Fidelity Donor-Advised-Fund Account Holders Have Directed $230 Million for Covid Response

Fidelity Charitable announced its donor-advised-fund account holders gave more $236 million to nonprofit coronavirus response efforts and $2.5 billion over all from January 1 to May 5, an 18 percent increase in total grants over the same time period last year.

The grants have gone to more than 8,000 charities. The increased pace of grant making came a month after Fidelity Charitable pushed its donor-advised-fund account holders to double their giving and direct funds to organizations providing relief from the impact of Covid-19. Human-service charities have received the largest share of this surge, with a 68 percent year-over-year increase in the number of grants.

For context, Fidelity Charitable previously reported $1.7 billion in outgoing grants in the first quarter of 2020, of which $89 million had been earmarked for coronavirus response efforts in March, which is when Fidelity began tracking that metric. The latest numbers from Fidelity add data to anecdotal reports from major donor-advised-fund sponsors that their account holders are issuing grants at record rates in response to the Covid-19 crisis.

Fidelity Charitable officials said the recent grants from its account holders show the utility of donor-advised funds as giving vehicles.

“With the market volatility, you’d think we might see people pulling back and not supporting charity,” said Amy Pirozzolo, head of donor engagement for Fidelity Charitable. “But we see the opposite because people have irrevocably set this money aside for charity.”

Fidelity Charitable reported that total grant volume is up 31 percent compared with the first four months of 2019. The number of grants from Fidelity Charitable account holders have also increased for society-benefit charities such as community foundations and social advocacy groups, which saw a 37 percent increase compared with January to May 5, 2019.