National Philanthropic Trust Announces Evolution of Leading Industry Report on Donor Advised Funds

' Annual DAF Report' Will Transfer to the Donor Advised Fund Research Collaborative and Feature Additional Open Science Principles

JENKINTOWN, Pa., Aug. 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- National Philanthropic Trust (NPT), the largest national independent public charity managing donor-advised funds (DAFs), announced that the Donor Advised Fund Research Collaborative (DAFRC) will take over production and publication of NPT's DAF Report, the leading annual look at the industry. The DAFRC will incorporate past data from NPT and independently release future editions of the report, respecting continuity and following additional open science principles.

"For nearly 20 years, the DAF Report has been the leading source of data on DAFs for donors, grantees, and the public at large," said NPT CEO Holly Welch Stubbing. "As an early pioneer in the industry, the DAF Report increased awareness of the critical role of DAFs in generating grants to leading changemakers and nonprofits in local communities and around the world."

NPT reviewed hundreds of 990 IRS tax forms by hand to create the first DAF report. Since then, the report has grown in complexity, with a team overseeing its research and publication. While the report was initially a unique resource for the sector, the industry has developed more capacity to conduct and publish research and continue the study of DAFs. Given that, the time was right to transfer it to DAFRC, whose expertise is in extracting and publishing sophisticated and far-ranging data on DAFs, Stubbing said.

"The field is ready to take ownership of the report and provide more visibility and information, so it made sense to transfer control of the NPT Report to an organization like the DAFRC, which will draw on its academic expertise and independent stature to enhance the research and the report and keep pace with the advancement of DAFs," she said.

The DAFRC, a collaborative of academics and nonprofit researchers, is best known for the National Study on Donor Advised Funds, a four-year research initiative that gathered and analyzed data not available through public sources.

"We are excited to continue to make this foundational resource publicly available to the donors and the nonprofit sector," said Dan Heist, Ph.D., Brigham Young University.

"Our version of the report will provide the baseline information that the sector depends on while integrating principles of open science and exploring new analyses to answer emerging questions," said Danielle Vance-McMullen, Ph.D., DePaul University.

Stubbing added: "It's my hope that in the years to come, the new DAF Report will help provide additional knowledge and connection to further evolve how DAFs are viewed as a vital tool for philanthropy."

The DAFRC is securing funding for the report from a broad consortium of sponsors who understand the importance of this work, including NPT and other national DAF sponsors, community foundations, and sector-leading organizations. All funders will be disclosed in the upcoming report, which the DAFRC expects to release in late 2025.

Moving forward, NPT will explore new ways to share data and insights about DAFs with advisors, institutions, nonprofit organizations, and donors. NPT will continue to serve as an industry-leading expert and trusted partner in DAF management, providing philanthropic expertise to donors, foundations and financial institutions.

About National Philanthropic Trust (NPT)
Founded in 1996, National Philanthropic Trust (NPT) is the largest national, independent public charity that manages donor-advised funds and one of the leading grantmaking institutions in the U.S. Since its founding, NPT has raised more than $73 billion in charitable funding and has made more than 870,000 grants exceeding $34 billion to nonprofits around the world. Visit NPT's resource library to learn what you can do with a DAF. More at NPTrust.org and NPTGivingPoint.org.

About the Donor Advised Fund Research Collaborative (DAFRC)
Co-founded by Dr. Dan Heist at Brigham Young University and Dr. Danielle Vance-McMullen at DePaul University, the Donor Advised Fund Research Collaborative (DAFRC) is a group of academic and nonprofit researchers dedicated to conducting empirical research to enhance the public understanding of DAFs. More at https://www.dafresearchcollaborative.org/annual-daf-report

SOURCE National Philanthropic Trust