The Forum on Philanthropy and the Public Good launched on October 23 with a public conference that brought together Congressional staffers, journalists and people on all sides of the Donor Advised Funds (DAF) issue to explore such topics as: What has been the effect of DAF’s on charitable giving? Should DAFs be subject to a payout rule, and if so, what should that rule be? And, should all sponsoring organizations of DAFs be treated the same?
“The Rise of Donor Advised Funds: Should Congress Respond?” drew an overflow crowd to The University Club in Washington, DC. Featured speakers and panelists included Lila Corwin Berman (Temple University), Andrea Levere (Corporation for Enterprise Development), James Andreoni (University of California, San Diego), Brian Galle (Georgetown Law School), Paul Arnsberger (Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income), Harold Hancock (Tax Counsel, House Ways and Means Committee), Alan Lee (Tax Counsel, House Ways and Means Committee), Chris Conlin (Tax Counsel, Senator Grassley), Gordon Clay (Legislative Counsel, Joint Committee on Taxation), Victoria Bjorklund (Simpson Thacher–retired), Roger Colinvaux (Columbus School of Law, The Catholic University of America), Al Cantor (Alan Cantor Consulting), Joanne Florino (Philanthropy Roundtable), Tom Bridge (Fidelity Charitable), Howard Husock (The Manhattan Institute), Terry Mazany (Chicago Community Trust), and Alicia Philipp (The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta).
The Forum’s co-founder and director, BC Law professor Ray Madoff, gave the welcome and introduction to the group. BC Law adjunct professor and Forum co-founder and special advisor Bill Bagley gave the concluding thoughts.
The conference was the subject of an in-depth article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, “Role of Donor-Advised Funds Prompts Heated Debate.”