Behind the scenes at a UK DAF
mysteries revealed...
Today’s article…
…is a massive treat.
Buckle in.
Caroline was lucky enough to have a virtual cuppa with Rachel Tomlins from The Charity Service recently, as part of her mission to learn everything she possibly can about Donor Advised Funds.
Together, they sat in the UK’s first heatwave of 2026 and talked all things philanthropy, fundraising and charity sector.
As well as some advice for fundraisers, Rachel also takes us behind the scenes of her research process.
We know that DAF representatives will undertake research on behalf of clients and many fundraisers are working hard to make their charities more visible. Rachel’s advice is invaluable and we can’t wait to share it with you all today.
Wishing you a great week ahead,
Caroline and Tony
Behind the scenes at a UK DAF
by Caroline Richardson
A bit about Rachel and The Charity Service
The Charity Service is a Manchester-based DAF and grant making charity (though they’re currently spending down the various local funds they’ve managed for many years).
They currently hold close to £6m in donor contributions and distribute anything between £1m and £2m per year.
Rachel’s background is in major gifts fundraising (she’s one of us!) and her role at The Charity Service involves supporting individuals to realise their own philanthropic goals, working with both experienced and new donors. They also play an important role in informing advisers including wealth managers and solicitors and more informally, fundraisers.
How Rachel works with new donors
Rachel took me through her process for working with philanthropists who are either keen to formalise, expand or refresh their giving.
Philanthropy advice is add-on to the DAF provision at The Charity Service. Many DAF donors already know which charities they would like to support or take advice from someone else.
She explained that this is the process used at the Charity Service and that philanthropy advice is not standardised (so it probably differs across the sector).
1. She first hosts a face to face workshop for individuals / couples / families to help tease out their areas of interest and the issues which concern them.
Often this includes sharing personal experiences which naturally lead an individual to a specific cause (poverty, a health crisis, supporting a family member through something difficult, faith, geography). Sometimes donors will name charities they’ve supported before (and whether or not they wish to continue to support them into the future).
2. Alongside causes, Rachel will try to get a sense of whether a donor is keen for their contributions to have an immediate impact, or whether they’re more focused on the long term / preventative interventions / root causes.
3. Charity size is considered with donor preferences ranging from the track record / economies of scale offered by large organisations to a stated preference for grassroots organisations.
4. Together with the donor/s, Rachel crafts a mission statement which reflects the impact the philanthropist wants their contributions to make.
5. They then consider practicalities of giving, size / nature of contributions to the DAF, how these might be distributed and over what time period.
6. Rachel tries to encourage donors towards unrestricted / multi year giving (and we LOVE her for it!)
Rachel’s research process
At this point, Rachel goes off and does her research, returning with a long list of charities (with a donor’s interests the primary focus and factors like charity size as secondary).
She then contacts these charities, asking for various policies (usually always the annual report and the safeguarding policy) and for some materials which explain the need for the charity, the activities, the impact and the costs.
She doesn’t request anything specific or fancy, usually a case for support, impact report or a template funding application.
The long list becomes and short list and following a conversation with the donor, decisions are (often) made.
Research methods / sources?
Desk based
Bespoke for each client – Rachel doesn’t have a list of go-to favourite charities
Led by the mission statement
Charity commission records / Website / Google?
Governance is hugely important (see below)
Sector knowledge, sometimes through phone calls with programme staff, sometimes with government/ NHS reports or other sector body reports.
A quick governance checklist
Rachel has a keen eye on the following:
Accounts filed at Charity Commission on time
Sufficient auditing with no significant concerns raised and no obvious question marks regarding a charity’s financial position (e.g. they don’t need a positive balance but the charity should be “a going concern” without any question marks e.g. a huge rise in expenditure without a justification).
Evidence of an engaged board who are asking the right questions (trustees’ report)
Existence of policy documents, availability, are they up to date
The optimum number of trustees (as defined by their governing document)?
Do trustees meet regularly?
Does the staffing look to be appropriate for the activities?
Are they registered with any appropriate governing or regulatory bodies e.g. OFSTED. Have there been any complaints and if so, how have these been handled?
Four cool things I learned from Rachel
1. There is nuance around anonymous donors.
Don’t be put off. Engage with the DAF representative to find out more. Quite often an anonymous donor will only wish to be publicly anonymous but will be happy to engage directly with their chosen charities.
Be curious before writing them off as a real life version of Hugh Laurie’s character from the Night Manager.
2. Payout rates typically represent the amount distributed in a 12-month period as a percentage of all the assets that are held in a DAF.
So, if a DAF ends a financial year with £5,000,000 in the pot and makes distributions of £1,250,000, the payout rate is 25%.
Rachel suggested that ‘throughput’ is possibly a more helpful term. Remember that it’s not always practical or desirable to distribute all donations within the course of 12 months (especially for large, transformational gifts).
DAFs are often used for legacy giving too – funds which would likely be distributed by family members potentially for many years following the donor’s death.
3. Many donors use DAFs alongside other types of giving – corporate giving, sponsorship, gifts in kind, charitable trusts, direct individual giving. It’s important not to define or silo individuals too rigidly.
4. Probably the most important thing I’ve learned about DAFs so far and that is that we should think of them as an extension of our major gifts programmes, not our trusts and foundations programmes.
The best thing we can do as fundraisers, is continue to explore our organisation’s networks, build relationships and deliver exceptional stewardship.
Whether or not donors choose to use a DAF is most likely not in our gift to influence.
Advice for fundraisers
Rachel is often approached by fundraisers looking to tap into The Charity Service’s DAF.
Of course she has to tell them that she can’t help and often refers enquirers to her excellent article How DAF Providers And Charities Can Best Work Together – The TCS Perspective – The Charity Service – do give this a read, it’s great.
There are a few things she suggests fundraisers can do, largely to ready themselves for more supporters using DAFs (as is the trend):
1. Understand the basics of Gift Aid. It helps to be able to explain how it works especially for higher rate tax payers (though you must never give financial advice because it’s regulated and if you’re not qualified then you could be sued).
2. Understand the basics of capital gains tax in relation to gifts of property, shares, art, whisky and gold bars (not the biscuit, the actual bar of solid gold that your donor is excited to gift). Again, don’t ever offer financial advice.
3. Ensure you can confidently tick off the items on the governance checklist.
4. Do great major donor fundraising!
Connect with Rachel
Go ahead and connect with Rachel on LinkedIn. She says:
“I’m always happy to connect with people. I think DAFs can be a bit opaque and would appreciate more openness around them which is only good for the sector!”
With grateful thanks to Rachel for taking us behind the scenes of her work.
What a legend.
This is great! Thank you for giving us a peak through the curtain. What I would most like to know is how Rachel does her research - that’s the bit that it feels so much less simple to influence. Not all charities have websites, for example, and some organisations are less aware of the need to promote their work beyond their immediate community