Epic Philanthropy

Name: Epic Philanthropy
Address: 5613 S. Prince Street Suite E, Littleton, CO, 80120, US
Telephone: (720)8182357

Home
United States
Littleton, CO
Epic Philanthropy

You want your giving to matter. To create real change. To reflect what you truly value.

We help individuals, families, and organizations transform generous intentions into strategic, lasting impact.

08/27/2026

Close to 1 in 4 charitable dollars flows through a donor-advised fund. The largest charity in the country is...Fidelity Charitable. Yep. A DAF.

2/3 of DAF gifts are under $1,000. That’s completely opposite of the idea that DAFs belong only to people that have their names on buildings.

If you have a DAF, you’re already part of this giving system. The next step is using it with intention, supporting the organizations and causes you care about while keeping your Giving Strategy clear.

Being a responsible donor includes deploying those funds and not saving all of it for the next gen. Being a responsible nonprofit involves understanding how to better cultivate and steward this demographic.

08/25/2026

Dear Wealth Advisor,

Not every client who mentions giving back needs a private foundation.

Some do but it's your job to know for sure before they ask you to set one up.

A foundation is custom. It's expensive and slow to set up. They'll need a dedicated board, staff, or a hired administrator, but they'll have full control over investments and grantmaking. It fits a client who wants complete oversight but they know they will pay for it in complexity and cost.

A DAF is relatively simple, pretty much off-the-rack. It's usually quick to set up, low cost, the sponsor handles compliance and filings, and your client still recommends where the money goes. It fits a client who wants to give seriously without running a small foundation on the side.

Neither is better because they each solve different problems. A client with a Master Giving Strategy already in place will tell you which one they actually need. A client without one will ask for a foundation because it sounds impressive, not because it fits.

Match the vehicle to the client, not the client to the vehicle.

Sincerely,
Liza

P.S. Some DAF sponsors will even let you name the fund something like "The Epic Family Foundation," so your client gets the name without the overhead.

08/20/2026

Nonprofit leaders, check your commitment cards before a donor-advised fund grant gets stuck in compliance review.

There's a small wording snafu that can come with a big problem. When a donor signs a pledge, that commitment is what the IRS views as a legally binding debt and a DAF grant can't satisfy a personal debt, which will likely disqualify the gift.

Use the word "intention" when documenting a donor's charitable direction. It preserves the donor's intent without creating an enforceable promise.

This is the kind of detail we cover in Epic Philanthropy's upcoming 8-week Activating Donor-Advised Funds for Nonprofit Leaders cohort, beginning September 8. We'll work through compliance rules, DAF-ready systems, messaging, gift flow, tracking, stewardship, and more. You'll walk away with a fully workable DAF fundraising plan specific to your organization.

If your nonprofit wants to build DAF fundraising into its overall strategy, you know where to find me.

08/18/2026

The fastest donor-advised fund readiness fix might be sitting in your website footer.

Before you build a full DAF fundraising plan, check these five non-negotiables:

1. Put your nonprofit's legal name, EIN, address on all website footers.
2. Create a dedicated DAF page that includes a trained DAF staff contact
3. Add DAF Giving in your main navigation
4. Make major DAF sponsor portals easy to find
5. Create a downloadable verification packet

These pieces work together. A footer update is quick, but sustainable DAF fundraising takes stronger systems, clearer communication, and consistent follow-through.

That's what we'll build in Epic Philanthropy's Activating Donor-Advised Funds for Nonprofit Leaders cohort, an 8-week live program beginning September 8 at 2:00 PM ET. You'll work through DAF foundations and compliance, your digital front door, messaging, gift flow, tracking and stewardship, and advisor and community foundation relationships, properly rather than piecemeal. Link below. ⬇️

If you're ready to make DAF giving easier for your donors and your team, you know where to find me.

08/14/2026

I get it, DAF fundraising has a reputation. It's the "eat your vegetables" of nonprofit development work. But yesterday, Karen Houghton, CEO of Infinite Giving, and I chatted about this and proved it doesn't have to be the broccoli of the nonprofit world. Not even a tiny bit.

We walked through what nonprofits actually need to do to cultivate and steward DAF donors (not just cross their fingers and hope one shows up). The questions that rolled in were fantastic. If we didn't get to yours, hit us up at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]). We want to hear it.

The full blog recap from Infinite Giving is in the comments: How to Scale Generosity Through Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs)

Now, if you're tired of collecting random DAF tips and you're ready to actually understand and build a system, my 8-week live cohort, "Activating Donor-Advised Funds for Nonprofit Leaders," starts September 8. We're going to build your digital front door, your messaging, your gift flow, your tracking systems, and the relationships that actually move grants to your organization. Live office hours, practical templates, real relationships, and probably some fun too.

So you can keep guessing what DAF donors want or need, or you can build the thing that brings them to you. Your move.

Learn more at the link in the comments. Only 10 early-bird spots. Sign up today.

Thanks to the team at Infinite Giving for making this such a thoughtful conversation. Let's do it again. You're an amazing group to work with.

08/13/2026

Missed Connection: DAF Sponsor 4 Nonprofit

You were doing good work in the community, exactly the kind of organization our donor wanted to support. I was the donor-advised fund, hoping you'd answer, calling to verify a few details before releasing a grant that had already been recommended to you.

I called your main number. It rang and rang. No one picked up (you probably thought this was spam, I get it, that happens a lot), and there was no voicemail so I couldn't give you my number.

I waited 30 days but you never called back. I even tried a few times, also by email. The grant was canceled because you didn't call, you didn't write. Did we need to send this by carrier pigeon?

I think about it sometimes. All that time doing meaningful work, and it fell apart over you not emailing me back.

💔

That story isn't unusual. Nonprofits don't understand this tool and someone contacting you saying, "I have funds for your nonprofit" feels too good to be true. Nonprofits have heard all the ways for "free/easy funding". If you didn't know any better, you'd likely assume it was a scam.

You just didn't know. Had you known more about DAFs, you would've been certain not to miss that connection.

So I built the thing I wish had existed. Activating Donor-Advised Funds for Nonprofit Leaders is an 8-week live cohort where you build the systems, messaging, and relationships that turn DAF donors into a recurring source of revenue. Learn more in the comments. ⬇️

If you're a nonprofit leader who thinks you can just apply for a DAF grant like a regular foundation grant, click the link in the comments. I'll save you some time: you can't. But you can learn what actually works.

08/11/2026

Last year I evaluated a nonprofit that had built programs in a region facing violent instability. When a crisis made the area unreachable, its flagship project collapsed. I asked the director what happened to the people they'd been serving, both the clients and the program staff on the ground. He told me he didn't know. They hadn't tracked participants closely enough to say.

Around the same time, I came across another grassroots org working in the same country, also blocked from traveling there. Its local staff kept working. Leadership kept paying them a living wage, so services never stopped.

Same disruption, similar crisis, two very different answers to the same question.

The first had a board filled with executives with fancy resumes and major institutional backgrounds. It looked like a nonprofit a family could commit to for a long time. In reality, it had operated at a loss for years, its liabilities had grown past what it owned, and donations were mostly covering old debt, not funding anything new.

None of that mess shows up on a website, but it sure shows up when you ask what happened to the people.

Next time an org you support hits a programmatic roadblock, ask what happened to the people. Annual reports won't tell you, but the answer will.

08/08/2026

This felt like an appropriate level of celebration for few hours well spent. Agree?

I had the opportunity to preview Daylight's new Essentials of Modern DAF Advising Certificate last month. TBH, I wasn't sure it would teach me a whole lot of new info. I mean, over the years I've sat through literally hundreds of meetings and trainings about donor-advised funds. I knew it would be great content (Daylight stuff always is), but maybe just a refresher.

It's really, really good. And I took a ton of notes.

It's probably 2-3 hours with 2 modules. They break down the DAF structure and sponsor landscape without a bias toward one sponsor type over another. There's practical tools like a DAF Succession Decision Framework, questions to ask DAF sponsors, and a comparison of DAFs vs. private foundations. The kind of stuff that I never really thought to ask about.

It's part of the Challenge, which means it's free through August 31. Then it's $300. You can earn CE credits for it too.

If you work with donors, or just want a solid resource that explains how these accounts actually work, this is worth a few hours.

I realize this sounds like an ad, but it's not. I do get a referral credit, but I'd post this even if I didn't, so tell them I sent you. Big thanks to Megan Lemieux Bell, IPA for including me in this preview! The link is in the comments.

Have fun!

Address

5613 S. Prince Street Suite E
Littleton, CO
80120

Telephone

(720)8182357

Website

http://epicphilanthropy.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Epic Philanthropy posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Epic Philanthropy:

Want your business to be the top-listed Business in Littleton?