JENKINTOWN, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--National Philanthropic Trust (NPT), the largest national, independent donor-advised fund (DAF) sponsor issued a record 36,930 grants to charities on behalf of its donors representing more than $905 million in 2017.
“There was a perfect confluence of events in 2017. Between a booming stock market, tax reform, the hedge fund repatriation deadline and heightened interest in donor-advised funds, it was a historic year for DAFs and for NPT,” said Eileen Heisman, CEO of National Philanthropic Trust. “Donors are increasingly attracted to the flexibility of DAFs, as evidenced by our record number of new donor-advised fund account openings. Some donors looked beyond cash to make transformative charitable gifts—in the past few months we accepted illiquid contributions of appreciated artwork, jewelry and three different types of cryptocurrency.”
NPT donors recommended grants to charities with a wide range of missions across the U.S. and around the world in 2017, from funding hurricane relief efforts in Texas to providing children’s literacy programs in Tanzania. NPT’s United Kingdom affiliate, NPT-UK also saw record grants in 2017.
2017 NPT Year in Review, Jan. 1 to Dec. 31:
- $905 million donor-recommended grants (53% increase from $593 million in 2016)
- 36,930 grants to US and international charities (33% increase from 27,760)
- $2.4 billion in charitable contributions (41% increase from $1.7 billion)
- 6,430 donor-advised fund accounts (25% increase from 5,154)
Donor-advised fund activity accelerated at NPT at the end of 2017, hitting record metrics for December. “End-of-year philanthropy begins taking shape in October and reaches its height in December, known as ‘Giving Season’,” continued Heisman. “We saw a marked increase in all key benchmarks compared to December 2016: contributions increased 20 percent; grants increased more than 20 percent; and new accounts increased more than 30 percent. The increase in new accounts in particular speaks to the number of philanthropists who are looking for strategic and flexible ways to give and finding donor-advised funds are the answer.”
About National Philanthropic Trust
Founded in 1996, NPT is the largest, national independent donor-advised fund sponsor and has raised over $10 billion in charitable contributions. NPT currently manages $6.2 billion in charitable assets and has made more than 200,000 grants totaling $5 billion to charities around the world. NPT annually publishes the Donor-Advised Fund Report, the industry’s authority on the state of DAF giving. In 2016, NPT launched HistoryofGiving.org, the world’s first, most comprehensive digital narrative of the last 500 years in philanthropy. More at NPTrust.org.
