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Who is Fidelity Charitable?

Since our inception as a public charity in 1991, our mission has remained the same—to grow the American tradition of philanthropy by providing programs that make charitable giving accessible, simple, and effective.

Fidelity Charitable launched the first national donor-advised fund program, democratizing philanthropy by making a giving vehicle available to a broad array of people. Today, we sponsor nearly 198,000 donor-advised funds connected to more than a quarter million donors. Since our founding, we have helped donors support 406,000 nonprofit organizations with $84.5 billion in grants.

What is a donor-advised fund?

A donor-advised fund is a charitable account sponsored by a public charity that donors use to support their charitable giving. Donors can make an irrevocable, tax-deductible contribution of many types of assets to a donor-advised fund.

At Fidelity Charitable, those assets include cash, publicly traded stock, and private business shares. Donors can then recommend grants from their donor-advised fund to virtually any other IRS-qualified 501(c)(3) public charity and advise how to invest their dedicated charitable dollars for potential tax-free growth.

Donor-advised funds make it easier to give in a more systematic way, allowing donors to maximize their generosity. In annual surveys, a consistent two-thirds of Fidelity Charitable donors say that they give more than they otherwise would because they have a donor-advised fund.