The mechanism
What one press sets in motion.
The press takes about ninety seconds. Behind it sits the full apparatus — purpose review, diligence, structuring, reporting — running as carefully as it always has, with each stage owned by a named party. Here is every stage, and who is responsible at each.
From the press to the deployment, and back again
- PressChoose an amount on a listing and press. About ninety seconds.
- Your DAF provider sends the grantDAFpay hands the recommendation to your provider with the fund already designated.
- The fund's sponsor structures itCharitable-purpose review, diligence, administrative verification.
- The fund deploysOn terms built around the project, not around a return target.
- It comes backRecovered capital re-enters the pool. It never leaves charitable status.
Step by step
Five stages, and who is responsible at each.
DAF Impact appears in exactly one of these stages. Everywhere else, the parties responsible are the ones named on the listing.
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You pick a fund and an amount
In the directory, or by building an allocation across several funds and setting the amounts at the end. Nothing is committed at this stage — an allocation lives in your browser until you send it, and is not visible to anyone, including us.
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Your DAF provider receives the recommendation
DAFpay connects to your provider — Fidelity Charitable, Schwab Charitable, Movement Strategy Center, a community foundation — and submits a grant recommendation with the receiving fund designated on it. You approve it inside your own provider's system, under their rules. We never touch your account and never hold your assets.
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The receiving sponsor accepts and structures it
Each listed fund names the sponsor that holds it. They confirm charitable purpose, complete diligence on the intended deployment, and carry out final administrative verification. This is the stage that determines whether and how capital actually moves, and it is not ours.
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The fund deploys
With the instrument the project's stage calls for: a grant where a grant is right, a recoverable grant where there is real prospect of return but no business case for an obligation, a below-market loan, or equity structured to preserve community ownership rather than to exit.
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Recovered capital is redeployed
On the recoverable listings, capital that returns re-enters the pool. It cannot be distributed back to you — it was charitable the moment your provider accepted the grant, and it stays that way. What you get back is the next deployment, not the money.
The fine print, in plain terms
What you are actually agreeing to.
- What it is
- A grant recommendation from your donor-advised fund or foundation to a listed fund's sponsoring charity. It is not an investment, not a security, and not a transfer of assets to DAF Impact.
- Irrevocability
- Once your provider accepts and disburses the grant, the capital is the receiving charity's. You cannot recall it, and you receive nothing back.
- Who holds it
- Whichever provider the listing says it is held at. Never dafimpact.org — DAF Impact lists and routes, and does not custody.
- Risk on recoverable capital
- Recoverable grants, loans and equity carry a real risk of non-return. That risk sits with the fund, not with you: you already gave the money away. But it does mean the pool may refill more slowly than projected, or not at all.
- Tax treatment
- You already took your deduction when you funded your DAF. A grant out of it generates no further deduction. Nothing here is tax advice — ask your own adviser.
- Reporting
- Comes from the fund you contributed to, on its own cadence, as stated on its listing. DAF Impact does not aggregate it into a single statement.
Two ways in, depending on how ready you are.
If you know where you want capital to land, press the button on that fund and your DAF provider takes it from there. If you would rather spread it, build an allocation across several funds and send the whole thing at once.