Helen Flannery is an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in the Program on Inequality and the Common Good, where she directs the program’s charity reform research work. Helen’s research focuses on the relationship between philanthropy and inequality, including the policies and practices surrounding charitable mega-giving, private foundations, and donor-advised funds.

Prior to coming to IPS, Helen provided nonprofits with reporting, analytics, and industry benchmarking services through her work at Target Analytics and ROI Solutions. At those organizations she also wrote extensively on charitable sector fundraising topics such as direct marketing, sustainer giving, and the economic factors affecting donor behavior.

Latest

The Donor Revolt for Charity Reform

Prominent philanthropists, national funders, and policy organizations are launching a campaign to call for common sense charity reforms.

REPORT: Who Is Lobbying against Common-Sense Charity Reform?

Meet the foundations, donor-advised fund sponsors, and community foundations spending money and time to defend the indefensible status quo.

Tax Rules, Investment Houses, and Donor-Advised Funds: What’s at Stake?

As DAFs become an ever-larger portion of the nonprofit funding system, both sponsors and donors must be held to a higher standard.

National Donor-Advised Funds Are Hiding Behind Donation Processors to Make Themselves Look Better

Some donor-advised fund sponsors claim to democratize giving. They are making themselves look more egalitarian than they actually are.

What Are Donor-Advised Funds and How Do They Work?

DAFs channel huge amounts of cash to ‘culture war’ groups – anonymously. Why do people get tax breaks for using them?

Foundation-to-DAF Conversions: Is It a Thing?

Foundation-to-DAF conversions make up only about 5 percent of all dissolving foundations, but they represent a much larger portion of the dollars.

Donor-Advised Funds Now Consume a Quarter of Individual Charitable Giving

The National Philanthropic Trust’s latest report on DAFs reveals just how rapidly they’re growing.

Say Hello to The Charity Reformer

The first edition of a new Inequality.org newsletter focused on transforming philanthropy for our common good.

Revealing the True Cost of Billionaire Philanthropy

How the ultra-wealthy use charitable giving to avoid taxes and exert influence — while ordinary taxpayers foot the bill.

The True Cost of Billionaire Philanthropy: How the Taxpayer Subsidizes Stockpiled Wealth

Our report estimates that the direct taxpayer subsidy for charitable giving is $111 billion a year.

REPORT: The True Cost of Billionaire Philanthropy

New analysis details how the ultra-wealthy use charitable giving to avoid taxes and exert influence, while ordinary taxpayers foot the bill.

New Report from the Institute for Policy Studies Reveals the True Cost of Billionaire Philanthropy

The new analysis details how the ultra-wealthy use charitable giving to avoid taxes and exert influence, while ordinary taxpayers foot the bill.

Would Your DAF Rather Be a Charity or a Warehouse?

It’s pretty hard to figure out donor-advised funds’ MOs. Our new analysis discerns sponsor priorities from their public websites.

More than Half of America’s 20 Top Public Charities Are Donor-Advised Funds

The highest-earning DAF now takes in $11 billion more than the highest-earning working charity.

The 5 Percent Foundation Payout Requirement May Be a Floor, but the Ceiling Is Awfully Low

Most private foundations stick quite closely to their 5 percent payout requirement. And America’s largest are unlikely to give much more than the minimum.

More than $2.5 Billion in Donor-Advised Fund Grants Went to Other DAFs in 2021

The IRS just released two years of long-awaited nonprofit tax filings. We found an enormous jump in DAF-to-DAF giving.

Private Foundations Gave $2.6 Billion in Grants to National Donor-Advised Funds in 2021

Private foundations are currently allowed to make grants to donor-advised funds, or DAFs, and to count those grants toward their charitable distribution requirement of 5 percent of their assets each year.

The 2022 Giving Slump Exposes the Fragility of Top-Heavy Charity

When ultra-wealthy donors dominate philanthropy, our charities are less resilient.

Until the River Runs Dry

Every year, wealthy donors divert more money into intermediaries, drying up the river of donations meant for working charities. We can change that.

Donor-Advised Funds Now Take in a Fifth of Individual Charitable Giving

A set of our hot takes from the National Philanthropic Trust’s latest report on DAFs.