Activate Investing

Invest your giving fund balance to grow your giving potential, tax-free.

If you are part of a custom DAF program, reach out to your program contact for investing details specific to your account or email us at [e-mail].

Setting up investing

When setting up your Charityvest fund, you can choose to invest your fund balance in a diversified, low-cost portfolio. Your funds will always be available to grant but may grow tax-free and expand your giving potential.

Investing setup screen.

After selecting Set up investing, you'll be asked to choose between the Standard Portfolio and the Filtered Portfolio. Both portfolios offer exposure across the same asset classes. The Standard Portfolio tracks the underlying asset class indices directly, while the Filtered Portfolio attempts to achieve the same, while filtering against companies that participate in controversial industries, such as alcohol, gambling, and adult entertainment.

Portfolio choices: Standard and Filtered

Next, you'll be asked about your portfolio duration. Specifically, we want to understand how long your charitable balance will remain invested. The longer it will remain invested, the more risk you are likely to be able to take without affecting your giving plans. We'll use this information to recommend a portfolio allocation based on your giving plans, which you'll select on the following screen.

Selecting a risk level. The recommended allocation is pre-selected.

If you decide to customize your portfolio, you'll be able to adjust the allocations of the individual ETFs that make up our portfolios, to a total of 100%. This step is entirely optional.

A 95% VTI, 5% VUSB custom allocation.

On the final page, you'll be asked to review your settings and start investing. Investing will then be active on your account and your balance will be invested during the next available trading window.

Success - you've activated investing on your Charityvest fund.

Investing FAQs

Are there any additional or hidden fees?

No. There are no hidden fees - just one simple fee assessed to your Charityvest balance every month. All trading is conducted commission-free and the portfolio ETFs offer some of the lowest expense ratios of any ETFs in the market.

How frequently are portfolios rebalanced?

Portfolios are rebalanced every time we conduct activity in your account - for instance, investing new contributions or selling positions to make a grant. If no activity occurred in the last 30 days, we'll rebalance once to keep your portfolio in line with your target allocation.

Can I change my allocation or deactivate investing?

Yes. You can change your portfolio, modify your allocation, or stop investing at any time. Your balance will convert back to cash and your account will no longer be assessed the monthly investing charge.

How do I use the money to support charities?

You don’t have to do anything special to use your balance to support charities you care about. Simply recommend a grant and we’ll automatically liquidate the correct amount of money from your invested balance to fund your gift.

Can I invest only a portion of my balance?

No. Using our invest feature will invest your full charitable balance. However, you can more heavily weight your portfolio’s exposure to ultra-short duration fixed income to more closely approximate holding a portion of your fund in cash.

What happens if the investments lose value?

Because your contributions are tax-deductible, gains and losses in your Charityvest balance do not affect tax deduction values. However, if the investments lose value, you will not be able to grant as much to charity as if you had not invested your balance.