Vanguard Charitable Unveils COVID-19 Mapping App

Tom Burroughes

14 October 2020

Vanguard Charitable, the US organization that sponsors donor-advised funds, has brought out a web-based mapping tool which enables donors to track those geographic areas hit hardest by COVID-19.

The tool is called the Nonprofit Aid Visualizer™, or NAVi .

NAVi uses data on COVID-19 incidence rates in specific areas, community vulnerability to the pandemic and detailed non-profit profiles to help donors find and support certain causes. The service displays information from the Surgo Foundation, Candid’s information on COVID-19 grants and non-profit organizations, and the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

The tool was developed with custom software built by geospatial services firm, Azavea.

Vanguard said that it developed the tool after a donor survey found that 79 per cent of donors would like more resources to give to COVID-19 relief in their local communities, while 50 per cent seek giving opportunities in geographic areas impacted the most severely by the pandemic.

The onset of the pandemic has prompted a surge in giving, Vanguard said. For example, between February 1 and June 30, 2020, Vanguard Charitable donors boosted their grant-making by 44 per cent from a year earlier. Since early 2020, Vanguard Charitable’s donors have given about $1 billion in grants to more than 36,500 different charities to support both COVID-19 related relief efforts and non-profits.

The data highlights the role that donor-advised funds, aka DAFs, increasingly play in the philanthropy for mass-affluent and high net worth individuals space. There remains debate - with tax sometimes playing a role - about the benefits and downsides of DAFs as opposed to private foundations.