Hi r/Philanthropy,
We thought folks in this community may be interested in our latest:
As you may know, a quarter of all individual giving in the U.S. is made through donor-advised funds, giving their sponsors vast power to decide which charities can receive donor dollars. Three major DAF sponsors have deemed the Southern Poverty Law Center ineligible for donations after President Donald Trump’s Justice Department indicted the organization in April on controversial fraud charges.
We decided to investigate how these Wall Street-affiliated funds make these high-stakes decisions. We uncovered troubling inconsistencies in how some DAF sponsors applied their policies — and found that donors and affected charities are routinely left in the dark about how decisions are made.
The three DAF sponsors that cut off donations to the SPLC — Vanguard Charitable, Fidelity Charitable and Charles Schwab’s DAFgiving360 — are nonprofits spun off from major brokerages. They offer account holders immediate tax deductions on contributions they can later recommend be granted to charities. (ProPublica has received donations through each of these groups.) These sponsors say their decisions to freeze accounts are viewpoint neutral, and ProPublica found no evidence to the contrary. Removed groups spanned the political spectrum.
But ProPublica found that Fidelity Charitable and DAFgiving360 appeared to apply their policies unevenly. Experts say the opacity behind these decisions is particularly problematic under the Trump administration, which has a track record of making politically charged accusations that don’t hold up in court.
Here's our full investigation: https://www.propublica.org/article/donor-advised-funds-charity-contributions
All three fund sponsors declined to be interviewed for our story or answer detailed questions, including on their process for identifying nonprofits facing allegations and choosing which to ban. Fidelity Charitable said it does not comment on decisions involving individual charities. DAFgiving360 said it “communicates directly with donors when a grant recommendation is impacted by an eligibility determination.” Vanguard Charitable noted its “procedural pause” is “not a value judgment.”
Hi r/Retirement401k,
We’re reporters at the nonprofit investigative newsroom ProPublica. If you’ve never heard of our work before, we report stories in the public interest.
Right now, we’re in the process of reporting on 401(k) retirement plans and we want to hear from you. Some people have their retirement in investment funds with relatively high fees and costly add-ons – and they may never know it.
The Trump administration also wants employers to include less-regulated “alternative” investments like private equity and cryptocurrency in 401(k) plans. We want to learn more about the financial products companies are pushing. You can help us report by sending your plan’s annual disclosure: https://www.propublica.org/getinvolved/share-401k-fees-retirement-investment
The disclosure lists your 401(k) plan’s investment options, the historical performance of those investments and information on fees — all details that every company is required by law to give an employee, but aren't always made public.
**Note: We aren’t asking for anything that shows your account balances or personal information. And if you have a 403(b) plan and work for a private, tax-exempt organization, we’d also like to hear from you.
The more people we hear from, the better informed our reporting will be. Thank you for the time.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email 401k@propublica.org.