Donor advised funds allow donors to be directly involved in the annual giving process, while at the same time taking advantage of the Foundation’s public charity status. 

A Donor Advised Fund at The Cambridge Charitable Foundation is a vehicle through which individuals, families, and companies can create separate “charitable giving accounts” to benefit the charities they care about, both today and in years to come.  In many ways establishing a donor advised fund is like having your own personal foundation to support the causes you believe in without the paperwork and costs that go along with operating one.

In establishing a donor advised fund, the donor can name the fund, establish a board purpose for the fund, or designate a specific charitable organization to benefit.  The donor may also assign other family members to join the donor in advising the Foundation on how the income from the donor’s fund should be distributed.  While the final decision on grant distribution rests with the board of trustees of the Foundation (as a result of IRS regulations), a donor advised fund is not subject to the excise tax and payout requirements of a private foundation. 

A donor advised fund can be established quickly and easily.  While there is a small annual fee for administering the donor advised fund, this is almost always significantly less expensive than establishing an independent private foundation. 

Contributions can be made at any time into a donor advised fund.  To establish a donor advised fund, an initial minimum contribution of $5,000 is required.  This can be added to at any time to increase the size of your fund.  Gifts of appreciated property (including stocks, mutual funds, real estate and life insurance) result in a deduction for the full fair market value of the asset, and the capital gains tax on the imbedded gain in the appreciated property is eliminated.