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Crisis Response

Deploying 11x more Donor Advised Fund funding in Crisis Response.

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Brothers & Sisters for Israel formed the day after the October 7th terrorist attacks in Israel and, thanks to Chariot, was able to tap into real-time, increased DAF funding to meet the most critical needs on the ground.
Key Takeaways
  • ​Tapping DAF giving in a timely manner for crisis response
  • Leveraging a fiscal sponsor to deploy DAF funds for new, grassroots efforts 
  • Chariot’s technology & design leads to significantly increased DAF gift sizes
Within a few weeks of enabling Chariot, the organization received $74,000 in DAF donations from 21 donors, ranging from $180 to $11,000+ each! 
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Onset

October 8th, 2023

The organization was formed on October 8th to start meeting people’s most urgent needs - like accounting for the thousands of people killed, missing or displaced - before the government was even able to act. For this kind of crisis response, speed is everything, but there are typically two main barriers to accessing the vast amount of DAF money quickly for a new grassroots effort:
 
 
  1. Partnering with a fiscal sponsor to receive tax-deductive donations
     
  2. Knowing when DAF gifts are made and how much is granted
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Without a fiscal sponsor, no DAF gifts can be received. Even once that sponsor is in place, an organization responding to a crisis without Chariot doesn’t know anything about a DAF gift until it arrives weeks or months later in the mail, well past the point they can be accounted for in crisis response programs.

“We had several donors telling us they wanted to use their DAF to support our effort, but we weren’t really very familiar with them and didn’t have a way to easily receive them until we started working with Chariot"

- Shani Yossefon

Partnership

Partnering with Chariot

By partnering with Chariot, Brothers & Sisters for Israel:​
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  • ​Quickly learned how DAFs were used​
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  • Easily designated DAF donations for their programs through a fiscal sponsor.
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  • ​Saw DAF gifts in real time to budget for that funding
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Within a few weeks of enabling Chariot, the organization received $74,000 in DAF donations from 21 donors, ranging from $180 to $11,000+ each!
 
Including these gifts in their budget real time allowed Shani and her team to quickly deploy more resources in support of the families and communities affected most by the October 7th attacks.
The donor's balance was $11,273. Because of DAFpay's Smart Boost, they decided to gift their entire balance - an 11x increase from their orginal donation.
Impact

Focusing on the greatest need

"We have been prioritizing whatever the greatest needs are over the past two months and working as fast as possible to assist,” said Shani. “At first, that meant setting up an entire system to account for everyone impacted by the attacks.”
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“Then we brought resources for the families that were displaced from the communities impacted - everything from food and medical supplies, to education resources to children removed from their daily schooling, to accommodations for sitting shiva to mourn those killed. We also mobilized our network of thousands of volunteers to go into the fields where farms had to be abandoned to prevent the waste of crops in that region which make up over 75% of Israeli agriculture.”
To learn more about the importance of rapid timelines for payouts in crisis response, this article from Team Rubicon & Groundswell founder Jake Wood offers amazing insights. 
Results

Substanially larger gifts

In addition to enabling the lightning-fast response, Chariot’s optimized interface for DAF giving led to substantially larger gifts from supporters. One donor started their donation with a $1,000 gift entered into the donation form, but once they clicked “DAFpay” they were reminded of their total DAF balance and given the chance to boost their gift size.

This donor’s balance was $11,273, so they decided to change their gift to the entire balance - a more than 11x increase. 

This is the power of a DAF donation tool that is built for nonprofit organizations. The user interface is obsessively optimized for what yields the highest conversion rate of donors and the largest gifts. Donors going through their own DAF platform do not have the same nudges or optimizations because there are different incentives at play
To learn more about the advantages offered by Chariot’s technology for nonprofits, check out this feature comparison with the more basic tools on the market.
DAFs are really an unbelievable resource! We are so happy to be able to work with DAF giving in this effort thanks to Chariot.
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