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Latest DAF follies!

  • 1.  Latest DAF follies!

    Posted 08-27-2025 11:14 AM

    Fellow listers!

    I'd be surprised if we were the first institution to encounter this, but I haven't seen it before, nor know of anyone who has!  We have a donor who has signed our paperwork to make a very large revocable bequest and wants to do it through her DAF.  But it doesn't stop there.  It's not a one-time sum.  It shall be a series of payouts from an endowment.  However, rather than bequeath the funds to set up an endowment with us, she wants to bequeath the corpus to her DAF and then have the DAF make annual payouts to us in perpetuity.  Upon her death she has assigned a designee who shall take over annual advisements to the DAF to direct payments to us, and the DAF has agreed to this.

    My question is, how do we count this?  Because the funds are expected to come from a DAF each year, my inclination is that we count those payouts as gifts when received.  However, do we also count the corpus amount to the DAF as a planned gift?  Part of me feels like this would be double counting, but I can't explain how. Thanks for any insight or help!



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    Eric Valdescaro
    Kennesaw State University
    evaldesc@kennesaw.edu
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Latest DAF follies!

    Posted 08-27-2025 11:48 AM
    You cannot count the corpus unless the DAF signs an agreement with you guaranteeing you will receive those funds in perpetuity (akin to what CASE discusses in the section on Wholly Charitable Trusts Administered by Others." And even then, the legal donor will be the DAF and not this individual.

    John

    John H. Taylor, Principal
    John H. Taylor Consulting, LLC
    2604 Sevier Street
    Durham, NC     27705

    919.816.5903 (cell/text)

    Serving the Advancement Community Since 1987






  • 3.  RE: Latest DAF follies!

    Posted 08-27-2025 11:58 AM
    The key principle here is that a donor cannot make a promise to give from a DAF, they can only make a promise to ask the DAF to give, because once the give the money to the DAF, they do not own the money anymore. Any counting on your end must reflect an agreement with the DAF, or just the cash as it is received from the DAF. 

    You are right about double-counting, too. Even if the DAF did sign a gift agreement with you, you would only count the principal as a pledge, and charge it down as the payments came in. If they did not, you would only count the payments when they show up, and you may not count anything else since there is not a sufficient commitment to grant the rest of it to you. 


    Thank you,
    Isaac Shalev
    Data Strategy Expert
    Sage70, Inc.
    (917) 859-0151
    isaac@sage70.com

    Schedule a 30-minute consultation now:







  • 4.  RE: Latest DAF follies!

    Posted 09-22-2025 11:13 AM
    Edited by Eric Valdescaro 09-22-2025 11:14 AM



  • 5.  RE: Latest DAF follies!

    Posted 08-27-2025 01:01 PM

    Thanks gentlemen!  I have enough to go on from here.  The reference to the Wholly Charitable Trusts Administered by Others section helps provide documented backstop (if not directly) to address this scenario internally.  @John Taylor - Please convince CASE to include a chapter in the next GRS edition dedicated to the 101 ways donors create headaches with DAFs and how to handle them!  Thanks again!



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    Eric Valdescaro
    Kennesaw State University
    evaldesc@kennesaw.edu
    ------------------------------



  • 6.  RE: Latest DAF follies!

    Posted 08-27-2025 01:32 PM
    I doubt CASE will say much more than they have. Sure, individuals can come up with some interesting proposals for DAFs. However, the rule of law governs these, and it's clear that once donated to a DAF, an individual no longer has dominion or control over those funds. Isaac addressed that nicely.

    When it comes to what to count and when, that's also outlined in the CASE Standards. You count something only when an asset has been irrevocably donated to you, and in the category reflecting the legal donor.

    If you keep these foundational principles in mind, any crafty proposal by a donor can be addressed. They might not like what you tell them (and in some cases, your VP might not like it either), but these are the rules as established by the IRS and generally reflected in the CASE Standards.

    John

    John H. Taylor, Principal
    John H. Taylor Consulting, LLC
    2604 Sevier Street
    Durham, NC     27705

    919.816.5903 (cell/text)

    Serving the Advancement Community Since 1987







  • 7.  RE: Latest DAF follies!

    Posted 08-28-2025 07:25 AM

    Eric

    So that you don't feel like you're on an island, I too have had a couple of these scenarios.  While the DO was excited that they had secured a commitment, and desperately wanted to get credit for the fundraising, I once again burst their bubble and did not record the estate commitment and only the cash as if was received annually from the DAF.  

    DAF Follies - I sense that we may need to create another vibrant community in aasp Connect.

    T.



    ------------------------------
    Teresa Goddard
    DePauw University
    teresagoddard@depauw.edu
    ------------------------------



  • 8.  RE: Latest DAF follies!

    Posted 08-28-2025 11:08 AM

    Thanks Teresa, good to know!  Interesting tidbit... I'm finding that in my case, much of the push by fundraisers to count DAF gifts seems to hinge on an assumption that they only get credit for what is countable.  Their time and effort that goes into springing commitments should not go unrecognized (or not "credited") simply because the benefactor decides to use a DAF. And we can often do this for standard commitments by entering MOUs instead of pledges and so forth.  But this scenario with the DAF vehicle for the planned gift threw me.  So, I may need to work with our AVP on an internal methodology we can use to provide credit to our PG director in such cases.



    ------------------------------
    Eric Valdescaro
    Kennesaw State University
    evaldesc@kennesaw.edu
    ------------------------------



  • 9.  RE: Latest DAF follies!

    Posted 08-28-2025 11:41 AM
    Eric, try forcing the creation of "opportunities" through the prospect management system. When a DAF contribution comes through you can link that gift to the opportunity resulting in gift officer credit.

    John

    John H. Taylor, Principal
    John H. Taylor Consulting, LLC
    2604 Sevier Street
    Durham, NC     27705

    919.816.5903 (cell/text)

    Serving the Advancement Community Since 1987







  • 10.  RE: Latest DAF follies!

    Posted 08-28-2025 03:34 PM

    Thanks John, I appreciate the suggestion!  We actually do that, but the report checks to see if the opportunity was funded with a charitable commitment.  Once we define the contribution as charitable in our system, it counts towards our fundraising total.  Our conundrum is that we haven't had a situation like this where the contribution meant to fund the opp needs to be entered as non-charitable. :-(



    ------------------------------
    Eric Valdescaro
    Kennesaw State University
    evaldesc@kennesaw.edu
    ------------------------------



  • 11.  RE: Latest DAF follies!

    Posted 09-22-2025 11:16 AM

    Exhuming this month-old post!

    John, you wrote, "You cannot count the corpus unless the DAF signs an agreement with you guaranteeing you will receive those funds in perpetuity (akin to what CASE discusses in the section on Wholly Charitable Trusts Administered by Others." And even then, the legal donor will be the DAF and not this individual."

    Well, now I'm being asked by our AVP if anyone has ever heard of a charitable fund sponsor co-signing such an agreement.  Doesn't have to be one exactly like this scenario -- but essentially, just signing any commitment that would honor an advisee's commitment to a charity by promising future funds to it?  Has this happened, and if it's happened more than once, then about how often?
    Thanks!



    ------------------------------
    Eric Valdescaro
    Kennesaw State University
    evaldesc@kennesaw.edu
    ------------------------------



  • 12.  RE: Latest DAF follies!

    Posted 09-22-2025 01:25 PM

    I'm curious how to handle the reporting piece when the donor is using a DAF. how do you track them when you're not booking the pledge? 



    ------------------------------
    Cara Anderson Rosas
    Campbell & Company
    cara.andersonrosas@campbellcompany.com
    ------------------------------



  • 13.  RE: Latest DAF follies!

    Posted 09-22-2025 01:33 PM
    As I mentioned earlier, you can "book" a pledge if you use the right language.

    Or, you can use a non-binding letter of intent with a unique pledge type to track these.

    Or, you can create an "opportunity" in the PM module to note the anticipation.

    There are many other ways to note these sorts of things. What matters most is coming up with a systematic approach that will work best for your CRM - and don't change that process!

    John

    John H. Taylor, Principal
    John H. Taylor Consulting, LLC
    2604 Sevier Street
    Durham, NC     27705

    919.816.5903 (cell/text)

    Serving the Advancement Community Since 1987







  • 14.  RE: Latest DAF follies!

    Posted 09-22-2025 01:39 PM
    Edited by Eric Valdescaro 09-22-2025 02:18 PM

    Did we get a couple of cross thread posts here? 😊   I know we had another DAF question posted by Cara, but not quite my question.

    I'm trying to learn if anyone has seen where a DAF has actually signed on to an agreement to fulfill a commitment made by the individual (advisor)?  And if so, is this something that is extremely rare or just uncommon.

    Thanks all!



    ------------------------------
    Eric Valdescaro
    Kennesaw State University
    evaldesc@kennesaw.edu
    ------------------------------



  • 15.  RE: Latest DAF follies!

    Posted 09-22-2025 01:42 PM
    I've never seen it, but that doesn't mean it's never happened.

    John H. Taylor, Principal
    John H. Taylor Consulting, LLC
    2604 Sevier Street
    Durham, NC     27705

    919.816.5903 (cell/text)

    Serving the Advancement Community Since 1987







  • 16.  RE: Latest DAF follies!

    Posted 09-22-2025 02:20 PM

    Agreed!  Nevertheless, I'm going to go ahead and categorize it as extremely rare.  Thanks!



    ------------------------------
    Eric Valdescaro
    Kennesaw State University
    evaldesc@kennesaw.edu
    ------------------------------



  • 17.  RE: Latest DAF follies!

    Posted 09-23-2025 09:22 AM

    Yes, I can recall at least one situation in which the DAF signed a gift agreement. It was a special capital campaign situation and the agreement had language in it indicating the commitment was conditional upon the funding being available in the named advisor's account. We recorded and counted it as a conditional pledge. So I agree it's extremely rare.



    ------------------------------
    Donna Koopman
    Colorado State University
    donna.koopman@colostate.edu
    ------------------------------



  • 18.  RE: Latest DAF follies!

    Posted 09-23-2025 09:50 AM

    Hi Eric,

    To your point and others, I've only had one instance of this where we had enough documentation from the DAF to warrant booking the commitment in full. However, this became a point where we differed from our Finance team as they did not concur that the documentation was sufficient enough to record on the books.

    Good luck!
    Leah



    ------------------------------
    Leah Richards
    St. John Fisher University
    lrichards@sjf.edu
    ------------------------------



  • 19.  RE: Latest DAF follies!

    Posted 09-25-2025 01:46 PM

    Thank you both Donna and Leah!  Great to hear we're not the only ones looking at these incredulous scenarios! 



    ------------------------------
    Eric Valdescaro
    Kennesaw State University
    evaldesc@kennesaw.edu
    ------------------------------