How to Assess Your Opportunity with DAFpay on Donation Forms

Many organizations and platforms are curious about the impact DAFpay can have on their fundraising outcomes. This article covers the best ways to assess the opportunity and measure effectiveness for your situation.

DAFpay is the first-ever DAF payment option, so naturally most nonprofits and fundraising platforms evaluating the technology are thinking critically about how to properly gauge the opportunity. To determine if digital DAF giving is “worth it” to include in your fundraising technology, it’s critical to understand the nuances of DAF giving - including all of the potential benefits beyond just increased near-term funding.

In this article we cover: 

1. The context for digital DAF giving.

2. The effective steps to assess DAFpay. 

3. Evaluating DAFpay results. 

4. The organizations you can reference.

5. The context of the moment.  

What is different about DAF Giving? 

1. DAF Giving is not new - it is already massive, and growing rapidly  

DAFs are not a “flash in the pan” trend. They’ve been around for decades and shown exponential growth since 2013. The $54 billion in DAF grants made in 2023 represented a 6x increase over 10 years. And there’s another $250 billion already committed to giving in DAF accounts, according to National Philanthropic Trust’s DAF Report.

While we don’t have the full industry figures for 2024, the two largest DAF providers have shared their results: Fidelity Charitable reported 25% year-over-year growth and DAFGiving360 (f.k.a. Schwab Charitable), reported 34% year-over-year growth. The size and trajectory of the DAF opportunity is not up for debate. 

2. One of the biggest drivers of this growth is improved accessibility

The reason there’s 8x as many people using DAFs now as a decade ago is because the requirements for opening a DAF have become more accessible, while the technology for using them has improved greatly. Leading providers have no minimum account size required, a $20-50 minimum donation size, and even mobile apps for easy account management.  

This has rapidly shifted the population of DAF users from the ultra-high net worth making major gifts, to the full spectrum of donors that want to use their DAF for all kinds of giving moments. The 2025 DAF Fundraising Report showed that 69% of DAF gifts were below $1,000 and 2 of the 3 donor segments with the fastest increasing usage of DAFs are below $500. The average gift through DAFpay is ~$1,200 and the median is $250. 

3. A donor using their DAF is worth more to a nonprofit than just the dollars 

DAF donors are proven to make significantly larger gifts, more often, and with higher retention. Knowing they have a DAF, and having their email to steward them right after their gift, means they can turn that initial large gift into years of greater support with a deep relationship. According to Fidelity Charitable, the largest DAF provider in the world, 80% of gifts are recurring or re-occurring gifts to organizations. 

This is why organizations are so focused on “finding” new DAF donors - and why Chariot partners are so excited by the number of net-new donors or first-time DAF donors using DAFpay. The March of Dimes found that 80% of their DAFpay donors were first-time DAF donors: 50% were first time supporters and 30% were previously non-DAF donors that gave for the first time.

The long-term value of a DAF donor is something that nonprofit fundraisers understand very well, and doesn’t get captured in a single donation.  

4. DAF donors make smaller gifts outside of their DAF all of the time.

Several recent studies have demonstrated how common it is that DAF donors opt to use a credit card to give to an organization instead of their DAF. This results in a smaller gift and no knowledge that the donor has a DAF (the most promising wealth indicator possible).

The DAF Research Collaborative’s 2025 DAF Donor survey (full analysis here) found that 93% of active DAF users still make direct gifts outside their DAF, and the top reasons include: spontaneity, events, time-sensitivity, and giving to new organizations. Those are also some of the most prominent drivers of online donation form usage. 

The Giving Compass 2024 Donor Satisfaction Research (full analysis here) found that 37% of DAF donors didn’t use their DAF on their most recent gift. They highlighted a quote from one DAF donor: 

“I didn't use my donor advised fund because there are just many more steps with the donor advised funds, and frankly, I often forget that it's there. So when I'm asked in the moment to donate or if something comes up, it's so easy just to start the process and put my information, and by the time I'm finished, I have forgotten that, oh, yes, I have a donor advised fund to pull from.”

This phenomenon is summed up well by Jen Risher, co-founder of #HalfMyDAF and prolific DAF donor, during a recent interview: 

5. Digital DAF giving is what’s new, and we’re still near the beginning of the adoption curve.

DAFpay was released in January 2023, and 10s of thousands of donors have taken advantage of the payment option since then. Usage is also accelerating at a breakneck speed. In fact, since September 2024 when one platform started a “test” of DAFpay, the monthly dollar volume in DAFpay has grown by 2.75x, the monthly number of DAFpay gifts has grown 3x, and the monthly number of nonprofits supported through DAFpay has nearly doubled.  

Effectively Assessing DAFpay 

Knowing this background, here’s how partners have effectively evaluated DAFpay performance after implementation and learned what’s in the nonprofit’s best interest when it comes to digital DAF giving: 

1. Utilize DAFpay during a specific campaign, giving day or fundraising cycle 

DAFpay has shown its greatest value when a DAF donor would’ve made a credit card gift since they assume it’s easier, but are delighted to see a seamless way to pay with their DAF instead. This phenomenon is most common with “inspiration-based” giving - being prompted to donate by a match opportunity, a compelling appeal, or a time-bound effort.

2. Analyze performance on a multi-quarter time frame 

Audiences typically warm up to DAFpay after it’s introduced. This process can take a few months. However, once a DAF donor successfully uses DAFpay once, they are much more likely to seek it out in the future. This means that DAFpay usage accelerates over the first 12-24 months post-implementation. Organizations adding DAFpay now have the added benefit that DAFpay’s presence on nonprofit donation forms is increasing exponentially, so DAF donors who have used it with one organization are more likely to use it again for another.

3. Set useful goals

Knowing DAFpay is new, the most important thing to pay attention to is that DAFpay doesn’t harm conversion. If there’s no impact on conversion, and DAFpay gifts are larger than other channels, then there is no negative “cannibalization”. That means increased revenue.

4. Partners that required a test period found more meaningful results by testing on specific forms or pages, but not limiting a test to exclusively A/B style testing.

Given it’s a new payment option, some simple donor communication and engagement around the tool is helpful. With an A/B test, you can’t direct people to your form to make DAF gifts, because half the time the option won’t be there. This type of test design simply won’t capture the full potential. A/B tests are more definitive when testing well-known form features, like button placement or design choices. Due to the nature of digital DAF giving, A/B tests are not definitive on their own.

Two other issues we’ve seen occur with A/B testing are 1) that there are technical issues with how DAFpay is integrated having a material impact on outcomes yet results are treated like high quality data or 2) tests are run on a limited volume form which can’t provide meaningful results given DAF gifts aren’t as frequent, but are significantly larger, so a few 4 or 5 figure gifts can significantly change the test results.

5. Assess other metrics specifically relevant to DAF giving

As explained thus far, digital DAF giving offers other layers of value beyond initial dollars in the door. Some additional metrics to focus on while testing include: 

1. New DAF Donors: Percentage of DAFpay donors that are net-new to the organization or existing supporters that used their DAF for the first time.

2. Change in support: For any existing supporters that gave with a DAF for the first time, how did the gift size compare to their prior support? The average in our research is nearly 10x. This jump in gift size can significantly change the lifetime giving of a donor over many years of recurring gifts at the new giving level.

3. Change in offline DAF volume: Many organizations experience a sharp uptick in “offline” DAF giving once they implement DAFpay. Even for supporters who don’t convert online, DAFpay is serving as a valuable reminder to use their DAF. If they’re most comfortable taking the extra steps in their portal, that is still a net win from the visibility gained by a DAF payment option. 

4. Average gift size: While you should expect to have fewer overall DAF donations compared to credit card gifts, the average gift size will likely be substantially higher. 

5. Speed to Steward: How fast are you able to thank a DAFpay donor vs. other DAF donors?

6. Stewardship engagement: How many DAFpay users engage with your thank you emails? Michael J. Fox Foundation found that 50% sent a response to their major giving team's personalized thank-you email!   

6. Work with the experts

   
   

   1. Chariot has assisted thousands of organizations with DAF fundraising and done consistent research on nonprofits’ DAF giving data. We help partners set themselves up for success by implementing DAFpay and analyzing performance in a manner that accounts for these nuances. 

   2. Running tests specifically on DAFpay without our collaboration or involvement can lead to uninformed results, frustrated nonprofits, and, most importantly, less long-term giving from the most promising source of funds available today.

Results from DAFpay 

The most important DAFpay results that nonprofits and fundraising platforms have found include:

1. Increased fundraising outcomes by better engaging the highest growth channel for giving (learn more from CauseMatch, Susan G Komen, The B+ Foundation, and others)

2. Majority of DAFpay donors are first-time supporters or first-time DAF donors (Learn more from The March of Dimes)

3. Rapid ability to steward donors (learn more from the Michael J. Fox Foundation)

4. Drastic expansion of DAF support footprint (learn more from the Pan-Mass Challenge) 

Nonprofit References 

Don’t take our word for it, look to more of your peers! 

• Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

• American Cancer Society

• The ACLU

• The Public Theater

• Central Park

• Alzheimer’s Association

• Susan G. Komen

• American Heart Association 

• Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center 

and many, many more will tell you all about their findings. 

The context of the moment 

Remember that DAF funds are powerful for two key reasons that are most relevant in 2025:

1. Recession Concerns 

   1. DAF funds have been pre-committed to giving. There’s no ability to take funds back out of a DAF so it psychologically functions like a gift card for donations. A gift from your DAF doesn’t hit your monthly credit card bill or bank statement.

   2. That means in times of economic uncertainty, DAF donors use more of their DAF accounts to support causes they care about while other channels of giving go down. 

2. Political pressure on certain causes

   1. When a donor uses a DAF, they get a tax write off on their contribution into the DAF - not on gifts out of the DAF. That means the DAF is reporting those donations in aggregate in their filings and the individual donor is not reporting those gifts on their taxes. 

   2. This is likely to have increasing popularity as political pressure rises on organizations and their supporters not deemed to be “in-line” with the administration. 

We have the power to increase DAF giving by embedding it into every donation experience. Every organization and every donation form that adopts it will increase DAF donor familiarity, comfort and giving. It’s a rising tide for every organization and fundraising platform. 

Let’s meet this moment when the sector needs it more than ever.