DAF assets not invested in the SIF are invested in RSF’s DAF Liquidity Portfolio, which keeps funds available for granting out at any time. The portfolio prioritizes social and environmental impact investments over market-rate returns, flowing capital to community development financial institutions and other mission-driven partners, including Native American Bank, Self-Help Credit Union and Blue Forest.
RSF’s 100% DAF activation model is what attracted the Rosensteins, who use their DAF as a family giving vehicle. “I knew about RSF through someone I had met at Resource Generation, and we felt that RSF had a really high bar for how they administered their money,” said Gabe Rosenstein. “With many DAFs, the money is supposed to be bettering society, and it’s just sitting there in ways that aren’t. With RSF, I feel good about where our DAF is invested and what our administrative fees are supporting.”
Supporting innovation with flexibility and creativity
In addition to investing all funds for impact, RSF places a premium on helping donors realize their giving goals and advancing the principles of trust-based philanthropy. We aim to transcend the transactional with relationships rooted in trust, creativity, and shared values because those relationships promise to unlock our greatest potential — as some of our most innovative DAFs illustrate.
Southern Black Farmers Community-Led Fund, a grant fund held at RSF, provides critical financing, training, and other support to Black farmers and their local food economies in the Southeast. Disrupting the traditional power dynamics in philanthropy, the donor who started the fund does not decide how money is spent; instead, those decisions are made by a leadership council comprising two representatives from each of seven anchor organizations, all cooperatively led by and serving Black farmers across the American South.
In another example of community control, the Indigenous-led Pawanka Fund holds its assets in a philanthropic account at RSF, essentially using RSF as a bank.
“We share the value of reciprocity [and] common goals to advance towards justice,” said Dr. Myrna Cunningham, executive director of the Pawanka Fund, which is dedicated to promoting and protecting traditional knowledge, well-being, rights, and self-determined development. “RSF really respects our participation and really gives the guiding committee of the Pawanka Fund the ability to make decisions.”
Equal Exchange’s corporate DAF also takes a community-directed approach. The company wanted to give its network of citizen-consumers more ways to support its work with agricultural cooperatives in the Global South, so if opened up its DAF for contributions. Donations have helped Equal Exchange provide technical assistance addressing six coffee cooperatives’ self-diagnosed needs, such as leadership development and engaging young people and women in farming and community-building work.
Mobilizing more DAF Capital to meet the moment
By leading with regenerative finance values, RSF attracts donors who are truly committed to impact, which accounts for our high payout rate and history of DAF innovation.
We’re now working to inspire more donors by making it easier than ever to maximize DAF impact: RSF’s new DAF Mobilization Project eliminates fees when donors open a new RSF DAF by December 1, 2025, and invest a portion of the assets in RSF’s Social Investment Fund.
RSF’s approach to DAFs aligns closely with initiatives like Jennifer Risher’s #HalfMyDAF. Risher co-founded #HalfMyDAF in 2020 in response to the COVID crisis and it took hold as a way to promote more active DAF use. The initiative asks DAF holders to disburse at least half of the money in their DAF every year by the end of September — and incentivizes them by offering dollar-for-dollar matching grants.
Initiatives like these, along with RSF donors’ history of active giving, illustrate a crucial point: When we invite more people to participate in an economy that values all people and nature, capital circulates rather than accumulates, flowing to where it’s needed most. Any one of us can be an agent of opportunity, creating a more balanced, inclusive and resilient economy that benefits the whole instead of just a few. And DAF holders can have an outsize impact if they use the tool in their hands to its fullest potential. As a values-driven DAF sponsor, RSF is committed to helping them do just that.
Are you a wealth advisor seeking to align your clients’ money with their values? An emerging philanthropist who wants to take your giving to the next level? An experienced philanthropist looking for ways to deepen your practice? Learn more about opening a DAF at RSF.