DAF Day is a national giving day held every second Thursday in October. It’s a day that is dedicated to donor-advised fund philanthropy and an opportunity for DAF holders to amplify their impact by giving together to the causes they care about and encouraging others to do the same.

DAF Day is a movement for greater DAF giving. The most powerful way to participate is to have a DAF and use it as a collective to strengthen the missions most meaningful to you. Many DAFs have no minimum account size and minimum gift sizes are as low as $18. Check out our “Get a DAF” guide to learn more about picking the right DAF for you.
Note: Especially if you’re a nonprofit fundraiser, having a DAF yourself is the best way to understand how they work and effectively engage with your donors on the topic of DAF giving. Learn more about how & why it helps here.

Visit the DAF Day giving page to see a list of nonprofits who have verified their accounts on Chariot, and visit their preferred DAF giving website links to donate directly. Chariot runs an industry-leading compliance program that goes beyond basic EIN lookups to confirm the organization, its banking details, and the person representing it are all legitimate. And because Chariot monitors that on an ongoing basis, you can trust your grant reaches exactly where you intended.

Not at all. According to the DAF Fundraising Report by Chariot and K2D Strategies, 67% of DAF gifts are under $1,000. DAF Day is for every DAF holder at every giving level.

There's no sign-up required, but we recommend the two following steps to make the most out of the initiative:

No. There is no cost to participate, and no cost to claim your Chariot account or use the marketing toolkit. If you receive a gift from a DAF that utilizes Chariot Disbursements for grant payments, you can transfer those funds to an external financial account once a week at no cost. Additional transfers may be subject to fees.

If donors utilize DAFpay to support your organization, and you don’t have a Chariot subscription, transaction fees do apply, which are typically in-line with the credit card processing fees on the platform where DAFpay is present.

Only organizations that have claimed their Chariot account and completed their compliance verification will appear as verified nonprofits with their logo and preferred DAF donation link visible on the DAF Day Giving page.

Claim your Chariot account and complete Chariot's compliance verification. You may refer to Chariot’s Onboarding Guide for more info on what you’ll need to complete the process.

Once verified, your organization will automatically appear on the giving page.

The earlier, the better. Our virtual kickoff event is in June, and will include the release of our marketing toolkit to take you from first announcement through post-event follow-up.

Email templates, social media graphics and copy, donor messaging guides, a DAFpay placement guide, and more — all ready to customize and use.

There is no central, designated event for DAF Day, but you are welcome to engage your donors and community however you see fit!

No, you can participate in DAF Day in any way that suits your organization. However, if you claim your Chariot account you will be listed on the DAF Day Giving page where you can direct your donors to your preferred DAF giving link.To access DAFpay, you can check if your fundraising platform has a DAFpay integration or consider purchasing a subscription on Chariot. Paid subscriptions start at $395/month and will allow you to add a DAFpay button directly to your donation form.For Growth Plan subscriptions, an additional transaction fee of 2.9% applies.For enterprise subscriptions, you may eliminate the percentage transaction fees by pre-purchasing donation volume. Get in touch with Chariot’s team to learn which solution may be best for you.

You can still absolutely encourage your supporters to use DAFs (or an equivalent vehicle in your country) and give from them on DAF Day. However, the DAFpay checkout option is only available for US DAFs and nonprofits.

You are welcome to leverage the toolkit, but be mindful of references that are US-specific that you’ll want to edit.

No. DAF Day participation is completely free for all DAF providers.

No. You don’t need to be a Chariot customer. Any DAF provider can participate using the free toolkit.

Promote DAF Day to your fundholders and share results confidentially with Chariot to aggregate and report on the anonymized results of the initiative (e.g. total grants, dollars, and active accounts).

You’ll be listed as an official DAF Day partner, receive turnkey assets to minimize lift, and gain visibility across DAF Day communications.

Download the marketing toolkit for DAF providers to access helpful email outreach, social media, website, and other marketing templates to help you easily get started.If you’re interested in learning more about Chariot’s Disbursements solution for fast, secure electronic payments, get in touch with Chariot’s team here.

DAFpay is the express checkout option for DAFs that can be added to any eligible donation form. DAFpay allows DAF holders to donate with their DAF account in a few clicks, right when they are most inspired to give.

DAFpay also allows donors to share their contact details with a nonprofit, so they know the moment a gift is initiated, can include in campaigns in real-time, and send thank you emails immediately.

Chariot Deposit Accounts are bank accounts provided by Column N.A., Member FDIC that are owned by a nonprofit to receive donations electronically. Learn more here.