DAFpay Named to TIME’s Best Inventions of 2025

We’re honored to share that DAFpay has been recognized by TIME as one of the year’s best inventions.

Appearing in TIME’s Social Impact category, DAFpay was selected among innovations shaping how people live, work, and give. The 2025 list spans breakthroughs from health care to AI—and, now, philanthropy.

This award recognizes DAFpay’s contribution to advancing charitable giving and the exciting potential of donor-advised funds as a vehicle for greater generosity.

A Payment Option for Donor-Advised Funds

DAFpay is the world's first donor-advised fund payment option, allowing donors to recommend a grant to any cause in just 3 clicks, directly on a nonprofit's donation forms.

A donor-advised fund (DAF) is a charitable account that allows people to set aside money for giving and recommend grants to nonprofits over time. DAFs are the fastest-growing way Americans give—with more than $250 billion already dedicated to charitable purposes.

While DAFs make it easy for people to set aside money for charity, giving through them hasn’t always been simple. Donors are often redirected through multiple platforms to make a single gift, and nonprofits receive those contributions through a slow, more manual process that provides limited donor information.

DAFpay changes that.

By embedding DAF giving directly within nonprofit donation forms, DAFpay turns a multi-step process into a three-click experience. Donors can recommend a grant without ever leaving the page, and nonprofits receive the data they need to acknowledge and steward that gift immediately.

DAFpay’s Impact on Giving

Since its launch, DAFpay has helped all kinds of nonprofit organizations —from the Pan-Mass Challenge, to the Alzheimer’s Association, to the Public Theater— better integrate DAF giving into their fundraising, leading to seamless giving, stronger donor relationships, and more charitable dollars reaching these critical causes faster.

Today, DAFpay is on over 100,000 nonprofits’ donation forms, which has more than doubled in the past year. DAFpay is also natively available as a core payment option in dozens of fundraising platforms, including GoFundMe, Givebutter, GiveCampus, OneCause, NeonOne, Engaging Networks and Funraise.

“We started Chariot with the goal of making donor-advised fund giving easier and more rewarding than giving with a credit card,” said Salomon Serfati, Co-Founder and CEO of Chariot. “This recognition from Time shows how much potential for generosity can be unlocked through frictionless giving experiences.”

See the full list here: time.com/collections/best-inventions-2025/