For Our Charity Partners

Benefaction Donor Advised Fundholders are required to recommend grants totaling a minimum of 5% of the average assets held in their Fund on an annual basis. These grants can be made to registered Canadian charities or other qualified donees. Benefaction as an organization also gives back through our Philanthropy Fund, Directors Fund, and Reciprocity Fund. The organizations supported are selected by our esteemed Board of Directors and we currently do not accept applications for these grants.

Benefaction acknowledges that operating charities are the ones making a tangible difference in their communities. We strive to be a resource and support our charity or other qualified donee partners with our grant making. Below please find an explanation of DAFs and a list of the most frequently asked questions we receive from grantees. We encourage you to contact our team directly at donor_services@benefaction.ca with any further questions. A member from our team would be happy to meet with you!

What are Donor Advised Funds (DAFS)?

DAFs are complex! The best definition we’ve found to explain DAFs is from “Influence, Affluence & Opportunity: Donor-advised Funds in Canada”, a report from KCI and CAGP. This definition is an excerpt of the report’s fulsome explanation of DAFs, so we suggest you look at the full report to learn more.

“A donor-advised fund (DAF) is a fund established within a foundation or operating charity… [where] the charity maintains a notional segregated fund for the donated assets. In order to establish a fund, the donor makes an irrevocable gift to the foundation or charity and based on the transfer of ownership receives a receipt for tax purposes. Donations to DAFs, like all charities, can be in a variety of forms including cash, securities, life insurance proceeds and other types of approved financial assets, or through a bequest in a will. DAFs can be opened by an individual, a family, a group of unrelated people, a partnership, corporation or association. The donor(s) select the name of the fund… The fund assets are granted out, generally over time, to support any registered charity or qualified done as defined by the Canada Revenue Agency. DAF donors are able to make non-binding recommendations to the host foundation to make specific gifts to charities.”

Every DAF organization has different policies and practices, so it’s best to speak with the organizations you are receiving grants from directly to learn more! At Benefaction, our minimum Fund size is $25,000. We require each Fund holder to grant 5% of the average assets held in their Fund on an annual basis, starting the year after the funds inception. We make grants throughout the year, and do not limit granting out. In 2024, our disbursement quota was 19.3%, and we disbursed over $80.8M to charities and qualified donees!

Additional Learning Resources:

FAQs

  • Benefaction receives grant recommendations from our donors. Once approved, based on our Grants Policy, grants are added to our queue to be issued. Benefaction mails cheques with a letter detailing the related grant or sends funds by EFT and emails information to the organization.

    The communication sent with a grant details the information our donor has requested to share with the recipient. That can include personal information, the name of the fund, or no information if the donor wishes to be anonymous. Fewer than 6% of our donors ask to remain anonymous with their grants.

    It is essential to match our letter with the related cheque or EFT to ensure smooth processing and donor recognition. If you have questions about a specific grant, don’t hesitate to ask our team!

  • We are doing our best to collect EFT information from as many charities as possible to ensure smooth delivery of our grants. If we haven’t reached out to you, please send us an email at donor_services@benefaction.ca. A member of our team will send you our EFT form and we can go from there. Once on file, any future grants from Benefaction will be sent electronically.

    Make sure you update us if your EFT information changes!

  • Some donors prefer to disclose only the name of their Fund when making grants. Only a few of our donors prefer to be anonymous. Either way, to support our charity partners, Benefaction can communicate on your behalf with these donors. Monthly, we send on any communications received on behalf of donors who have made grants to an organization in the last three years without disclosing themselves personally. This is an opt-out service and we will let you know if a donor does not wish to receive this information.

    These communications should be sent in the form of PDF to donor_services@benefaction.ca and should be addressed to the donors of Fund X or the anonymous Benefaction donor and should not be addressed to Benefaction directly.

  • Monthly, we send on any communications received on behalf of donors who have sent grants to your organization in the last three years. We are happy to include not only thank-yous, but impact reports, calls for support, event invitations, and any other relevant information. For event invites please keep in mind the timing as we only send these emails monthly. These communications need to be PDFs or something we can easily attach to an email. We do not guarantee a response from the donor directly but are happy to facilitate conversation if they have any questions for you.

  • No! Tax receipts are issued from Benefaction, as a registered Canadian charity, to our donors when they make a donation into our Foundation. Grants you receive from Benefaction are to be treated as grants from registered charities and should not be tax receipted.

  • No. Unfortunately, Benefaction does not accept grant applications as the vast majority of our grant making comes at the recommendations of our donors. However, we do suggest charities reach out to our donor’s who have made gifts to them in the last three years through our monthly forwarded communications to generate support. We don’t just forward thank yous, but will forward any materials sent in a PDF that are relevant for the donor in question.

  • No, as Benefaction does not currently have an online portal for charities. Our portal access is limited to donors and their Investment Advisors. Please feel free to email us at donor_services@benefaction.ca if there is any information you’re looking for, such as Benefaction’s granting history to your organization.

  • If a donor wants to support one charity, and that charity is equipped to accept donations of publicly listed securities, a DAF doesn’t make sense. However, there are many reasons why a DAF may make more sense than donating directly.

    1. A donor wants to have tax free growth of assets they’ve set aside for charitable purposes so that they can continue to support their beloved charities annually as opposed to in a lump sum.

    2. Legacy! Whether it’s involving family members in one’s philanthropy by appointing successors to a DAF or providing Benefaction instructions to continue making grants to charities after death, a DAF can help individuals shape their legacy exactly as they see fit.

    3. A donor is burdened by the multitude of tax receipts they receive when making grants directly to many charities throughout the year. A DAF allows for one tax receipt, with many grants out to charities with no additional administrative burden on the donor.

    4. A charity is not equipped to accept complex gifts. Many charities can accept gifts of publicly listed securities, but what about optioned stock, privately held securities, or life insurance? A DAF can help in these complex gift scenarios, so the burden does not have to fall to the operating charity.

    5. Separating giving from a taxable event. Some DAFs are established after a large taxable event like the sale of a business or death of a loved one. Creating a DAF can help an individual separate the taxable event by getting a tax receipt for the full value of the donation up front, while giving them time to think more strategically and critically about which charities they want to support and why.

    Regardless of their reason, if someone has set up a DAF they have set aside funds for philanthropy. The DAF may be the right strategic vehicle for them, but it doesn’t mean they don’t care about the cause!