Philanthropists at Schwab Charitable and Fidelity Charitable opened their pocketbooks wider this year, both donor-advised funds announced Wednesday.

Schwab Charitable donations were up 30 percent in fiscal 2015 from 2014, says Schwab.

Likewise, Fidelity Charitable reports a 32 percent increase in its fiscal year giving and a 33 increase for the first six months of 2015 over the same period last year.

Both organizations saw numerous grants going toward relief efforts for earthquake victims in Nepal, and Fidelity Charitable released new giving guidelines for the recovery efforts.

Schwab Charitable, announcing fiscal 2015 results, reported a historic high of $1.06 billion in grants to charities. This represents a 30 percent increase over the previous fiscal year, which is more than four times the rate of increase in total giving in the U.S. in 2014, Schwab says.

Schwab Charitable donors gave to more than 42,000 organizations, and the largest number of grants focused on health and human services, religion and education. More than $2 million went to relief efforts in Nepal. These donations helped organizations like Doctors Without Borders, the American Red Cross and Oxfam deliver things such as critical medical care, temporary shelter, food and clothing.

In fiscal 2015, 68 percent of contributions into Schwab Charitable donor-advised fund accounts were appreciated investments or assets. These included publicly traded and restricted stock, real estate and interests in private businesses, private equity, venture capital funds and hedge funds.

Fidelity Charitable, announcing its six-month giving results, saw a 33 percent increase for the first half of the year over the same period last year.

The donor-advised fund made 310,000 donor-recommended grants totaling nearly $1.5 billion to charities in the first six months of 2015.

During the first half of 2015, grants recommended by Fidelity Charitable donors supported 69,000 charities, including nonprofits in all 50 states and some international charities; recommended grants ranging from $50 to many millions of dollars, with an average grant size of $4,700; and made 166 grants of $1 million or more, totaling $329 million, a 60 percent increase in grants of that size over the first half of 2014.

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