This weekend I logged into my donor advised fund (DAF), to make a one-time donation in memory of a college friend’s wife. The process was quick and easy, no running around the house to find the check book, an envelope, a stamp. Click, click, click–all done.
While I was logged in, I decided to look at the total that has been donated in 2024.
The annual donation total is much, much larger than what I used to give before putting money in this DAF, probably 2 to 3 times more.
There are 2 main reasons for this:
- I’ve already done the hard work of deciding to give away money. That was completed when I funded the DAF in 2021. It is much easier to decide to give, and to give more, with money that’s already no longer exactly mine.
- I’ve set up recurring donations to several charities I support. Every 6 months, or quarter, or every month, checks go out. None of that relies on me remembering (and then deciding) to send in money.
This is all a good thing for charities, who get more money, more regularly, and can go do their good deeds with it.
However, in some ways, it is profoundly unsatisfying.
Previously in December, when I used to round up my list of preferred charities, find their solicitation letters (o! the endless letters), dig out my checkbook and hand write amounts, I spent time more thinking about giving. Much in the way that taking notes by hand helps students retain more information [compared to taking notes on a computer], writing those checks by hand really hammered home the act of giving.
Giving through a DAF involves less work, but also less effort. There’s no deliberation over what amount to send, no clenching a pen or entering the amount in the ledger. No small pinch of pain as money leaves my personal account. No puffed up feeling of satisfaction that I’m doing a good deed.
The charity doesn’t really care how I give money, but I think I am missing out on some of the benefits that charitable giving can do for me. (Yes, I realize that sounds very selfish.). But if charity is good for the giver, I can’t see that giving effortlessly is quite the same. No pain, no gain might be the operative theory here.
I suppose it’s wasteful to send paper checks and envelopes (and puts me at risk for check washing), and certainly I don’t need a deluge of charitable appeals showing up again in our mailbox, but maybe it’s time to go through my records, and make sure no charities are being left out this month.
Do you donate to charity at this time of year? If so, how?