Your client would like to maintain personal involvement in charitable giving but may not want to maintain or set up a separate private foundation.  With a donor advised fund, your client can create a fund without having to name any specific charitable organizations or causes.  They retain the right to recommend grants to charitable agencies of their choice over time, so that while the tax benefit starts immediately, grant decisions can be made over the years.

Flexibility is not the only advantage to setting up a donor advised fund.  Other benefits include simplified tax reporting, personalized service, local expertise, and the satisfaction of watching their fund grow as it is invested with the some of the best investment managers in the country.  And if your client wishes, his or her children may be successor advisors to the fund, thus continuing their family’s philanthropic involvement in the community.