Fidelity fund donors give $269M

BOSTON – The Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund says its donors gave $269 million in the first three months of 2011, the strongest first quarter in the fund’s 20-year history by incoming contributions.
The gift fund, what Fidelity says is the nation’s largest donor-advised fund program and one of the largest public charities in the country, said contributions were 25 percent higher in the first quarter compared with the year-earlier period.
Grant volumes – the number of outgoing grants – and grant dollars were also the highest the fund has experienced in a first quarter, which is typically a slower time for charitable giving. Donors recommended $293 million in outgoing grants to nonprofits nationwide, up 8 percent from the first quarter of 2010.
“Donor momentum is very strong for this point in the year,” said Sarah Libbey, president of the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund. “Many of our donors responded to the tragedy in Japan with disaster-relief and related grants, yet the level of overall activity indicates that more people are prioritizing charitable giving, making it part of their overall financial planning, and not just a year-end activity.”
The earthquake and tsunami in Japan spurred donors to provide more than 3,515 grants totaling $4.2 million as of 22 business days after the disaster, Fidelity said. For incoming contributions, the fund saw donations of appreciated securities rise to 60 percent of total contributions, up from 46 percent in 2010 and 27 percent in 2009, due in large part to the rebounding stock market. Contributions of complex assets, such as privately-held C- and S-Corp stock, limited partnership interests and certain publicly-traded stock nearly quadrupled relative to the first quarter of 2010.
“We are seeing a significant increase in donors leveraging a broader spectrum of their assets, such as restricted stock and privately held securities, for charitable purposes,” Libbey said. “This reflects continued strength in the mergers and acquisitions market, and also is a sign of more strategic charitable planning on the part of donors and their advisors.”
“This is an exciting trend, as these types of assets have powerful tax advantages and donating them to a donor-advised fund like the Gift Fund makes the process easy and typically more financially advantageous for the receiving charities.”