"Making money has always been easier for Mr. Ellison than giving it away. In the past, Mr. Ellison has often announced sweeping charitable plans — then changed his mind or fired the people he hired to execute them." www.nytimes.com/2025/08/12/b...

NEW: In 2010, 57 billionaires pledged to give away at least half of their wealth. In the 15 years since, 32 of them have instead collectively grown 283% wealthier. “We must enact measures to ensure more donations actually reach working charities,” says IPS scholar @bdevaan.bsky.social:

NEW: Hundreds of rich people have signed the Giving Pledge to donate half of their wealth. 15 years on, their lack of progress shows our critical need to fix philanthropy — and tax them more. REPORT by @chuck77.bsky.social, @bdevaan.bsky.social, @helenofips.bsky.social and @dpetegorsky.bsky.social:

NEW: Private foundations and donor-advised funds (DAFs) steward some $1.7 trillion in assets. As nonprofits lose funding, many are hoarding this wealth — but some are stepping up. IPS @inequality.org scholars @bdevaan.bsky.social and @chuck77.bsky.social in @npquarterly.bsky.social:

New Study Shines a Light on the Impact of Donor-Advised Funds nonprofitquarterly.org/new-study-sh... @chuck77.bsky.social‬ @helenofips.bsky.social‬ @ips-dc.org #nonprofits

It's out! The 1st-ever independent rep't on donor-advised funds, w. REAL percentages for what goes out in grants (not much) & the REAL average size of individual DAFs (huge!). Well done, @chuckcollins.bsky.social @helenofips.bsky.social Dan Petegorsky & Bella DeVaan! inequality.org/article/the-...

Excited to share our Charity Reform Initiative's first Independent Report on DAFs! @chuck77.bsky.social @helenofips.bsky.social @dpetegorsky.bsky.social and I seek to shed a little more light on the flow of these tax-benefited billions... @ips-dc.org @inequality.org inequality.org/article/the-...

NEW: Thirty years ago, donor-advised funds (DAFs) were obscure giving vehicles. Today, they’re central in U.S. charitable giving, and many are tied to giant wealth management firms. Our @inequality.org team looked at impacts on giving, fair taxation, and democracy itself. KEY FINDINGS: 🧵

Terry was scammed out of most of his savings and was supposed to get his money back—until Donald Trump and Elon Musk gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Part one:

The stakes of the 2025 tax fight couldn’t be higher. Republicans want to give massive tax breaks to billionaires by jacking up costs on hardworking families. We’re the campaign that’s going to stop them 🧵

had some thoughts on this talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/sprin...

It might seem obvious now, but maybe having a prominent donor-advised fund (DAF) sponsor be the authoritative voice on DAF trends was a mistake. inequality.org/article/daf-...

"Philanthropic cakeism" is changing how the wealthy give www.axios.com/2024/12/16/p...

The NYT just found that Musk’s charity has been shirking it’s responsibility to the tune of 400 million. He is not alone. Read @michaelmechanic.bsky.social’s investigation into the widespread practice from earlier this year.

Trump transition team wants to scrap crash reporting requirement opposed by Elon Musk's automaker, Tesla. www.cnbc.com/2024/12/13/t... via CNBC by Reuters Jarrett Renshaw, Rachael Levy and Chris Kirkham

You get tax benefits for putting your money in a foundation but then you have to actually give your money away. Musk is taking advantage of the tax benefits while not giving away his money This year he’s $421 million short of the minimum

Right now, $1.7 trillion in donations is sitting in private foundations and DAFs — money that's needed by working charities. Popular philanthropy reforms could get this money flowing to nonprofits faster. IPS @inequality.bsky.social scholars Chuck Collins and @bdevaan.bsky.social: #nonprofitsky

Also, if anyone is curious whether this is just a few rich families, our soon-to-be public working paper finds that a plausible estimate is that ~8% to 9% of *all U.S. wealth* is inside trusts held by the super-rich that will never, ever pay estate or gift tax.

...and here's how one of them is avoiding $8 billion [sic] in taxes. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/05/b...

Benevity donations increased by 14%, while giving to donor-advised funds at community foundations and affiliates of Vanguard, Fidelity and Schwab dropped 22% last year. “[D]onations by rank and file workers aren’t usually driven by tax considerations.” www.forbes.com/sites/mariag...

It’s Dark Money-Giving Tuesday! "A group of Wall Street-backed charity funds fueling the dark-money takeover of American politics is set to help collect half of all individual charitable donations within the next three years." @thelever.bsky.social @countingcharity.bsky.social @ips-dc.bsky.social 🤝

"Those seeking to curry favor with the incoming Trump administration, including foreign nationals, now have the opportunity to donate to its transition effort without their names or potential conflicts becoming public."

Donor-advised funds aren’t like other charities—their funding is much more tax subsidized. Here’s a summary of some recent work with @helenofips.bsky.social

Great timing, given the extraordinary amount of money the crypto industry poured into the election and the unprecedented influence they'll have in the new administration.

I'm super psyched to have a working paper I did with @countingcharity.bsky.social featured on this Sunday's episode of the Taxes for the Masses podcast. Check it out if you're up for some high-quality nerding out about charity, tax deductions, #DAFs, politics, and dark money. 🤝

You want to make dark money darker? Schwab is in the game. How One Donor-Advised Fund Helps Leonard Leo Weaponize Philanthropy - via @inequalityorg inequality.org/great-divide...

NEW: Wealthy donors are receiving enormous, publicly-subsidized tax benefits for funding charities that actively work to spread #climate disinformation. 🔧🌏 Findings from our team and @ips-dc.bsky.social expose how this works: www.climatecriminals.org/fossilfuelph... #greensky

An emerging donor-advised fund payment processing firm called Chariot is advertising itself as a frictionless one-click philanthropy aid. Users should hold their horses, until we better understand fee structures + privacy concerns. More here: inequality.org/great-divide...

The Surprising Group Pushing the Super-Rich to Donate Faster. www.thedailybeast.com/philanthropi...

A new Ipsos poll shows "surprising cross-partisan consensus" that we need to change philanthropy to benefit charities, not the 1%. In other words: if we can't agree on anything else, we can agree that donor-advised funds need a payout requirement. 🤝 @ips-dc.bsky.social inequality.org/research/cha...

Donor-advised funds, or DAFs, are cheaper, more anonymous, and more tax-advantaged than foundations, while still giving their donors power over grants. So at @inequality.bsky.social we wondered: are a lot of US foundations being converted to DAFs? Our results here: inequality.org/great-divide...

Ranting Billionaire Makes Unwitting Case for Charity Reform Like a blind squirrel finding a nut, Bill Ackman’s antics reveal a huge flaw in donor-advised fund regulation. inequality.org/great-divide...

@helenofips.bsky.social: "One of the biggest problems with philanthropy we see nowadays is that a lot of what wealthy donors do with their charity is perfectly legal but ethically problematic." apnews.com/article/sdg-...

"A quarter-trillion dollars sitting in 'charitable' investment accounts is a tragic waste and won’t do a damned thing to fix anything." Nonprofitsky blogger Al Cantor pulls no punches about the parties that have an interest in blocking DAF reform: www.alancantorconsulting.com/2023/10/the-...

ICYMI nonprofitsky: a great panel discussion on philanthropy yesterday hosted by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, with Chuck Collins, Jan Masaoka, & Craig Kennedy, among others. Gratifying to see political left and right united for charity reform. Recording up at: www.philanthropy.com/events/virtu...