6. Discuss who the successor advisor(s) should be to the account if it is to continue, and perhaps at what age their younger children should be named the successor advisor.

7. Determine how much they should grant to various charities from the DAF account and whether they should schedule repeated grants in advance.

8. Evaluate how much they should contribute to their donor-advised fund account every year and in the future. Identify additional assets that should be donated in the future and whether illiquid assets like company stock, farmland, real estate or insurance should be considered. Their financial advisor and CPA should be consulted in this conversation.

9. Discuss how the advisors should invest the assets in the DAF account. If a client set up a DAF account on their own, determine how their advisor can manage these assets.

10. Discuss whether they want to visit with the leadership of the charities they support (if their grants are significant enough), conduct a site visit, or volunteer, and decide how to evaluate whether they want to continue to support these organizations in the future.

11. Determine in which situations they want to make grants publicly or anonymously.

12. Consider how formal a process they wish to utilize when determining where to give and who will be involved, whether it will be unstructured or whether to have governance that is often utilized within private foundations.

Should clients need additional guidance or if they are reluctant to discuss these matters by themselves or with their professional advisors, they may want to engage the services of a philanthropic advisory firm. These independent firms do not provide financial, legal or tax advice, and often work with donors who are beginning their charitable journey or with those who need or want to change direction.

Because many publications and experts at the end of December informed their readers about the benefits of setting up DAF accounts, many clients probably established them on their own without consulting their advisors. This would be an excellent time to contact clients to see if this may be the case. DAF accounts are usually portable, and because clients want their advisors to be able to manage the assets in their DAF accounts, now would be the time for advisors to bring these accounts under their control, especially because clients will often continue to donate to their accounts and increase their size. Because AEF allows advisors to manage the DAF assets in their clients’ accounts at any amount, over $50 million in DAF accounts were transferred to AEF in 2016.

There will always be a charitable giving year-end rush, but there are simple steps that will smooth out the giving timetable. Rather than wait until autumn, look at the clients’ previous year-end requests and activity now, and talk with them to explain the benefits of giving earlier this year. Touch base with them again in summer, and if they have not given by then, establish a date after Labor Day (and far before December!) to determine and schedule additional gifts and grants.