Fidelity Charitable, a donor-advised-fund sponsor, distributed nearly $1.1 billion in donor-recommended grants to charities during the first six months of this year, a record.
This was a 19% increase over the same period last year, Fidelity Charitable reported this week.
For the 2014 fiscal year, ended June 30, Fidelity distributed some $2.3 billion in grants on behalf of its account holders, a 23% increase from the previous year.
Fidelity said first-half grants supported more than 59,000 nonprofits in all 50 states as well as some international charities.
Donors contributed to a wide variety of charitable sectors, with human services, religion and education taking the largest share of grant volume and dollars.
Grants ranged from a modest $50 to millions of dollars. The average grant size was $4,330.
One hundred ten grants of $1 million or more recommended by donors totaled $241 million.
Fidelity said clients contributed $3.9 billion to their DAF accounts during the just-ended fiscal year, an 8% increase over the year before.
During the first half of 2014, they contributed some $1.2 billion, a 33% increase over last year's first half.
