On October 27, 2025, the Canadian Association of Gift Planners Foundation (“CAGP”) released a suite of new resources about donor-advised funds (“DAFs”). These new materials aim to improve understanding and support informed decision-making across the charitable sector.

CAGP’s guides are geared towards the public and aim to provide clear, accessible, and practical information on this increasingly popular form of charitable giving in Canada.

The suite includes an overview of DAFs, as well as four companion pieces tailored specifically for donors, charities, financial professionals, and foundations.

Established in 1993, the Canadian Association of Gift Planners is a national non-profit organization that strives to be a voice for the charitable sector and advance the growth and development of strategic charitable gift planning in Canada.

The guides were developed by sector experts, including practitioners, fundraisers, legal experts, and researchers co-led by Nicola Elkins of Benefaction Foundation and Malcolm Burrows of Aqueduct Foundation.

The guides are free and accessible on CAGP’s website.

What is a DAF?

The Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) defines a DAF as:

a fund segregated into donor accounts, owned and controlled by a registered charity. Each account is comprised of contributions made by individual donors. Donors may provide ongoing non-binding suggestions on payouts from DAFs, but it is the charity’s sole responsibility to make such decisions.

Generally, to establish a DAF, a donor sets up a fund at an existing registered charity, often a public foundation. For each gift that the donor makes to the fund, the foundation issues a charitable tax receipt to the donor. Once the DAF is set up and funded, the foundation will then make grants to other registered charities out of the DAF to support various charitable initiatives.

Why does this publication matter?

CAGP’s guides on DAFs are important because they help demystify DAFs and promote consistent understanding among donors, charities, financial professionals, and foundations.

While the number of donors and overall charitable giving in Canada have declined over the past decade, DAFs have emerged as one of the fastest-growing vehicles for charitable giving in Canada. DAFs have increasingly gained appeal due to changes in the Income Tax Act (Canada) related to donations of appreciated securities, specifically private company shares.

Currently there are over 250 DAF foundations in Canada, holding approximately 40,000 DAF funds.

While DAFs are a useful and powerful tool, it is critical for all sector stakeholders to understand them correctly. In particular, CAGP’s guides note that:

  • foundations that house DAFs must ensure their funds are administered in accordance with their charitable obligations;
  • donors need to understand how DAFs operate once they are established, in order to avoid conflicts and disappointment. Specifically, DAFs are not owned by the donor. While the donor can provide non-binding suggestions and advice on how the assets of a DAF are to be used, it is ultimately the charity (that houses the DAF) that determines how the DAF resources will be used; and
  • Charities receiving gifts or grants from DAFs must ensure they understand how DAFs operate, and how charities can work with the charity (that houses the DAF) to use and deploy these funds to support their charitable initiatives.

What do the guides say about DAFs?

CAGP’s guides are a collection of five separate guides with the following titles:

  1. Empowering Philanthropy: An Overview of Donor-Advised Funds
  2. Donor-Advised Funds: A Resource for Charities
  3. Donor-Advised Funds: A Resource for Donors
  4. Donor-Advised Funds: A Resource for Financial Professionals
  5. Donor-Advised Funds: A Resource for Foundations

The guides are not meant to be a manual, a list of best practices, or legal advice. DAFs can vary widely, and there are no standardized policies and practices across all foundations that manage or hold DAFs.

Instead, the guides summarize current practices that are used, and common issues that arise when stakeholders establish and administer DAFs. The guides also provide suggestions and insights to help these stakeholders.

The first guide (“Empowering Philanthropy”) provides a high-level overview of the history, mechanics, current practices, and common issues of DAFs. Readers learn about:

  • the evolution and growth of DAFs in Canada;
  • governance models, granting patterns, and administrative structures;
  • the perspectives of donors, advisors, foundations, and charities;
  • key policy considerations and opportunities for greater collaboration and transparency; and
  • practical guidance for donors, charities, financial professionals and foundations on their respective roles, responsibilities, and opportunities for effective collaboration within the DAF ecosystem.

Each of the four remaining guides takes readers on a deeper dive into DAFs, tailored to a specific sector stakeholder.

  • The guide for DAF foundations (#5) briefly summarizes foundations’ legal and administrative obligations and disbursement quota requirements. It also offers suggestions to foundations on developing investment policies, providing clear and effective disclosures to donors, and determining appropriate administration fees.
  • The guide for charities (#2) gives a high-level overview of what a charity should consider when accepting a gift from a DAF, such as stewardships communications, recognition, and relationship-building with DAF foundations.

  • The guide for donors (#3) takes readers through the “who, what, when, where, and why” of establishing a DAF. It discusses the tax planning advantages associated with DAFs and offers a list of considerations for donors when selecting a DAF provider.
  • The guide for financial professionals (#4) shares tips on how to integrate charitable giving discussions into tax and estate planning with clients. It also outlines the financial professional’s roles and responsibilities when working with a client that is setting up a DAF.

How can we help?

Philanthropists (and would-be philanthropists) regularly approach us to help them set up foundations. These clients often overlook DAFs as an alternative structure for achieving their giving goals.

Setting up and registering a foundation can be a long process. Running a foundation can also be time-consuming. While foundations have their own advantages (which also should not be overlooked), DAFs can provide donors with a quicker way to attain their philanthropic and tax-planning goals, without the headache, time, or expense of establishing and operating a standalone charity. DAFs can also serve as an effective and efficient vehicle for fostering a culture of giving across generations, in place of the traditional family foundation.

DAFs also benefit the charitable sector by helping more small charities obtain funding that might otherwise be inaccessible to them. Small charities often lack the resources or administrative infrastructure to receive, manage, invest, and steward a major gift. Here, DAF foundations can help bridge this infrastructure gap, while still making large donations accessible to the charities that need them.

While CAGP’s latest guides on DAFs are a welcome and helpful resource for the sector, it is important to keep in mind that they are informational in nature only and do not constitute legal advice. The guides also provide high-level guidance which may or may not be applicable to a charity’s, foundation’s, or donor’s specific circumstances.  A legal professional is still best positioned to provide tailored advice to donors, charities, foundations, and other industry professionals seeking more information about DAFs.

If you have questions regarding DAFs or would like to discuss various ways to achieve your charitable giving and tax-planning goals, please reach out to a member of Miller Thomson’s Charity and Not-for-profit Law Group.