around $100–$150. The average DAF gift through the same form, when a DAF payment option is present, is around $1,100. That’s an 8-to-10x difference, just by making the option available.

The reason, as Briel explained, is that DAF donors have already set those funds aside for philanthropy. If it’s easy to give, they give more. If it’s not, they default to their credit card or skip it entirely.

Tools like DAFpay by Chariot integrate directly into your existing donation form, keep the donor on your page, and connect to over 1,150 DAF providers, passing through the donor’s name, email, and address so the gift isn’t anonymous. It’s available through 70+ fundraising platforms, and for many organizations, it’s already a setting you can simply turn on.

3. You Need to Tell Donors You Accept DAFs — Regularly

One of the more surprising insights from the webinar: an estimated 88% of DAF donors still make gifts by credit card or check, not because they don’t want to give from their DAF, but because the nonprofit never made it clear that was an option. Some donors, Briel noted, have simply forgotten they have a DAF at all.

The fix is straightforward: make DAF giving visible and say it consistently.

• On your website: Add a DAF giving page with your EIN prominently displayed. Google your own organization + “DAF” right now and see what comes up.
• In your communications: Add a DAF mention as a footnote in direct mail, a sidebar in your e-newsletter, and a line in email solicitations to mid-level and major donor segments.
• Around DAF Day: Mark October 8, 2026, on your calendar. DAF Day is a national giving day dedicated to DAF gifts, now in its third year, with free marketing toolkits for participating nonprofits.

At CBA, we’ve been incorporating DAF messaging into direct mail, email, and digital programs for clients across the nonprofit sector, and we’re currently piloting a campaign to identify new DAF donors through targeted digital advertising. Early results are promising, and we’ll be sharing more as that work develops.