One of the major benefits of giving through Daffy, the Donor-Advised Fund for You™, is the ability to easily contribute low-cost-basis securities and distribute the value to nearly any legal charity in the U.S. with just a few taps. Since our launch, we’ve facilitated thousands of securities contributions, ranging from our largest single contribution of $12 million to a median stock contribution of $7,299.
As a result, it’s not surprising that since we launched we’ve received numerous member requests to partner with modern advisory and investment platforms. While traditional financial advisors have partnered with donor-advised funds for years, newer platforms haven’t offered this option—primarily due to the lack of easily integrable solutions.
At Daffy, we see an opportunity to be that solution. With our mission of helping people be more generous, more often, we envision a world in which every financial application, every financial advisor, every accountant, every workplace, and every e-commerce site can incorporate charitable giving.
That’s why in May 2023, we introduced Daffy APIs to enable financial institutions to incorporate charitable giving directly into their services.
Today, we’re excited to announce that Betterment has become the first modern advisory platform to introduce a donor-advised fund to its customers and advisors. Betterment’s 900,000+ customers can now easily contribute low-cost-basis securities and donate to more than 1.7 million U.S. charities through Daffy.
The Power of Intelligent Tax Automation
There are tremendous tax benefits to donating appreciated investments, like ETFs, to charity. Unfortunately, most charities aren’t set up to handle these assets. Daffy elegantly solves this problem—contribute the shares to Daffy, and we’ll get the money to the charity or charities you recommend.
Unfortunately, many people struggle with the problem of which shares to donate. No one wants to make a mistake with their portfolio, and everyone wants to maximize the tax benefits of donating appreciated securities. Betterment solves this problem by using the power of automation to intelligently donate shares with the maximum tax benefit.
When a Betterment customer makes a contribution to Daffy, whether it is $1,000 or $1,000,000, their platform automatically selects shares held for over a year with the lowest cost basis, all while keeping your portfolio properly diversified and rebalanced. Betterment also provides an estimate of your potential income and capital gains tax savings, allowing you to see the financial impact of your charitable giving.
Once those shares are transferred to Daffy, they’re liquidated tax-free and invested in an investment portfolio of your choice. When you're ready, you can make donation recommendations to nearly any legal charity in the U.S.
Step-by-Step Guide for Betterment Customers
- Log into your account on Betterment.com and navigate to the Transfers page.
- Scroll down to select “Donate to Charity,” and choose Daffy.
- Select the Betterment account and the amount you’d like to contribute to Daffy. Review and confirm your transfer. If you already have a Daffy account, you’re done!
- If you don’t have a Daffy account, you’ll be prompted to create one using a dedicated Betterment referral link.
- Once your shares are received, liquidated, and deposited into your Daffy account, you can log in to make donation recommendations to nearly any U.S. charity.
By combining the power of automation with the capabilities of a donor-advised fund like Daffy, this integration represents a major step forward in making charitable giving more accessible and impactful. Through this integration with Betterment, we are advancing our mission to help people be more generous, more often—reaching a whole new audience at the perfect time of year.
Ready to give back? If you act now, all ETF contributions from Betterment will count for our 2024 #GainsForGood campaign.
Log in to Betterment today and start giving back with Daffy.