The Children's Tumor Foundation
10/09/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 10/09/2025 08:56
Making Giving Simple: One Family’s Journey with a Donor-Advised Fund.
What Makes Giving Through a DAF Meaningful
The Children's Tumor Foundation (CTF) is proud to collaborate in DAF Day, a giving day that reframes how Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) are used and who uses them. A DAF is a tax-advantaged charitable giving account-think of it like a 401(k) for retirement or a health savings account (HSA) for health care expenses. CTF's partnership with DAFpay makes it easy to give a DAF gift in just a few clicks, without needing to contact your financial advisor or sponsoring organization.
At CTF, DAFs play a growing role in advancing research and supporting families living with NF. To illustrate this in practice, we spoke with Suresh Nagappan & Sarah Jordan, longtime supporters of CTF who give through a DAF. In this conversation, Suresh and Sarah share how they got started, what makes giving through a DAF meaningful, and why supporting CTF's mission is so important to them.Three people are posing and smiling at an indoor event, with other attendees in the background. All are wearing event lanyards.
A DAF Day interview with CTF DAF Donors
Can you tell us a little about yourself and what inspires your philanthropy?
We live in Greensboro, NC, and have been involved with the Children's Tumor Foundation since 2010. Our daughter, age 17, has NF1. We have a 15-year-old son as well. We were moved to give to CTF because, like many families with NF, we are hoping for better treatments for NF in the future.
What made you decide to open a DAF?
Around 2017, we started learning about DAFs. They seemed like a great way to achieve the same philanthropic goals with less hassle. We were able to "bunch" our charitable giving that year, which made doing taxes in subsequent years much easier.
What do you find most convenient or meaningful about giving through a DAF?
DAFs have made our giving far easier and more convenient than before, and they have several tax advantages. To get started, you can donate money or an appreciated security to a donor-advised fund hosted by an organization. Once started, you can recommend donations through the host organization, typically online. This eliminates the need to keep track of receipts for tax purposes, send checks, or find individual charity websites. All your giving is recorded by the donor fund for easy access later.
There is no deadline (such as December 31) to complete giving, so we are able to donate when it means the most. Money in the donor-advised fund grows tax-free. A meaningful aspect of DAFs is that it is a way to pass on the concept of philanthropy to our kids. Ultimately, they will take over the fund, so we've been able to involve them in decisions about giving now.
Can you share what first drew you to support the Children's Tumor Foundation?
After our daughter was diagnosed with NF1 in 2008, we were looking to get involved with the NF community. As a relatively rare disease, we didn't know anyone else who had NF. CTF was a way to connect with other NF families in our area. Getting involved with CTF was a small way of working toward that goal.
Is there a particular program, initiative, or story from CTF that has been especially meaningful to you?
From a medical perspective, the research that CTF supports is very exciting. Families and patients never know exactly which manifestations of NF a person might develop, so it is important to support research on a variety of conditions, and that takes funding. On a more practical level, programs that CTF sponsors to connect community members have been very helpful. We attended the NF Summit this summer for the first time, and it was great for us to meet other families and for our daughter to meet peers affected by NF.
What is one thing you wish more people understood about DAFs?
When you donate with a credit card, CTF must pay a fee to process that donation. With a DAF, the fund sends a check or electronic transfer. This avoids the fee, so the entire donation goes to CTF.
If you could leave readers with one message about why you choose to give through your DAF, what would it be?
Setting up a DAF can sound a little intimidating, but it really is very easy to establish and use. We're very glad we went down the DAF path.
Donate for National DAF Day, October 9th
As we participate in National DAF Day on October 9th, this story from Suresh Nagappan and Sarah Jordan is a reminder of how flexible, strategic, and impactful donor-advised giving can be. If you have a DAF, consider recommending a grant to the Children's Tumor Foundation to accelerate NF research and bring hope to families, or explore how a sponsoring organization-whether a community foundation, financial institution, or other provider-can help you make the most of your giving. Every gift, large or small, contributes to lasting change for the NF community.
The Children's Tumor Foundation published this content on October 09, 2025, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on October 09, 2025 at 14:56 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]