Are you leaving Major Gifts on the table?—  The importance of having a DAF Widget to Your Website

If your organization isn’t making it easy for donors to give through a Donor-Advised Fund (DAF), there’s a good chance you’re leaving gifts on the table. Not because donors don’t want to give, but because the process isn’t simple enough. Today, DAFs hold more than $251 billion in charitable assets, with over $54 billion granted annually to nonprofits. That’s a meaningful share of modern philanthropy, and it’s growing every year. Yet surprisingly, many nonprofit websites still don’t support DAF giving directly (Source: National Philanthropic Trust). 

What is a DAF? 

A donor-advised fund, or DAF, is a charitable investment account, established at a public charity, that supports charitable organizations of the donor's choice.The 501(c)(3) public charity serves as a “sponsoring organization,” which manages and administers individual DAF accounts.

DAF accounts allow donors to make a charitable contribution, receive an immediate tax deduction and then recommend grants from the fund over time.  Donors can contribute to the fund as frequently as they like, and then recommend grants to their favorite charitable organizations whenever it makes sense for them. This allows donors to give when they can, then grant when it’s needed.

How can you make DAF contributions easy?

Baywood Consulting recommends one simple solution, adding a DAF widget available through DAF Direct. DAF Direct is a free, easy-to-install web application that enables donors to initiate grant recommendations from their donor-advised fund (DAF) directly from your website or online fundraising campaigns. Currently, it facilitates grant recommendations from donors of Fidelity Charitable®, Schwab Charitable®, and the BNY Mellon Charitable Gift Fund®. Instead of asking donors to log into their sponsor later and remember to complete the gift, you meet them right at the moment they’re ready to act. Think of it as a friction reduction strategy!

Why do DAF contributions matter?

DAF users tend to be exactly the donors most organizations are trying to grow relationships with. The average DAF account holds more than $140,000, and many donors using them are repeat contributors, board members, or advisor-guided philanthropists. When your website visibly supports DAF giving, it sends a quiet but important message: your organization understands how strategic donors want to give (Source: National Philanthropic Trust). 

We also see something else happen when nonprofits implement this well. A DAF widget doesn’t just make giving easier, it improves visibility into a donor segment that’s often harder to track. When paired with a thoughtful CRM strategy (especially inside systems like Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud), organizations can begin identifying DAF donors earlier, segmenting them more effectively, proactively building upgrade pathways.

At Baywood Consulting, we often describe improvements like this as “readiness signals.” They tell donors and their advisors that your organization is easy to support. Adding a DAF widget is one of the fastest, lowest-cost steps your nonprofit can take to modernize the giving experience and strengthen your mid-level and major-gift pipeline at the same time.