2019 was a very good year for Fidelity Charitable, the nation's largest donor-advised fund.
A total $7.3 billion was distributed in grants by donors, almost 40% more than the $5.2 billion disbursed in 2018, the previous record year, according to Fidelity's 2020 Giving Report.
The recipients were 155,000 unique charities and the top three, in terms of donation size, were, in descending order, Doctors Without Borders USA, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and The Salvation Army followed by the American National Red Cross and Planned Parenthood Federation of America. A small but growing portion of grants, nearly $39 million, went to impact-investing nonprofits — 2.5 times the amount of five years ago.
The average grant size was $4,358, and 60% of donors designated that the receiving nonprofit use the money where it was needed most.
For millennials, who account for about 13% of Fidelity Charitable accounts opened in 2019 but only about 8% of the DAF's distributions, the top three recipients were in descending order Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union and Wikimedia Foundation, which funds Wikipedia and affiliated organizations, followed by Doctors Without Borders USA and the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES).
