Founders Pledge Selects Chariot to Power Grant Payments

Founders Pledge, a leading DAF sponsor serving mission-driven entrepreneurs that have collectively pledged $11.9 billion to charity, has partnered with Chariot to power their domestic grant payments. Earlier this month, Founders Pledge officially went live with Chariot Disbursements*, streamlining how funds move to nonprofits and improving security, speed, and the overall grantee experience.

Founders Pledge serves more than 2,100 members and has moved $1.6 billion to the charitable sector —supporting entrepreneurs in fulfilling their philanthropic commitments through donor-advised funds, advisory services, and in-house research that identifies high-impact giving opportunities. As the organization continues to scale its community and grantmaking volume, modernizing grant payments has become essential.

“We’re constantly trying to improve,” says Travers Oliver, Head of Philanthropic Services at Founders Pledge.

“Our members are entrepreneurs—they know a good product, they create good products, and their expectations are high. We need to meet that standard. Chariot helps us deliver a best-in-market experience by making our grant payments faster, safer, and far less repetitive for the nonprofits we support.”

According to Travers, the charitable sector’s lack of standardization around payments has long placed burdens on both funders and grantees. As multiple DAFs and grantmakers built parallel systems, nonprofits were often left navigating repetitive verification flows and long delays in receiving funds. 

“One of the big challenges we constantly see is around payments and due diligence. Grantees ask, ‘Why do I have to do this for Vanguard? For Founders Pledge? For NPT? For Fidelity?’ The list goes on and on. The real benefit we see in Chariot is that it essentially says: we’re all in this together. Grantees create an account once and can safely and quickly receive funds from multiple payers without repeating the process over and over.”

With more DAFs like Founders Pledge joining the Chariot platform every month, the value keeps increasing for all participants. 

“Every additional payer using the system increases the benefit for everyone,” Travers adds. “The grantee experience becomes easier, the payments get safer, and the whole sector becomes more efficient.”

For Chariot, the partnership accelerates the much-needed transition to more modern, collaborative and purpose-built solutions for charitable payments – especially among fast-growing, tech-forward organizations whose donors expect seamless, secure experiences. “Founders Pledge sets an incredibly high bar for product quality and operational excellence. We’re honored to help power their grantmaking and to better support the nonprofits their members care so much about,” said Mitch Stein, Head of Strategy at Chariot.

Nonprofit organizations interested in more seamless grant payments from Founders Pledge and Chariot’s other Disbursement partners are encouraged to claim their Chariot Account* today. 

*Chariot is a financial technology company, not a bank. Chariot Deposit Accounts are a Demand Deposit Account through our banking services partner, Column, N.A., Member FDIC. Deposits in Chariot Deposit Accounts are eligible for FDIC insurance up to $250,000 per depositor, for each insurable capacity in which the account is held.

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