To describe this under-used mechanism available to donors, we draw from our own experiences in corporate venture investing at the Autodesk Foundation and facilitating investments as a philanthropic investment intermediary at PRIME Coalition, as well as from the experiences of our peers and partners in the field. We believe there’s a vast missed opportunity to use DAFs for making impact investments in support of market-based solutions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals-across a wide variety of charitable purposes. Data on DAF granting and investing patterns is difficult to track, but based on our work in the field, research, and interviews with other experts, we understand that the number of donors who recommend impact investments-and the sponsors who facilitate such investments using DAFs-are few and far between.
![donor advised funds and lookthrough donor advised funds and lookthrough](https://investenvy.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/A-Guide-to-Donor-Advised-Funds-Five-Factors-800x445.png)
Savvy philanthropists have begun using DAFs to make not only traditional grants with no expectation of financial return and traditional investments with no expectation of social impact, but also impact investments that hold dual promise of advancing the charitable mission and providing financial return.
![donor advised funds and lookthrough donor advised funds and lookthrough](https://ircommunityfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/ESTABLISHING-DOCUMENT-Donor-Advised-Fund-_Page_2-scaled.jpg)
![donor advised funds and lookthrough donor advised funds and lookthrough](https://mediacloud.kiplinger.com/image/private/s--9SIrCEWd--/t_primary-image-desktop@2/v1580376746/kipimages/pages/19428.jpg)
At the same time, donor-advised funds (DAFs)-a philanthropic vehicle managed by a wide variety of public charity sponsors that allows donors to retain advisory rights-have skyrocketed in popularity and currently hold over $85 billion in charitable assets waiting to be deployed.