About the foundation

Donor Advised Fund – Financial Planning and Philanthropy

The financial planning profession has increasingly focussed on helping clients understand and achieve their purpose rather than simply organise their finances.

Many clients seek to express their purpose through their philanthropy delivered via various charities. However, there are often barriers to overcome:

• How do I ensure my money is spent on what I wish to support?
• How do I give anonymously, as I don’t want to be hassled for more?
• How do I ensure that my money has the maximum impact?

By having its own DAF, the financial planning profession can help clients overcome these issues. Through this DAF we can enrich our client’s sense of purpose and wellbeing  whilst contributing to a better society and planet.

Why was TCF established?

TCF is the joint vision of Graeme Price and Paul Palmer. Paul is the Director of the Centre for Charity Effectiveness and has pioneered financial education for charities for over thirty years. Paul and Graeme were particularly interested in the discrepancy they identified for their publication for the Centre for Policy Studies in 2010.

Very wealthy people give a larger percentage of their net wealth – more than the next levels of wealth down of band 2 and 3 in the wealth classifications of the Office of National Statistics (ONS) – often referred to as the mass affluent who did not donate as much as a comparative percentage.

While there are existing DAFs in the UK both Graeme and Paul felt that there were a number of “issue gaps” in their service provision and in particular confusion and mis-understanding for financial planners.

TCF has been established as an education and facilitating tool for the mass affluent clients of financial planners to enable them to give effectively to charity.

TCF Training

Our training programme should enable Financial Planners and their Clients to make informed donation and grant making decisions in the vast majority of cases. However, there may be issues relating to more complex giving; for example, funding a development or programme over time, joint ventures, governance or overseas giving which require a more in-depth consideration or plan.

TCF can provide that expertise on a bespoke basis through its expert philanthropy panel chaired by Professor Paul Palmer.