Kiplinger Readers' Choice Awards 2024: Donor-Advised Funds

About the Kiplinger Readers’ Choice Awards

The Kiplinger Readers’ Choice Awards aim to recognize and celebrate the best products and services in the personal finance arena. We asked you, our Kiplinger community, to help us name the products and services you think have delivered excellent value in the past year.

The survey results, which we’re sharing here in our second annual Readers’ Choice Awards, offer valuable insight into which providers shine when it comes to your everyday interactions and experiences with them. Our Awards recognize excellence in everything from credit cards, banks and brokers to insurers, tax software and financial apps.  For each category, we’ve listed an overall winner that earned the highest score. We’ve also highlighted other products and services that earned above-average scores for various criteria we asked readers to assess.

By voting, our community has helped us form our guide to the very best financial products. These are the products and companies that you think stand out from the crowd.

Kiplinger Readers' Choice Awards: Donor-Advised Funds

With a donor-advised fund, you can typically invest cash or securities, such as stocks and bonds. Then you identify charities that you want to support with your investments, which are converted to cash for donations to qualifying organizations. Even if you don’t itemize deductions on your tax return, donating an appreciated asset to a donor-advised fund provides a tax benefit because you may eliminate paying taxes on capital gains you’ve accumulated. We asked readers to assess the donor-advised funds they use based on how suitable the investment options are, the likelihood they would recommend the fund to others and their overall satisfaction with the fund.

OVERALL WINNER: Fidelity Charitable

Outstanding for:

• Suitable investment options
• Most recommended
• Overall satisfaction

Fidelity Charitable’s donor-advised fund, called the Giving Account, is “Very easy to set up and use. Very happy with the low fees and service,” says one survey respondent. The Giving Account allows you to contribute cash and securities such as publicly traded stocks, mutual fund shares, and bonds, as well as privately held business interests (such as private company C-corp stock) and other non-publicly traded assets (such as restricted stock and cryptocurrencies). 

You can invest your contributions in a preset mix of asset classes, or create your own combination, choosing among Fidelity stock and bond funds. There’s no minimum deposit required to open a Giving Account.

Vanguard Charitable

Outstanding for:

• Suitable investment options

You can donate cash, appreciated securities and, in some cases, assets such as non-publicly traded stock, restricted stock, real estate and artwork to Vanguard Charitable’s fund. Donors can choose from a broad range of low-cost, pre-allocated portfolios — for example, a conservative growth portfolio that aims to preserve most principal. Or customize your own asset mix from a selection of Vanguard funds. The minimum initial contribution is $25,000.

Kiplinger Readers' Choice Awards Categories

• Wealth Managers
• Cash Back Credit Cards
• Travel Rewards Credit Cards
• Hotel Rewards Credit Card Programs
• Airline Rewards Credit Card Programs
• National Banks
• Internet Banks
• Full-Service Brokers
• Tax Software
• Auto Insurance Companies
• Peer-to-Peer Payment Services
• Homeowners Insurance Companies