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DAFgiving360
DAFgiving360 launched in 1999 as the Schwab Fund for Charitable Giving, a branded donor-advised fund created by brokerage founder Charles Schwab.
DAFgiving360
DAFgiving360 launched in 1999 as the Schwab Fund for Charitable Giving, a branded donor-advised fund created by brokerage founder Charles Schwab. It reorganized and rebranded as an independent 501(c)(3) public charity in 2023, formally separating its name and governance from The Charles Schwab Corporation, though the organization retains deep operational ties: its board chair, Adele Taylor, runs workplace services for Schwab. The fund does not manage an endowment in the traditional sense — its assets are technically donor accounts awaiting grant distribution — but the volume of dollars flowing through its structure has made it a persistent presence in impact-adjacent capital conversations. The platform accepts an unusually broad range of contributed assets. In addition to cash and publicly traded securities, DAFgiving360 processes private equity and hedge fund partnership interests, restricted stock, pre-IPO shares, real estate, fine art and collectibles, cryptocurrency, and life insurance policies. The internal capacity to diligence, accept, and liquidate these complex positions functions as a de facto alternative-asset donation desk, and it is this capability — rather than any direct investing mandate — that draws donors with concentrated founder equity or carried interest. The organization does not invest for return; it invests for orderly liquidation, with proceeds flowing to donor-designated charities after the asset sale clears. In 2023 alone, DAFgiving360 distributed more than $6.3 billion in grants to over 120,000 charities (per the firm's annual communication). The organization operates from San Francisco, with Julie Sunwoo serving as President. Adele Taylor chairs the board, which also includes Dan Kingsley of SKS and Greg Avis of Bangtail Partners. A prior president, Sam Kang, served as a business partner in earlier iterations. While the team's total headcount is not publicly broken out, the nonprofit sits within the broader Schwab ecosystem, drawing operational infrastructure from a parent corporation that knows custody, recordkeeping, and order execution at national scale. In 2023, it rebranded from "Schwab Charitable" to its current name, a move that crystallized a governance separation two decades in the making. What makes DAFgiving360 structurally unusual among philanthropic entities is its hybrid posture: it is legally an independent public charity but commercially functions as a white-label philanthropic administration layer for Schwab's wealth management clients. This means its "flow" — tens of billions in assets received, held momentarily, and granted — rivals or exceeds the corpus of many better-known endowed foundations, yet the organization carries no investment performance mandate and no permanent capital base. Its balance sheet is a pass-through, and its institutional distinctiveness lies in the operational ability to intake virtually any asset class a tech founder or private-equity partner might hold, turning it into a charitable check. Whether that pipeline continues to scale under the new brand structure is the open question allocators and nonprofit observers are watching.
General information
Firm type
Endowment / Foundation
Year founded
1999
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
San Francisco
Corporate office
San Francisco, CA, United States
Principals
Julie Sunwoo
President
Adele Taylor
Board Chair; Head of Workplace Services for Charles Schwab
Charles Schwab
Founder of Schwab Charitable Fund
Frequently asked questions
Is DAFgiving360 a private foundation or a donor-advised fund sponsor?
DAFgiving360 is a donor-advised fund sponsor, organized as an independent 501(c)(3) public charity. It sponsors individual donor-advised fund accounts on behalf of donors, who receive an immediate tax deduction upon contribution and can recommend grants to IRS-qualified public charities over time. It is not a private foundation, though the scale of its grantmaking — over $6.3 billion distributed in 2023 — makes it a larger philanthropic distribution channel than most endowed foundations in the United States.
What types of non-cash assets can DAFgiving360 accept as charitable contributions?
The organization accepts a wide variety of non-cash assets, which is an operational differentiator. Eligible complex assets include private equity and hedge fund partnership interests, restricted and pre-IPO stock, real estate holdings, fine art and collectibles, cryptocurrency, and life insurance policies. The organization has an internal team dedicated to evaluating, accepting, and liquidating these assets, with the liquidation proceeds credited to the donor's advised account for subsequent grantmaking.
How is DAFgiving360 related to Charles Schwab & Co.?
DAFgiving360 was founded under the Schwab brokerage umbrella in 1999 and operated for over two decades as Schwab Charitable. In 2023 it rebranded and corporate records show it is now an independent public charity with its own board, though the operational relationship with Schwab remains deep. Adele Taylor, the DAFgiving360 board chair, is also the Head of Workplace Services for The Charles Schwab Corporation. The donor-advised fund platform continues to be closely integrated with Schwab's brokerage and custody infrastructure.
Does DAFgiving360 engage in impact investing or accept program-related investment capital?
DAFgiving360 is a grantmaking pass-through, not an investment entity. Its function is to receive contributed assets, liquidate them, and distribute the proceeds as charitable grants. Donor-advised funds generally do allow donors to recommend that their account balances be invested in a curated menu of investment pools while awaiting distribution, but the organization itself does not run a portfolio of program-related investments or hold an endowment. Its posture is administrative and custodial, not investment-managerial.
Who runs investment decisions at DAFgiving360?
DAFgiving360 does not have a CIO or investment staff in the conventional endowment sense because it is not investing an institutional pool of permanent capital. The organization oversees a series of donor-facing investment pools that individual donor-advised fund accounts can allocate to, and those pools are typically managed through agreements with third-party asset managers. Leadership for the organization sits with President Julie Sunwoo and the board chaired by Adele Taylor; investment governance of the pool lineup reports through that structure.
How large is DAFgiving360's grantmaking operation, and where does the capital go?
Per its 2023 annual communication, DAFgiving360 distributed more than $6.3 billion in a single year, directed to over 120,000 distinct qualified charities. Cumulative grant distributions since the fund's 1999 inception have exceeded $37 billion (per the firm's 2023 annual report). The organization does not direct grantmaking by program area — individual donors recommend grants from their advised accounts — so the recipient list spans the full breadth of the US nonprofit sector.
How is the board of DAFgiving360 structured, and who sits on it?
The board is chaired by Adele Taylor, who concurrently serves as Head of Workplace Services for Charles Schwab. Other board members include Dan Kingsley, a managing partner of SKS, and Greg Avis, managing partner of Bangtail Partners. The governance structure is designed to maintain independent charitable oversight while preserving the operational knowledge that comes from Schwab-adjacent leadership, a bridge created by the 2023 rebranding.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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