Giving With Fidelity Charitable Donor-Advised Funds Rose 27 Percent in First 9 Months of 2014

Grants Get to Charities Faster

Charities can now choose to receive grants from Fidelity Charitable via electronic funds transfer within 24 hours instead of receiving grants through the mail. The more than 550 charities that have signed up benefit from faster delivery of grant money, which allows them to acknowledge Fidelity Charitable donors more quickly. Charities also spend less time and fewer resources on processing and depositing checks.

"Moving to electronic funds transfer through Fidelity Charitable is a win-win for our donors and the Red Cross," said Neal Litvack, chief development officer at the American Red Cross. "Electronic funds transfer provides our donors with an efficient way to give, enables the Red Cross to quickly receive and acknowledge donations, and lowers our costs for processing donations."

Additionally, Fidelity Charitable has streamlined the online grant recommendation process to reduce the time and effort required for donors making repeat grant recommendations to multiple charities. On average, donors recommend eight grants a year from their donor-advised fund and over 75 percent of donors have recommended multiple grants to a charity. The new donor experience will become available on November 8.

"As grant levels rise, we continue to leverage technology to best support the charities that receive grant money and simplify the recommendation process for donors," said Danforth. "Applying technology to philanthropy is one way we accomplish our mission to make charitable giving simple and effective."