Give with greater impact

Gifts to your donor-advised fund can now be invested in sustainable investment strategies that potentially grow your contributions while relying upon ESG principles

Donor-advised funds (DAFs) offer a convenient, flexible, tax-advantaged way of giving that offers your contributions, because they are invested, the opportunity to potentially grow over time. These benefits make DAFs one of the fastest-growing philanthropic vehicles, with contributions increasing an average of 18% annually over the past decade.¹ They can be even more appealing when you know that your contributions can be invested in sustainable investing portfolios. “Sustainable investments allow donors to magnify the impact of their charitable giving — aligning their values and charitable priorities to both their grant and asset management strategies,” explains Donald J. Greene, national donor-advised fund executive, Bank of America Private Bank.

To that end, seven portfolios with sustainable investment strategies, including Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors, are available through the Bank of America Charitable Gift Fund. “Our sustainable portfolios help donors stay true to their social values regardless of the investment objective they’ve selected to reflect their charitable giving strategy with the Bank of America Charitable Gift Fund,” says Greene. Donors can make gifts directly through the Charitable Gift Fund’s online portal to any of the more than 1.8 million IRS-recognized charities in the U.S.

Multi-chart infographic detailing four reasons to consider putting DAF contributions in sustainable investing portfolios: popularity, performance, adoption, tax. Visit the link below for long description.

4 reasons to consider putting DAF contributions in sustainable investing portfolios.

Reason 1: Popularity.

The number of individual DAF accounts quadrupled between 2015 and 2020, making them one of the fastest-growing vehicles in philanthropy.¹ There were 272,781 accounts in 2015 and 1,005,099 in 2020

Reason 2: Performance

In recent years, sustainable U.S. large-blend funds have been outperforming traditional large-blend stock funds.

76% percent of sustainable U.S. large-blend funds finished in the top half of the category over the last three years.²

Reason 3: Adoption

One out of every three investment dollars now goes toward ESG/sustainable funds.³

Investment dollars toward ESG/sustainable funds increased from $5.4 billion in 2018, to $21.4 billion in 2019, to $51.1 billion in 2020, and $71.7 billion in 2021.

Reason 4: Tax Efficiency

DAFs have higher tax deduction thresholds for cash donations than private foundations.

DAF deduction limits are up to 60% of adjusted gross income (AGI) for cash contributions and up to 30% of AGI for securities and appreciable assets,⁴ while private foundations deduction limits are up to 30% and up to 20% of AGI, respectively.⁵

¹ National Philanthropic Trust, “2021 Donor-Advised Fund Report,” November 2021.

² Morningstar, “U.S. Sustainable Funds Landscape Report,” 2022.

³ Morningstar, “U.S. Sustainable Funds Landscape Report,” 2022.

⁴ American Endowment Foundation, “5 Primary Tax Benefits to Donors,” as of June 2021.

⁵ Hurwit & Associates, “Starting a Private Foundation,” as of June 2021.

Important Disclosures

Investing involves risk. There is always the potential of losing money when you invest in securities. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Bank of America, Merrill, their affiliates, and advisors do not provide legal, tax, or accounting advice. Clients should consult their legal and/or tax advisors before making any financial decisions.

Sustainable and Impact Investing and/or Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) managers may take into consideration factors beyond traditional financial information to select securities, which could result in relative investment performance deviating from other strategies or broad market benchmarks, depending on whether such sectors or investments are in or out of favor in the market. Further, ESG strategies may rely on certain values-based criteria to eliminate exposures found in similar strategies or broad market benchmarks, which could also result in relative investment performance deviating. Impact investing and/or ESG investing has certain risks based on the fact that ESG criteria excludes securities of certain issuers for nonfinancial reasons and therefore, investors may forgo some market opportunities and the universe of investments available will be smaller.