Vanguard Charitable is a national donor-advised fund sponsor. Founded in 1997 by Vanguard as an independent 501(C)(3) public charity, we are now one of the largest grantmaking organizations in the United States.
Our…
A donor-advised fund (DAF) is a charitable giving account designed exclusively to invest, grow, and give assets to charities for meaningful and lasting impact.
Here's how it works:
You donate assets into your DAF account.…Opening your Vanguard Charitable account online can be done in as little as 15 minutes. Follow these instructions.
Click the Open Account button on the upper right corner of the screen. The open account page will slide open.…
We keep our fees low so more dollars go to charity. Our industry-low all-in fee is made up of an administrative fee and an investment fee. For more information on our fees, please see our Fees & Minimums page.
Please visit our year-end giving page to see all granting and contribution deadlines for year-end giving.
We recommend everyone be web-registered for simple and secure service of their Vanguard Charitable accounts.
Your online account is a useful tool in your charitable giving. With online access you can:
Make…Create one or multiple succession plans for your Vanguard Charitable account.
The first step in establishing your succession plan is to be sure you review your options. You can read more about your options here or contact…
Documents can be mailed to Vanguard Charitable at the following addresses.
Standard mail:
Vanguard Charitable
P.O. BOX 9509
Warwick, RI 02889-9509
By registered, certified,…
Yes, you can unlink your accounts by contacting a Vanguard representative.
To contribute to your Vanguard Charitable account, we require you to complete a Make a Contribution form, which you can do online or with a printed form.
This helps Vanguard Charitable to:
Match incoming assets with your…If donating assets held at Vanguard valued over $10 million, you’ll need to follow these additional steps.
After initiating your contribution, you will need to complete a signed Letter of authorization, which can be found here: Forms. …If you're not eligible to initiate a contribution on vanguard.com, you must authenticate your contribution. One way to do so is to use Vanguard Voice VerificationTM (VVV) if the contribution value exceeds $10 million.
To complete VVV…
You have two options to contribute assets held at Vanguard without using vanguard.com.
If you're not eligible to initiate a contribution on vanguard.com, you can make a contribution two ways:
Paper form:…Easily locate your tax substantiation letter at any time within your online account.
Once the tax substantiation letter is ready, follow these simple steps:
Log in to your Vanguard Charitable account. On the My…You can view the details of transactions by logging in to your account.
Log in to your online account.On the Documents & Statements page, select View Transaction Summary. On this page, you can filter by a specific transaction…
Securities may take a full business week to settle and show up in an account, but you can check the status of your contribution in your online account. See: How do I check the status of my contribution?
Funds will appear in your account one business day after settlement (once the asset and required paperwork are received in good order by Vanguard Charitable). For more information about asset settlement times, see the chart, which details the…
The time by which you’ll need to submit a transaction to be traded on the same depends on where the donated asset was held.
A transaction can only be approved if all paperwork is received and in good order.
…
Vanguard account information is not visible to Vanguard Charitable representatives. Vanguard Charitable representatives can only see the Vanguard account number, registration, address, and details of the contribution, such as the holding and…
The quickest way to check a contribution’s status is with your online account.
Log in to your account.On the Contribution Activity page, sort the list of contributions by status or time frame. For additional transaction…
If you choose not to link your accounts, you will need to use a paper form, which can be found here.
Yes, so long as all trustees are web-registered on vanguard.com and have provided authorization for other trustees to transact on the account independently.
Yes, so long as all account owners are web-registered on vanguard.com and have provided authorization for other owners to transact on the account independently.
Yes, you can contribute assets held at your Vanguard accounts to Vanguard Charitable. Learn more about donating assets held at Vanguard to your Vanguard Charitable account.
No, linking your Vanguard and Vanguard Charitable accounts is a one-time process.
Learn more about linking your Vanguard and Vanguard Charitable accounts.
Linking your account is a one-time process. Follow these instructions to link your accounts.
You are eligible to contribute online if:
You are contributing from an individual, joint or trust account.You are an…To donate specific lots, you should provide the holding firm with your cost basis details when you initiate the transfer of assets.
If the assets are held at Vanguard, see below for more details.
…
While donor-advised funds are ineligible to receive direct distributions from IRAs, learn how Vanguard Charitable can accept QCDs as a tax-neutral event. Assets must be claimed as income first and then donated. However, you can donate your RMDs…
Our minimum contribution to establish an account is $25,000, and additional contributions have a minimum of $5,000.
For accounts with less than a $25,000 balance, there is an annual maintenance fee of $250. Accounts are…
Once you’ve linked your Vanguard and Vanguard Charitable accounts, you can contribute assets held at Vanguard entirely online at vanguard.com.
You are eligible to contribute online if:
You are contributing from…You can recommend a grant online at any time when funds are available in your account. For new accounts, you will not be able to enter your grant recommendation until your contribution has settled and the net proceeds are reflected in your…
Vanguard Charitable can generally issue grants to organizations that are in good standing with the IRS, qualify as tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3), and are classified as public charities under Section 509(a) of the Internal Revenue Code at the…
Yes. When recommending a grant, select an option from the dropdown menu labeled Purpose. You can also add additional comments. These details will be shared with the organization.
Yes. When recommending a grant, select "in memory of" or "in honor of” for Additional Attribution. When the grant is sent to a charity, the attribution you provide will be shared with the organization.
Grant processing time may vary depending on the type of organization being supported, recommended grant purpose, time of the year, and availability of advisors and recipient charities to complete required documentation. Processing can take two to…
Our minimum account activity policy requires an account issue at least one grant every three years to remain active. All Vanguard Charitable grants must be at least $500.
If an account has not granted after 30 months, the…
Recurring grants are an easy and effective way to simplify your charitable giving—automating regular gifting to the organizations you love most. It’s simple to establish recurring grants right in your online account.
To…
You can securely recommend a grant to charity at any time to a charity as long as you have funds available in your account.
For new accounts, you will not be able to enter your grant recommendation until your contribution…
The quickest way to check a grant’s status is with your online account.
Log in to your account. On the Manage Grants page, grants are automatically sorted by the scheduled date. Locate the grant you’d like to view by using…
We know that sometimes plans change. If they do, it’s simple to manage recurring grants right in your online account.
To locate your recurring grant schedule you’d like to manage:
Log in to your online account.On…If you’re unable to find your desired charity in our database, you can use the Suggest a Charity feature to submit the organization for review.
Search the database by selecting Grants à Discover Charities and search by the charity…
Active and passive management are two different approaches to investing and offer their own advantages.
Active management is an investment approach that seeks to exceed the average returns of a particular financial market…
Investment options that seek to maintain a stable asset allocation (such as 20% stock, 80% bond) are reviewed by fund managers on a daily basis to ensure target allocation remains consistent. Some investment options, such as target retirement…
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations are indicators of sustainable and responsible business practices. Environmental criteria indicate how a company performs as a steward of the natural environment. Social criteria…
An exchange-traded fund, or ETF, is a security that tracks the value of an index, commodity, or basket of assets in the same way as a mutual fund does, except it trades like stock on stock exchanges
An expense ratio is a fund’s total annual operating expenses expressed as a percentage of the fund’s average net assets.
The expense ratio includes management and administrative expenses, but it does not include the…
Indexing is an investment strategy for tracking the performance of a specified market benchmark, or index.
An index is a group of securities whose overall performance is used as a standard to measure the investment performance…
The net asset value, also known as share price, is the value of a mutual fund. The net asset value (NAV) is calculated each business day as of the close of regular trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), generally at 4 pm, ET.
…A share class is a security designation that indicates the rights, privileges, fees, and expenses associated with the shares. Share classes are a common way of offering the same mutual fund investment at different costs. The investment objective…
The potential for risk in Vanguard Charitable investment options can be categorized in levels from 1 to 5.
Knowing the level of risk you are comfortable with and the length of time you expect the assets in the…
Vanguard Charitable does not charge exchange fees for most internal pool-to-pool exchanges.
All exchange recommendations are subject to approval, and Vanguard Charitable reserves the right to decline recommendations if…
Our investments selection is thoughtful, intentional, and specifically chosen to provide our donors with the best chance of success to support strategic philanthropy, both now and in the future. These decisions are based on Vanguard’s best-in-…
If you are unable to move forward to the next step of your transaction online, follow these steps.
If the Next button is not activated (it didn’t turn blue), you may have missed a step in the process. Go back through the…
If you’re running the most updated version of your preferred web browser, there should be no issues with using our website.
If you’re having browser issues, make sure your operating system is up to date. In general, the…
The login button is located on the top, right side of your screen. Once you’re in your online account, click the circle icon at the top, right side of your screen (it looks like the head and shoulders of a person) and click Logout in the dropdown…
If you’re trying to review the data in a table but can’t see all the data, there are two steps you can try:
Click into the table and use your mouse to scroll up and down, or Use the gray sliding bar on the right side to move the table…All web browsers save "snapshots" of websites to help load pages quicker. These snapshots are held in storage called a cache. Outdated cache may cause you to see older versions of web pages, and occasionally cause issues accessing website pages.…
Sometimes you may need to change your password. To change your password, click Login on the upper right side of your screen. Then click Forgot Password and a form will appear. Fill in the user ID and email address we have on file. An email will…
You can recommend a grant online at any time when funds are available in your account. For new accounts, you will not be able to enter your grant recommendation until your contribution has settled and the net proceeds are reflected in your…
Vanguard Charitable can generally issue grants to organizations that are in good standing with the IRS, qualify as tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3), and are classified as public charities under Section 509(a) of the Internal Revenue Code at the…
Yes. When recommending a grant, select an option from the dropdown menu labeled Purpose. You can also add additional comments. These details will be shared with the organization.
Yes. When recommending a grant, select "in memory of" or "in honor of” for Additional Attribution. When the grant is sent to a charity, the attribution you provide will be shared with the organization.
Grant processing time may vary depending on the type of organization being supported, recommended grant purpose, time of the year, and availability of advisors and recipient charities to complete required documentation. Processing can take two to…
Still have a question that needs an answer?
If you have a question that wasn't answered in our FAQs, email us.
Maintenance fee may be applied
Accounts having a balance below $25,000 may be subject to an annual maintenance fee of $250.
You are eligible for special rates
Our premier clients enjoy reduced pricing to further maximize their impact.
Our representatives are happy to guide you through.