Charitable objectives or donor benefits? What sponsor language reveals about donor-advised fund priorities and resource flows

Recent years have seen a dramatic rise in donor-advised funds (DAFs). Though housed in public charities, DAFs are often characterized as de facto private foundations due to the deference sponsors typically give to donors’ wishes. The consequence has been frequent calls to institute DAF grant disbursement requirements and other restrictions akin to those on foundations. Despite their growing importance, we know little about what distinguishes different DAF sponsoring organizations beyond a commonly used three-type split between community foundations, national sponsors, and single-issue sponsors. To better understand variation in behavior across DAF sponsoring organizations – which may, in turn, be driven by the donors they attract – we develop a proxy measure of the priorities they display in the language they use on their websites. The measure seeks to identify the extent to which a sponsor emphasizes achieving charitable objectives versus providing extrinsic benefits to donors. In addi..., Data collected consists of elements from: IRS Nonprofit 990 Database; NCCS Exempt Organizations Business Master File; website search
Data processing and analysis described in the README file, , # Charitable Objectives or Donor Benefits? What Sponsor Language Reveals about Donor-Advised Fund Priorities and Resource Flows

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.6wwpzgn8r](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.6wwpzgn8r)

## Description of the data and file structure

Each file uploaded to Dryad has a corresponding Data Description file which lists and describes the variables.

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**DATA FILE PRODUCTION**

Files in bold text represent the publicly provided final data files and Stata code.

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**1.  DOWNLOAD RAW NONPROFIT RETURNS FROM IRS**

Process: Manual process

URL:      [https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/form-990-series-downloads](https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/form-990-series-downloads)

Outputs: Individual XML files of nonprofit annual 990 returns

 

**2.  DOWNLOAD EXEMPT ORGANIZATIONS BUSINESS MA...,