The fund’s online portal now offers a more intuitive user experience, the firm said, that enables donors to research charities, track philanthropic activity and align gifting with personal goals and investing strategies.

Specific enhancements include:

• Donors can customize site navigation to match their giving behaviors and interests to more efficiently carry out research, and view grant-making history, balances and statements;
• Donors can explore information about nearly all charitable organizations and programs in the US, with direct access to their most recent IRS data;
• Donors can now complete all grant requests online, with grant-making forms automatically populated with details about the charitable organization to which they’re gifting;
• Increased access to ETF options: Account holders can select from 22 investment options, including seven asset allocation strategies with options for mutual funds, ETFs and cash. Based on investor demand, portfolios made up of ETF-only investments – which had previously been reserved for accounts with $3 million or more in assets – are now available to all accounts; and
• Enhanced flexibility: Donors can select their own fund name, as they would with a family foundation, as well as tailor timing of gift distribution to optimize tax and investing considerations.

“Giving away money sounds easy, but doing so strategically and in a meaningful way can be more fulfilling for donors and have greater impact,” said Don Greene, national philanthropic strategy and product executive at US Trust. “More than ever, we see donors focused on maximizing their giving – beginning with how they fund gifts and the vehicles they use to make them.”

Since introducing its online giving portal in 2009, the Charitable Gift Fund's assets have nearly tripled, ranking it among the top ten and fastest-growing donor-advised funds in the industry, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Across the industry, donor-advised funds are the fastest-growing source of grants to charitable organizations, growing by more than 40 per cent annually in 2012 and 2013, BoA noted.