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How can you find out more about the specific investments that Charityvest will be making? Our definition of highly liquid and "safe" might be different :) Also

by sna1l 6y ago

How can you find out more about the specific investments that Charityvest will be making? Our definition of highly liquid and "safe" might be different :) Also, is there something inherent about Schwab/Fidelity/etc charitable index funds that make the fee load so high? If you could offer this at a lower rate, that would definitely interest me as well. I actually just signed up for a Schwab DAF, so am certainly interested in learning more.

Leonidas243 6y ago
Today we only invest in money markets. Asset preservation is our top priority, and we can't ever have balances down in our app. That would be a terrible experience for our donors. So we'll only move beyond money markets with great caution. Our platform automates so much of the aspects of processing charitable gifts, even a small financial return is gross margin profitable for us. It's worth noting, we offer a free DAF because we don't offer an investment capability for our donors today. Our DAFs currently function like checking accounts. The investing we do of charitable assets is invisible to our users. For any donor who doesn't think their charitable assets will sit for years before being sent to charity, we're a great option for making giving much easier.
- sna1l 6y ago
  Awesome! One thing that would be nice would be some fixed-income related products. My goal is to build a decent principal amount and then use the interest/dividends to continuously donate, but this might be a minority strategy.
elliekelly 6y ago
> Also, is there something inherent about Schwab/Fidelity/etc charitable index funds that make the fee load so high? Yes, the difference is whether the account holder thinks the fees are reasonable. You might think you’re the account holder because advisers go through a lot of effort to make DAF clients feel like they still “have” the funds in the account. But you aren’t the account holder, Schwab is, and Schwab finds the high fees charged by Schwab’s charitable index funds to be perfectly reasonable. The money in “your” DAF isn’t yours.

by sna1l 6y ago

Leonidas243 6y ago

Today we only invest in money markets. Asset preservation is our top priority, and we can't ever have balances down in our app. That would be a terrible experience for our donors. So we'll only move beyond money markets with great caution. Our platform automates so much of the aspects of processing charitable gifts, even a small financial return is gross margin profitable for us. It's worth noting, we offer a free DAF because we don't offer an investment capability for our donors today. Our DAFs currently function like checking accounts. The investing we do of charitable assets is invisible to our users. For any donor who doesn't think their charitable assets will sit for years before being sent to charity, we're a great option for making giving much easier.

sna1l 6y ago
Awesome! One thing that would be nice would be some fixed-income related products. My goal is to build a decent principal amount and then use the interest/dividends to continuously donate, but this might be a minority strategy.

elliekelly 6y ago

> Also, is there something inherent about Schwab/Fidelity/etc charitable index funds that make the fee load so high? Yes, the difference is whether the account holder thinks the fees are reasonable. You might think you’re the account holder because advisers go through a lot of effort to make DAF clients feel like they still “have” the funds in the account. But you aren’t the account holder, Schwab is, and Schwab finds the high fees charged by Schwab’s charitable index funds to be perfectly reasonable. The money in “your” DAF isn’t yours.