A T. Rowe Price donor-advised fund starts with an irrevocable contribution of at least $5,000 in cash or appreciated securities to the T. Rowe Price Program for Charitable Giving, a separate 501(c)(3) public charity.1T. Rowe Price Charitable. How a Donor-Advised Fund Works You claim an income tax deduction the year you contribute, then recommend grants to qualified charities on your own timeline while the balance grows tax-free inside T. Rowe Price investment pools.
How the Account Works
A donor-advised fund is a separately identified account maintained by a sponsoring 501(c)(3) charity.2Internal Revenue Service. Donor-Advised Funds The T. Rowe Price Program for Charitable Giving, Inc. is the sponsor, and its board holds ultimate legal authority over investment and grant decisions.3T. Rowe Price Charitable. Frequently Asked Questions Once you contribute, the assets belong to the charity. You keep advisory privileges over how the money is invested and where grants go, but you cannot pull funds back for personal use. That legal structure is what makes the contribution fully deductible.
Individuals and corporations can both open accounts, and the $5,000 minimum applies either way.4T. Rowe Price Charitable. GIVE Brochure After opening, you can add to the account any time.
Funding the Account
The program accepts cash and long-term appreciated securities as the standard contribution types.1T. Rowe Price Charitable. How a Donor-Advised Fund Works Donating appreciated stock or mutual fund shares you have held longer than a year is usually the most tax-efficient path: you avoid capital gains on the built-in appreciation and deduct the full fair market value at transfer.
For publicly traded securities, the IRS defines fair market value as the average of the highest and lowest quoted selling prices on the date ownership transfers. A share with an $80 high and $76 low on the transfer date is valued at $78.5Internal Revenue Service. Publication 561 – Determining the Value of Donated Property Your brokerage moves the shares directly into the sponsor’s account, and the sponsor takes legal ownership at settlement.
Form 8283 for Non-Cash Gifts
Donate publicly traded securities worth more than $500 in total and you must file IRS Form 8283 with your return. Publicly traded securities go in Section A regardless of value and do not require a qualified appraisal. Other non-cash property worth more than $5,000 per item requires both a qualified appraisal and Section B.6Internal Revenue Service. Form 8283 – Noncash Charitable Contributions Missing this form when it applies is one of the fastest ways to lose the deduction in an audit.
Investment Pools
You recommend how the account is allocated across the program’s investment pools, each built entirely from T. Rowe Price mutual funds.7T. Rowe Price Charitable. Investment Options You cannot pick individual stocks or bring in outside managers. Ten pre-built pools span the risk range, and allocations can shift at any time:
- Gift Preservation Pool: U.S. Treasury Money Fund, focused on holding value.
- U.S. Bond Index Pool: broad bond index.
- Income Pool: Spectrum Income Fund, bonds with some equity exposure.
- Conservative Growth and Moderate Growth Pools: balanced stock-and-bond mixes at different ratios.
- Growth and Aggressive Growth Pools: equity-heavy allocations for longer time horizons.
- U.S. Equity Index Pool: large-, mid-, and small-cap index blend.
- International Equity Index Pool: international stock index exposure.
- Global Impact Equity Pool: impact-focused equity fund.
Growth inside the account is tax-free, so all returns stay available for future grants. The board follows donor recommendations unless doing so would jeopardize the fund’s charitable status.3T. Rowe Price Charitable. Frequently Asked Questions
Administrative Fees
Fees are tiered by account size, calculated daily on a prorated basis, and reflected in each pool’s net asset value rather than billed as a separate charge.8T. Rowe Price Charitable. Fees The tiers:
- First $500,000: 0.50%
- Next $500,000: 0.39%
- Next $1,500,000: 0.18%
- Next $2,500,000: 0.12%
- Next $10,000,000: 0.10%
- Over $15,000,000: 0.09%
A $100,000 account pays roughly $500 a year in administrative fees. These are separate from the expense ratios of the underlying mutual funds in each pool.
Your Tax Deduction
The deduction hits in the year the contribution enters the account, not when grants later go out. It goes on Schedule A of Form 1040, so you need to itemize.9Internal Revenue Service. Schedule A (Form 1040) – Itemized Deductions For 2026, the standard deduction is $16,100 for single filers and $32,200 for married couples filing jointly.10Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026 Your total itemized deductions have to clear that threshold for the charitable gift to produce any benefit.
AGI Limits and Carryforward
How much of the contribution you can deduct in one year depends on what you gave:
- Cash: deductible up to 60% of AGI. The limit, originally in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, was made permanent by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 170 – Charitable, etc., Contributions and Gifts
- Long-term appreciated securities at full fair market value: deductible up to 30% of AGI.12Internal Revenue Service. Charitable Contribution Deductions
Anything over the annual cap carries forward for up to five more tax years.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 170 – Charitable, etc., Contributions and Gifts A large one-time contribution isn’t wasted if it overshoots.
The 0.5% Floor Starting in 2026
Beginning in 2026, the charitable deduction is reduced by the first 0.5% of your contribution base (essentially AGI). At $300,000 of AGI, the first $1,500 of charitable contributions produces no deduction.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 170 – Charitable, etc., Contributions and Gifts For a sizable DAF contribution, it’s a small haircut, but worth knowing when you are running numbers.
Bunching Multiple Years Into One
This is where the account earns its keep for many donors. If your usual annual giving doesn’t push total itemized deductions above the standard deduction, those gifts produce no tax benefit. Bunching solves that: contribute two or three years’ worth of giving to the account in a single year, itemize that year for a large deduction, and take the standard deduction the other years. Grant recommendations continue on your normal schedule, so recipient charities see no change.
Say a married couple filing jointly in 2026 gives $10,000 a year to charity and has $15,000 in other itemizable expenses. At $25,000, they take the standard deduction every year and get nothing for their gifts. Put $30,000 into the account in one year and their itemized total is $45,000, well past the $32,200 standard deduction. The next two years, they take the standard deduction while the account distributes the grants.
Keep the Acknowledgment Letter
The program sends a written acknowledgment for every contribution. Keep it. The IRS requires written substantiation for any charitable contribution of $250 or more, and the letter confirms you received no goods or services in exchange. Grants later paid out to charities do not generate a second deduction; the tax benefit was captured when the money entered the account.
Recommending Grants
You recommend grants through the online portal by naming a recipient charity and an amount. The minimum grant is $100, with no cap on how many you make.13T. Rowe Price Charitable. Benefits of a Donor-Advised Fund The sponsor verifies that the recipient is a qualified 501(c)(3) public charity before releasing the money.2Internal Revenue Service. Donor-Advised Funds
Grants cannot go to private non-operating foundations, individuals, or political organizations, and they cannot produce a personal benefit to you. The common blocked uses: fulfilling a legally binding pledge, buying event tickets or auction items, and paying membership dues that come with benefits. If a distribution would produce anything other than a fully tax-deductible charitable gift, expect the sponsor to decline it. A prohibited distribution triggers a 20% excise tax on the sponsor under federal law, and a knowing fund manager owes 5% capped at $10,000 per distribution.14Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 4966 – Taxes on Taxable Distributions The tax falls on the sponsor, not on you, but it explains the vetting.
Approved grants are paid with a letter identifying the fund. You can be named or remain anonymous. The program keeps the records, which spares you tracking dozens of individual donation receipts at tax time.
Successors and What Happens to the Balance
The account can outlast you. Naming successor advisors lets them continue recommending grants after your death or incapacitation; they hold no authority while you are active. You can also name a beneficiary organization, a qualified charity that receives what remains after all named advisors are gone.15T. Rowe Price Charitable. T. Rowe Price Charitable Policies Without a beneficiary designation, the board decides how to distribute the remaining assets, which may not match what you would have chosen.
Review these designations periodically. Relationships and priorities change, and a successor or beneficiary named years ago may no longer reflect either.