Reckoning with one’s own privilege can be an overwhelming experience for those of us who enter in this work of community participation. I felt this sense of déjà vu while reading We Need To Talk: A Memoir About Wealth, by donor organizer and #HalfMyDAF cofounder Jen Risher.
Like Jen, I also grew up in a modest, lower-middle-class family. From an early age, I knew I was out of step with the material wealth I saw around me. Raised in a tony suburb, I came to understand wealth as something that came with its own language – one that you needed to at least pretend to speak if you wanted to get ahead.
Jen’s particular journey is distinct from mine – as an adult, she and her husband quite literally struck it rich as early Microsoft employees and suddenly had to contend with an unimaginable financial windfall – but the core question in We Need to Talk about what stories we tell ourselves about money is deeply familiar. Particularly for those of us with other privileges committed to a broader vision of economic justice, how we relate to money becomes a fundamental part of how we see ourselves in this work. For me, it’s been an ongoing dance: if I’m in the room but don’t feel like I belong, how do I create change?
I provide this personal context because the best way to understand writing like Jen’s is to put yourself in her shoes. Our relationships with money – how much we have, why we have it, how we feel about it, what we think about other people who have it, and how we use it (or, crucially, tell ourselves we “should” use it) – color the change we can make with it.
Jen’s #HalfMyDAF campaign addresses an essential question for her: what steps can be taken to avoid hoarding wealth? #HalfMyDAF, which Jen and her husband launched in 2020, mobilizes donors with donor-advised funds (DAFs) to donate at least half of their value between March and September each year. Those who participate are eligible to have their donations matched, increasing the impact for nonprofits. To date, #HalfMyDAF has moved more than $70 million out of DAFs and into communities. And while there is still a long way to go to tackle the billions sitting in DAFs today, #HalfMyDAF represents an important start.
Below is our recent conversation, edited for clarity.
What is the bottom-line message you want to get out to donors about the #HalfMyDAF campaign?
Today's problems are not going to get easier to solve by waiting and holding on to money.
When you put money into a foundation, generally, 95% of it sits and is invested, and so it's not being given out. It’s the same with the DAF: if you're putting money into a DAF and you're not moving it through, it's really not being put to work.
And if you care about literacy, for example, and you're going to wait for five years before you do anything with that money, that’s a child that’s going to grow up without being able to read. Or if you care about climate change – well, waiting for whatever you're waiting for, it is not going to help. The dollar today is worth a lot more than it is in 10 years.
There's so much that we need to do now, and so I'm just a big advocate of “give now”.
That’s what #HalfMyDAF is all about. There’s an urgency here that we need to be giving, now. More wealth is going to get created. There’s not going to be scarcity. There is a huge abundance here that we need to be putting to work.
What is the most surprising discovery you've made around your work with #HalfMyDAF?
I didn't know when we started how the system was designed to keep the money sitting versus actually moving it out. We talked to Fidelity and Schwab and Vanguard, we talked to community foundations, but none of them were helping us actually move the money, because they make money on that money.
And I don't blame the donor – the donor either has forgotten they had a DAF because they're busy with their life, or they are very fearful about getting it wrong. It’s giving the donor encouragement to just get started.
To what extent do you think the "wealth preservation complex" (e.g. large institutions like Fidelity or Schwab) perpetuate keeping donors from spending down their DAFs? Is unlocking more DAF capital a question of institutions changing, or donors, or both?
Jen Risher:
The DAF sponsors and “wealth preservation complex” have always been in the business of making money. I don’t blame donors. They get stuck for very human reasons.
If DAF sponsors wanted to move money, they could. At #HalfMyDAF, we are helping motivate donors by adding inspiration in the form of matching grants as well as a sense of urgency to giving with the deadlines of June 27th and September 26th. We’ve learned that matching grants and deadlines work. If the national DAF sponsors and community foundations did something to inspire donors, they could help move a lot more money.
How do you stay mindful of power dynamics in donor-grantee relationships?
There's a real joy in getting involved and seeing [giving] as a partnership, rather than, “I'm going to give money to you.” It's thinking about the nonprofits you support as partners and getting to know the real issues.
For me, for example, it's Girls on the Run – I had been giving to them and then was like, Okay, I want to really understand this organization. And I became a coach for girls, and it was messy and it was exciting, and I really felt the value of it. It made me an even more avid donor to that organization, and really made me appreciate the work they do.
Those things make a difference, feeling like you are one human being giving with another human being to solve a problem, or to give to a certain population. I think it adds to the beauty of giving, and I think it does keep people more engaged and involved long term.
Recent articles like this one make the case that now is the time for foundation endowments to be spent down. Do you agree?
Yes. Problems aren’t going away or getting easier to solve. With USAID funding frozen and things like the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative cutting DEI funding, individual giving as well as giving from foundations is needed now more than ever.
Donors need to recognize the work being done in the nonprofit sector still needs to get done and yet, funding is being pulled back or taken away. Now is the time for donors to show up and double down on giving to the places and causes and people they want to support.
Let's say someone wakes up today and finds themselves in kind of the same situation you did where all of a sudden they hit the financial jackpot and become very, very wealthy. Looking back on your own journey and what you're doing right now, what would be your advice for that person?
I think the first thing that would be helpful for people to do is really understand their relationship with money, which is really getting to understand their own money story. Money is very emotional. Until you actually look at the triggers and how you're reacting to things, you're kind of on autopilot. But when you understand, “oh, yeah, that's how I feel about spending or saving money,” you're in a position to override that autopilot.
I also think it’s important to get comfortable with our relationship with money for our sense of well-being, but also for how we show up in the world. Money doesn’t change people. It amplifies what’s there. And when we can get more comfortable with our money and move out of any sense of shame or a desire to hide our money, we can move into meaning and purpose and use our money as a tool for good.
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