Schwab Donor-Advised Fund Investment Options: Pools, Tiers, Fees

Schwab’s donor-advised fund investment options run from a single money-market pool to a full advisor-managed portfolio. Inside a Core account you pick from 15 pre-built investment pools with no minimum balance; at $100,000 or more you can open a Professionally Managed Account and hand day-to-day investing to an approved independent advisor. The sponsoring charity, Schwab Charitable, rebranded to DAFgiving360 at its 25th anniversary, but the account structure and investment lineup carried over unchanged.

The Two Account Tiers

Your investment choices depend on which account you open. Both types share the same $50 minimum grant to any qualified charity.1DAFgiving360. Fees and Account Minimums

  • A Core Account has no minimum balance. You choose from 15 pre-built investment pools built around institutional mutual funds and ETFs screened by the Schwab Center for Financial Research. You can hold one pool or split across several.
  • A Professionally Managed Account requires $100,000. You recommend an independent investment advisor, DAFgiving360 approves them, and the advisor manages the portfolio under an Investment Advisory Agreement. The advisor must work with Schwab Advisor Services.

Most donors sit in the Core tier and use the pools directly.

The 15 Investment Pools

Each pool is built from one or more underlying funds and reports performance net of fees.2DAFgiving360. Investment Options There are two families: ready-made allocation pools that hold a mix of asset classes, and single-asset pools you can combine yourself.

Asset Allocation Pools

Four pools give you a diversified mix in a single choice, with rebalancing handled for you:

  • Conservative Pool — roughly 70% fixed income and 30% equities, using JPMorgan Investor Conservative Growth (ONCFX).
  • Balanced Pool — 35% to 65% equities with the rest in fixed income, using Janus Henderson Balanced Fund (JBALX).
  • Growth Pool — approximately 80% stocks, 16% bonds and cash, and 4% alternatives, using T. Rowe Price Spectrum Moderate Growth Allocation (TGIPX).
  • Socially Responsible Balanced Pool — 50% to 75% equities with the balance in debt, using Pax Sustainable Allocation (PAXIX).

Single Asset Class Pools

The remaining 11 pools isolate one slice of the market. Use them when you want a custom allocation without opening a Professionally Managed Account, or when your DAF is meant to complement a portfolio you already hold elsewhere.

  • Total Market Equity Index Pool — broad U.S. stocks across large, mid, and small cap (Schwab Total Stock Market Index Fund, SWTSX).
  • Small-Cap Equity Pool — U.S. small caps (Schwab Small-Cap Index Fund, SWSSX).
  • Large-Cap Equity Managed Pool — large-cap U.S. stocks screened with ESG criteria (Parnassus Core Equity Fund, PRILX).
  • Income Index Pool — investment-grade taxable bonds (Schwab US Aggregate Bond Index Fund, SWAGX).
  • Income Pool — actively managed for current income and capital preservation (Dodge & Cox Income Fund, DODIX).
  • Short-Term Income Pool — high-quality bonds maturing in five years or less (Principal Short-Term Income Fund, PSHIX).
  • Inflation Protected Bond Pool — U.S. TIPS (Schwab Treasury Inflation Protected Securities Index Fund, SWRSX).
  • Money Market Pool — Schwab Government Money Fund (SGUXX). Useful as a holding place between decisions or ahead of a large grant.
  • Socially Responsible Fixed Income Pool — investment-grade U.S. bonds with ESG screening (TIAA-CREF Core Impact Bond Fund, TSBIX).

Socially Responsible Options

Three of the 15 pools integrate environmental, social, and governance analysis into security selection rather than only excluding sectors. They cover fixed income (TSBIX), a balanced mix (PAXIX), and large-cap equity (PRILX), and they sit alongside the other pools with no separate tier or added cost.2DAFgiving360. Investment Options The balanced SRI pool works as a one-pool diversified holding for donors who want values alignment across both stocks and bonds.

How the Professionally Managed Account Works

The Professionally Managed Account is not a self-directed brokerage window. You recommend an independent advisor to DAFgiving360; once approved, that advisor takes over investing under an agreement with the sponsoring charity and can access a wider investment universe than the 15 standard pools.1DAFgiving360. Fees and Account Minimums Advisor fees are capped at 1% of the account balance per year and are deducted quarterly by the advisor directly from the account, on top of the administrative fee DAFgiving360 charges.

Automatic rebalancing is not built in the way it is for the standard allocation pools. Your advisor handles it. This tier tends to make sense when the DAF is one piece of a broader wealth plan and you want one advisor coordinating the charitable portfolio with your personal accounts.

What It Costs

DAFgiving360 charges a tiered annualized administrative fee based on average daily account balance:1DAFgiving360. Fees and Account Minimums

  • First $500,000: 0.60%
  • Next $500,000: 0.30%
  • Next $1,500,000: 0.20%
  • Next $2,500,000: 0.15%
  • Next $5,000,000: 0.13%
  • Next $5,000,000: 0.12%
  • Over $15,000,000: 0.10%

For Core Accounts, the administrative fee is embedded in each pool’s operating expenses rather than shown as a separate deduction. Accounts above $500,000 invested in pools get a quarterly rebate to reflect the lower tier rates, provided the account is still open when the rebate is paid. Each underlying mutual fund or ETF also carries its own expense ratio, and published pool returns are already net of every layer including the 0.60% administrative charge.

Professionally Managed Accounts pay the same tiered administrative fee, assessed quarterly against the account’s average value for the prior quarter, plus the advisor’s fee of up to 1%. A $200,000 professionally managed account can therefore see 0.60% in administrative fees on top of as much as 1.00% in advisory fees — 1.60% before any underlying fund expenses. That drag compounds, so the added flexibility needs to justify itself.

Moving Money Between Pools

Reallocation is done through the online portal. You submit a request to shift a percentage of your balance from one pool to another, and the system executes the sale and purchase as a single coordinated transaction. Requests submitted before market close (typically 4:00 PM Eastern) execute at that day’s closing net asset value; anything later processes the next business day. There is no stated limit on frequency, and the portal issues a confirmation number for each request.

A common use is moving from a growth-oriented pool into the Money Market Pool ahead of a planned grant, so the dollars you intend to distribute aren’t exposed to a market move in the interim. In a Professionally Managed Account, allocation changes flow through your advisor rather than the donor portal, governed by the advisor’s agreement with DAFgiving360.