Furman’s Ben Thompson ’27 offers op-ed about a little-understood funding tool for nonprofits

Furman University senior Ben Thompson writes an opinion piece in The Post and Courier about how donors and nonprofits can make the most of donor-advised funds, shoring up the gap left by traditional funding vehicles.

Thompson, a politics and international affairs and a Spanish major, says a DAF is like “a philanthropic savings account that lets you give to the fund when it’s financially smart for you and then make charitable distributions when it’s most meaningful to the causes you care about.”

At the end of fiscal year 2024, he reports that nearly $330 billion languished in accounts awaiting distribution to charitable community causes. Thompson offers advice for donors and nonprofits to more effectively use DAFs, “one of the fastest-growing and least-understood mechanisms in American charitable giving,” he writes.

“The money is already set aside. The causes are already worthy,” Thompson adds. “With meaningful conversation and a little extra effort on both sides, donor-advised funds offer a viable funding option that can help our nonprofit community fill the gap left by traditional funders.”

Over the summer, Thompson participated in The Riley Institute’s RISE internship program, where he studied the philanthropic landscape.