June 13, 2026
As conversations about impact investing, community investment, and mission-driven capital continue to evolve, I have become increasingly interested in the language we use to describe different forms of capital deployment.
Terms such as “impact investing,” “community investing,” and “philanthropic capital” are often used interchangeably, yet important legal and economic distinctions remain. Donor-advised funds (DAFs), for example, are frequently discussed alongside investment strategies even though they operate under a fundamentally different legal structure.
In this memo, co-authored with Steven Virgil, Professor at Wake Forest University School of Law, we examine the legal framework governing donor-advised funds, the rights retained by donors, the authority exercised by sponsoring organizations, and emerging policy debates surrounding donor control and charitable asset distribution.
At the center of the discussion is a distinction that is often overlooked: while donors may retain advisory privileges after contributing assets to a donor-advised fund, they relinquish legal ownership and enforceable control of those assets.
As philanthropic, investment, and community development frameworks increasingly intersect, greater precision in how we describe these tools can help donors, practitioners, and policymakers better understand both their opportunities and limitations.
Read the memo → Donor-Advised Funds, Legal Structure, and the Language of Philanthropic Capital