FJC was born into a different world thirty years ago. Donors contributing to their Donor Advised Fund accounts wrote out checks by hand, mailing them in an envelope. The Internet was in its infancy and communication was mostly phone calls and the occasional fax. FJC’s “database” was a Rolodex, and if someone referred to “the cloud,” the staff would have probably checked the weather. And in 1995, industrywide only about $2.5 billion was held in DAF accounts. The first corporate-sponsored DAFs were just a few years old, and most DAF accounts were held in a handful of large community foundations that had existed since the 1920s.
FJC’s founders had a vision for doing philanthropy differently. They believed that DAFs had enormous potential, and that they could be flexible tools to support nonprofits, when donors had imagination. Even before the term “impact investing” was coined, they understood that philanthropic capital in DAFs could be invested in loans to nonprofits, providing critical bridge financing to achieve mission while growing their donors’ capacity to give.
As we and the industry evolve, we will continue to stay true to the original conception of this organization: creative, responsive, expert in 501(c)(3) tax-exempt and laser-focused on how we can advance the missions of our nonprofit grantees and partners. We will continue to work with donors whose capacity to give is expanded by flexibility about what they give, how their funds are invested, and how they are deployed.
In our first years of operation, we had a great year if we made more than $3 million in grants to nonprofits. Last year we made over $46 million in grants. This growth in grantmaking capacity is a function of the continued generosity of our donors and the tax-free investment growth of those donated assets, both in the capital markets and our loan pool, which has grown from an initial seed of $5 million into a $75 million fund. Meanwhile we have incubated over 400 fiscally sponsored organizations and projects, hundreds of which have spun off and received their own 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.
During this time, the world of philanthropy has changed radically. Impact investing has become a movement, encompassing not just specialized lending to nonprofits but investing for-profit in alignment with values. DAFs, once the purview of a few community foundations, have gone mainstream. Today’s DAF industry holds over $250 billion in assets, driven largely by the DAF platforms of large financial services companies. In recent years, fintech companies have been entering the industry, promising speed, convenience and AI agentification.
As we head into our fourth decade, FJC has some exciting plans to refresh our own IT infrastructure, which will position us to be even more tech-forward as we grow. As we and the industry evolve, we will continue to stay true to the original conception of this organization: creative, responsive, expert in 501(c)(3) tax-exempt and laser-focused on how we can advance the missions of our nonprofit grantees and partners. We will continue to work with donors whose capacity to give is expanded by flexibility about what they give, how their funds are invested, and how they are deployed. We excitedly look forward to our next 30 years, and we look forward to working with you.
