The rise of national donor-advised funds by Kim Wright-Violich

When I interviewed for my current position at Schwab Charitable in 1999, the nonprofit was still a start-up and just launching a "donor-advised fund" giving program. Though I had been active in the charitable sector for 15 years, I was not yet familiar with donor-advised funds.

Although the Cleveland Foundation pioneered the donor-advised fund concept in 1914 and New York Community Trust formalized a donoradvised fund program in 1931, it was the launch of several national donoradvised funds by financial services companies in the 1990s that made them accessible and affordable to tens of thousands of Americans. Judging by their ...