CONSHOHOCKEN, PA — National Philanthropic Trust has developed a framework with the U.S. Treasury Department that allows donor-advised funds to finance qualified contributions to children’s Trump Accounts, expanding the ways charitable assets can be distributed under the federal government’s new tax-advantaged investment program.
The arrangement, developed with the J.P. Morgan Charitable Giving Fund program, will support a commitment by investor Brad Gerstner to contribute $250 per child to accounts benefiting more than 140,000 eligible children in Indiana.
Gerstner, founder and chief executive officer of Altimeter Capital, is directing the contributions through the Brad Gerstner Family Foundation, a donor-advised fund administered through the J.P. Morgan program at National Philanthropic Trust.
The initiative covers children born in 2023 and 2024 who live in Indiana ZIP codes with median family incomes of $150,000 or less. At the stated contribution level, funding for 140,000 children would total $35 million, with the final amount depending on the number of eligible recipients.
The arrangement establishes a potential model for other donors seeking to use charitable funds to finance children’s investment accounts, rather than directing distributions exclusively to traditional nonprofit grant recipients.
Trump Accounts were established under the federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act as tax-advantaged investment accounts for children. The law permits qualified general funding contributions from nonprofit organizations for defined groups of eligible beneficiaries, alongside contributions from individuals, employers and government entities.
According to National Philanthropic Trust, the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service have determined that qualified general funding contributions to Trump Accounts, including distributions from donor-advised funds, further a charitable purpose.
That determination is central to the arrangement because donor-advised funds hold assets designated for charitable purposes and operate under federal tax requirements governing their distributions.
National Philanthropic Trust worked with Treasury officials to develop a structure addressing the intersection of those requirements and the rules governing Trump Account contributions.
“Sometimes new ideas require creating a path that did not previously exist, as was the case here,” said Holly Welch Stubbing, chief executive officer of National Philanthropic Trust.
The organization’s legal, tax and administrative teams evaluated how donor-advised fund distributions could support a defined class of eligible children while satisfying applicable charitable requirements.
Gil Nusbaum, National Philanthropic Trust’s chief administrative and legal officer, described the resulting structure as a framework that could be used by other donor-advised funds to finance qualified contributions.
“Ultimately, NPT worked to provide the right framework so this donor and other donors can successfully achieve their charitable goals,” Nusbaum said.
Gerstner, an Indiana native, helped develop the Trump Accounts initiative before its inclusion in federal law. His foundation’s commitment is intended to provide initial investment capital for qualifying children in his home state.
The arrangement also gives J.P. Morgan’s charitable giving program a role in administering a new category of philanthropic distributions.
“Donors are increasingly looking for scalable, responsible ways to put philanthropic capital to work,” said BJ Goergen, global head of private advisory at J.P. Morgan Private Bank.
National Philanthropic Trust, a Conshohocken-based public charity and independent sponsor of donor-advised funds, has operated for 30 years and supports charitable distributions to nonprofit organizations in the United States and internationally.
The organization characterized the Trump Accounts framework as an additional option for donors rather than a replacement for conventional charitable grantmaking.
Its broader significance will depend on whether other donors adopt similar arrangements and how qualified contributions are implemented under the federal program.
For now, the Indiana commitment provides an initial application of the framework, connecting donor-advised fund assets with a federally established savings vehicle for eligible children.
Support the local news that supports Chester County. MyChesCo delivers reliable, fact-based reporting and essential community resources—free for everyone. If you value that, click here to become a patron today.