Vanguard Charitable, a US nonprofit organization and sponsor of donor-advised funds (DAFs), releases its latest figures on its donor grants to charity, of which high net worth donors play a significant role.

This week Vanguard Charitable announced that its donors granted more than $3 billion in the 2024 fiscal year (July 2023 to June 2024), a 45 per cent increase over the previous year. 

This record granting included over 222,000 grants to nearly 60,000 nonprofits representing a diverse array of cause areas including human services, religion, education, health, environment and wildlife, and arts and culture. Since Vanguard Charitable’s inception over 25 years ago, donors have granted more than $19 billion to nonprofits, the firm said in a statement.

Notably, high net worth donors are playing a significant role in this trend, using their resources to make a substantial and sustained impact on their chosen causes.

“Among many generous giving trends, we’re seeing a theme of donors embracing personal community connections to ramp up their support for nonprofits, whether within their favorite existing causes or a brand new one – and in addition to their expected and planned giving,” Rebecca Moffett, president of Vanguard Charitable, said.

“Our research shows that while this type of giving may be unexpected or responsive, it is in addition to a broader giving strategy,” Moffett said. “In fact, expected giving is seeing double digit growth of 17 per cent, while donors also increase their responsive granting. The ability to leverage the power and flexibility of a DAF enables those already committed charitable dollars to deploy quickly – whenever a donor is inspired to give. We’re excited to help donors refine their philanthropic strategies for continued impact in fiscal 2025.”

Vanguard Charitable donors are often motivated to give based on an experience or unexpected circumstance, the firm continued. This contributes to a high rate of unexpected giving – a rate that has beenincreasing by 24 per cent per annum at Vanguard Charitable over the past decade – which ultimately increases overall giving thanks to the flexibility and value of a donor-advised fund. In many cases, what starts as a one-off grant evolves into consistent, year-over-year giving.

In the fiscal year 2024, the top three causes supported were human services, religion, and education – the same top causes as in 2023. In the fiscal year 2024, the top five charities (by grant units) were: Doctor’s Without Borders, World Central Kitchen, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ), the firm said.