The number of grants and total amount of money given from donor-advised funds to charities have continued to grow, according to Fidelity Charitable, an independent public charity that operates a donor-advised fund.

The Fidelity Charitable Giving Report, which was released Monday, found that the number of grants has nearly tripled from 154,000 in 2003 to 429,000 in 2012. The number of grants in 2011 was 380,000. The report examines Fidelity donor-advised funds and giving trends.

In 2012, the grants totaled $1.6 billion, an increase of 24 percent over the prior year’s $1.3 billion. Last year the grants went to 77,000 charities from the 57,000 giving accounts held with Fidelity.

The average primary account holder is 62 years old and set up the account when he or she was 54. The mid-50s is the age when many people begin to think about planned charitable giving and legacy planning, Fidelity says. Forty percent of the donors have maintained accounts for 10 years or more and 13 percent have had the account for at least 15 years.

The report also looked at accounts established prior to 2007, and found that 22 percent of donors had made grants totaling almost the entire account balance. The remainder are still actively making grants from the funds, which have an average balance of $14,450.

The average number of grants per account was seven for 2012, with grants averaging $3,773.  Fifty-seven percent of the grants were made to organizations in the home state of the primary account holder.

By sector, religious organizations accounted for the largest proportion of grants made at 27 percent, but education attracted the largest proportion of grant dollars at 26 percent, the report shows.

The proportion of grants made to religious organizations decreases as the size of the size the account increases, Fidelity says. The proportion of grants to education, human services and health shows the opposite trend, increasing as the account size grows. Grants to the environment and to animals, arts and culture, and international affairs hold steady regardless of the size of the account.

“The flexibility of the donor-advised funds appeals to a wide range of people, but most gravitate to a DAF because of their desire to be thoughtful and systematic about their giving,” says Sarah Libbey, president of Fidelity Charitable. “This strategic approach benefits the philanthropic sector because it often means donors can support their favorite causes consistently over time.”