Boston-based Fidelity Charitable has announced that its donor-advised funds (DAFs) awarded $11.2 billion in grants in 2022, nearly $1 billion more than in 2021—a 9 percent year-over-year increase.

According to its 2023 Giving Report (24 pages, PDF), donors recommended 2.2 million grants to 189,000 charities that operate at local, national, and international levels. The report also found that 63 percent of donor grant recommendations were designated “where needed most,” giving nonprofits the flexibility to apply funds to their most mission-critical priorities, whish was particularly valuable in a time when nonprofits might need to shift resources based on rising costs.

Donors also used their Fidelity Charitable DAFs to focus on emerging situations in the United States and abroad. For example, Fidelity Charitable donors responded to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine by recommending hundreds of millions in grant dollars to provide aid, moving several charities into the top 20 most popular for 2022. The report also found consistency in donor habits, with 77 percent of grants in 2022 going to nonprofits donors previously supported.

“Despite volatile market conditions and economic unknowns, Fidelity Charitable donors stepped forward to bolster the critical work of nonprofits in our communities, recommending almost $1 billion more to charities than in the prior year,” said Fidelity Charitable president Jacob Pruitt. “The upward trend demonstrates how [DAFs] make it possible for donors to maintain giving over time—even in moments of crisis or during market downturns when nonprofits are particularly vulnerable and need steady streams of revenue that they can count on.”

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