The One-Hour Action Workshop on Raising Money from Donor-Advised Funds
A live Zoom workshop for nonprofit fundraisers who are ready to find and successfully engage DAF donors… starting today!
Wednesday, September 30, 2026 | 1:00 – 2:00 PM Eastern (10:00 – 11:00 AM Pacific) | Live on Zoom
$57
Register Now for the September 30th Workshop
Recording and all bonus materials included for every registrant.
Let’s start with the numbers.
Right now there are more than 3.5 million donor-advised fund accounts in the United States, and together they hold $326 billion that has already been set aside for charity. In 2024 alone, those accounts sent a record $65 billion to nonprofits. That figure has more than doubled in five years, and it is still climbing.
And yet most nonprofits have never asked a single donor for a DAF gift. They don’t mention DAFs in their appeals. They don’t give donors a way to give from a DAF on their website. They don’t know which of their current donors already have one. When a DAF check shows up in the mail, it gets deposited, someone says “huh, that’s nice,” and there’s no special follow-up protocol.
DAFs represent a huge opportunity for your nonprofit, and I want to help you go get your share. In one hour, you’ll get a plan for finding the DAF donors already in your orbit, asking them the right way, and getting those gifts flowing to your organization, starting this month.
New to DAFs? Here’s the quick version of what they are: A donor-advised fund is a charitable giving account. A donor puts money or appreciated stock into the account, takes the tax deduction right away, and then recommends grants from the account to nonprofits over time. Sponsors like Fidelity Charitable, Schwab Charitable, Vanguard Charitable, and local community foundations hold the money and send the checks. On your end, a DAF gift usually arrives as a check or electronic payment from the sponsor, made at the recommendation of your donor. That’s it. There is nothing about the structure that stops you from asking for a DAF gift.
The Myths That Keep Nonprofits From Asking
Over the years I’ve heard every reason a nonprofit can’t go after DAF gifts. Here are a few of the things I have heard fundraisers erroneously say: You aren’t allowed to solicit a DAF donor. DAF donors are all anonymous. DAFs are only for wealthy donors who give to big universities and hospitals. You need special software. It’s a paperwork headache that isn’t worth the trouble.
Almost none of that is true, and the numbers prove it. Fidelity Charitable reports that 95% of the DAF grants its donors recommended last year included the donor’s name, so you know exactly who to thank and who to ask again. And a study from the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy found that nonprofits that explicitly asked for DAF gifts received them at an 87% rate, compared to 42% of nonprofits that didn’t ask.
In other words, asking roughly doubles your odds. This workshop is built around showing you how to do exactly that.
Here’s What You’ll Get Done in One Hour
This is not a technical seminar about tax law, and it is not an hour of slides about the history of donor-advised funds. It is an action-packed working session built around the three things that actually produce DAF gifts:
Find the donors. Most organizations already have DAF donors in their database and don’t know it. I’ll show you how to spot them in your existing gift records in a single afternoon, the one question to add to every donor conversation from now on, and where to look for DAF donors beyond your own list.
Make the ask. DAF donors respond to a specific kind of ask, and it isn’t the one in your standard appeal letter. You’ll learn the language that works, how to bring up a DAF without making the conversation awkward, and how to time your asks around DAF Day (October 8th) and year-end giving so you reach donors while they’re deciding where their grants will go.
Raise the money. We’ll make sure your organization is actually ready to receive DAF gifts (most aren’t, and the fixes are small), and then we’ll build your 30-day plan so you leave knowing exactly what to do this week, next week, and before the year-end rush.
You’ll Leave With a Plan, Not Just Notes
Before the workshop, every registrant receives a one-page DAF Game Plan worksheet. We’ll fill it in together as we go, so by the end of the hour you’ll have your sponsor search list, your first asks, your website and thank-you fixes, and your 30-day to-do list written down in one place.
You don’t need to bring anything, and there is nothing to share or upload. Your donor information stays with you. The worksheet is for your eyes only, you’ll fill it in from what you already know about your own organization, and the actual search of your records happens on your own time afterward.
By the time we finish, you’ll know how to spot the DAF donors to approach first, exactly what to say when you approach them, and the handful of fixes your website and thank-you process need before those gifts arrive. You’ll be ready to go a full week before DAF Day and two months ahead of the year-end giving season, when the largest share of DAF grants goes out.
What You Walk Away With
Every registrant receives:
✓ The DAF-Ready Checklist, a one-page checklist to get your website, donor database, and acknowledgment process ready for DAF gifts in a single afternoon.
✓ The DAF Donor Finder, a worksheet for spotting likely DAF donors in your existing records and network, including the sponsor names to search for in your past gifts.
✓ The DAF Ask Kit, copy-and-paste email, letter, website, and conversation language for asking for DAF grants, including DAF Day and year-end versions.
✓ Full Workshop Recording, so if you can’t make it live or have a scheduling conflict, register anyway. You’ll get the complete recording to watch (or rewatch) on your own time.
Who This Workshop Is For
This workshop is built for executive directors, development directors, fundraising staff, and board members at small and mid-sized nonprofits. Schools, social service agencies, arts organizations, health and human services, faith-based ministries, advocacy groups, and civic organizations all have DAF donors, and this plan works for every one of them. Specifically, it’s for you if:
- You’ve received a DAF gift or two and wondered how many more of your donors have one of these
- You’ve never asked for a DAF gift because you weren’t sure how to do it
- Your donation page says nothing about DAFs
- You want your year-end campaign to reach donors where the money already is
- You’d rather learn this from a working fundraiser than from a financial institution’s brochure
You don’t need special software, a planned giving program, or a finance background. If you can run a report from your donor database (or open a spreadsheet of your past gifts), you have everything you need to put this plan to work.
Your Workshop Leader
Joe Garecht is the founder of Garecht Fundraising Associates, where he works hands-on with nonprofits across the country to build major donor, annual fund, and campaign programs. Over 25 years in fundraising, he has trained more than 50,000 fundraisers and has watched DAFs grow from a footnote into one of the fastest-growing sources of charitable dollars in the country. He built this workshop because he keeps seeing the same pattern in organization after organization: DAF gifts arriving from donors nobody asked, and no plan for finding the rest.
100% Money-Back Guarantee
I want you to feel completely confident registering for this workshop. If you attend the workshop or watch the recording and don’t find it valuable, just email me and I’ll refund your registration in full. No questions asked. No hoops to jump through.
I’m offering this guarantee because I know this works. The money is there, the donors are already giving, and the organizations that ask are the ones receiving it. One hour and $57 is a small price to become one of them.
Workshop Details
Date: Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Time: 1:00 – 2:00 PM Eastern (10:00 – 11:00 AM Pacific)
Format: Live on Zoom (your link will be emailed to you before the workshop)
Recording: Included for all registrants
Bonuses: The DAF-Ready Checklist, The DAF Donor Finder, and The DAF Ask Kit
Investment: $57
$57
Register Now for the September 30th Workshop
Recording and all bonus materials included for every registrant.
Frequently Asked Questions
I’m still a little fuzzy on what a DAF is. Is this workshop over my head?
Not at all. We’ll cover what you need to know about how DAFs work in the first few minutes, in plain English, and then spend the rest of the hour on raising money. If you can explain a checking account, you can explain a DAF by the end of the workshop.
Isn’t this only for large nonprofits with planned giving departments?
No. The median DAF account at Fidelity Charitable holds about $28,000, and the average grant is about $5,800. These are annual-fund-sized gifts from regular, generous donors, exactly the people already on your list. Small and mid-sized organizations are the ones with the most to gain here, because so few of them are asking.
Do we need special software or a DAF widget on our website?
No. A few tools can make things easier, and I’ll point out the free and low-cost options, but everything in this workshop can be done with your existing donor database, your existing website, and email.
Will you cover the tax and legal rules?
Only the handful of things a fundraiser needs to know, like what a DAF donor can and can’t receive in return and how to acknowledge a DAF gift correctly. That takes a few minutes. This is a fundraising workshop, not a seminar on tax law (and I’m a fundraiser, not a lawyer or accountant).
What if I can’t make it live on September 30th?
Register anyway. Every registrant gets the full workshop recording within 48 hours, along with all three bonus items, so you can watch on your own time and still be ready before year-end.
How do I get the Zoom link?
After you register, you’ll land on a confirmation page, and I’ll email your Zoom link before the workshop. If you don’t see it by the morning of September 30th, check your spam folder and then email me.
What’s your refund policy?
If you attend the workshop or watch the recording and don’t find it valuable, email me for a full refund. No questions asked.
Ready to Start Raising Money
from Donor-Advised Funds?
Join me on September 30th for this action-packed webinar. One hour later, you’ll have your DAF Game Plan in hand!
$57
Register Now for the September 30th Workshop
Recording and all bonus materials included for every registrant.
Questions? Email joe@garecht.com
