Gift fund sees hopeful signs for year-end giving

As the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund -- which raises more money than all but two other charities in the United States -- enters the year-end giving season, its leaders say they see some promising fund-raising and giving trends despite the bleak economy.

In the quarter ending Sept. 30, contributions to the organization’s donor-advised funds totaled $397 million, 27 percent less than the organization received in the same quarter of 2008. However, contributions have improved somewhat since Fidelity reported a 40-percent decrease earlier this year.

Donor-advised funds work like charity checking accounts -- donors put money in to the funds and then earmark it whenever they want for the causes they care about.

In a hopeful sign for struggling charities, Fidelity says more of its donors are using their accounts to make unrestricted contributions to charities to use “where needed most.” That type of gift accounted for 43 percent of grants made from Fidelity donor-advised accounts as of Sept. 30, up from 37 percent in 2008.

In total, grants made from donors’ Fidelity accounts amounted to more than $658 million as of Sept. 30, a 12 percent decline from the same time last year. Fidelity officials said, however, by year’s end they expect the outgoing grants “to be close to $1 billion,” which would be comparable to 2007 and 2008 totals.

Fidelity ranked No. 3 in the new edition of the Philanthropy 400, The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s ranking of the charities that raise the most from private sources. Only United Way Worldwide and the Salvation Army ranked higher.