National Philanthropic Trust, an independent charity, has passed the $1 billion mark in assets under management, President and CEO Eileen Heisman said Tuesday.
NPT is the fourth-leading provider of donor-advised funds (DAFs) in the country (behind Fidelity, Schwab and Vanguard), and ranks among the 25 largest grant-making organizations. Its assets under management represent nearly 2,000 DAF accounts, including about 20 corporate accounts, Heisman told AdvisorOne in a telephone interview before NPT’s announcement later this week.
During its 15-year history, NPT has raised more than $2.5 billion, and made some 55,000 grants totaling nearly $1.5 billion.
During the recent recession, Heisman (left) said, the DAF sector not only remained robust, but actually grew. She said that although many parts of the economy were suffering, 90% of the people in the country continued to work, and some of those were still accumulating wealth.
“Those who were accumulating wealth in excess of what they needed to live were still doing financial, estate and tax planning. DAFs are part of financial, estate and tax planning, and were being used,” Heisman said.