AI firm Tifin wades deeper into philanthropy space

Fintech firm eyes bigger piece of growing donor-advised fund pie with key acquisition

Advisor fintech platform Tifin is making a play to better serve the charity-oriented needs of family offices and foundations.

Tifin’s philanthropy platform, Tifin Give, has snapped up Giving Place, a tech solution that’s geared toward family office giving programs and foundations.

With that move, Tifin Give now helps provide oversight on $670 million in philanthropy assets. In the past year alone, the platform has helped to facilitate $40 million in charitable donations.

“Through the Giving Place acquisition, Tifin Give can now address the philanthropic needs of all asset classes in the wealth enterprise space,” Cor Hoekstra, head of wealth enterprise partnerships at Tifin, said in a statement. “We are excited to now reach all types of donors.”

The merger – which puts Tifin Give on solid footing to better support families through advisors, workplaces, and family offices – comes amid a trend of rapid growth in the broad donor-advised fund space.

The sector has witnessed a significant uptick in recent years, with DAF assets nearly doubling from 2018 to 2022. Today, those assets stand at approximately $230 billion, with projections suggesting it could hit $1 trillion by 2030. That’s not including private foundation assets, which rose to $1.25 trillion last year.

Tifin Give’s DAF platform provides users with multicustodial capabilities, SOC-2 security compliance, and a broad array of investment options that includes custom model portfolios. Through a partnership to power an employee DAF solution with Morgan Stanley at Work, the platform has been rolled out across numerous leading wealth enterprises and employers.

“Our focus on supporting and growing the philanthropic capabilities of wealth enterprises will accelerate through this combined company,” said Giving Place’s co-founder and CEO, Paul Lussow, who’ll be leading the newly merged company. Co-founder Alex Paul will continue to play a significant role as a member of the Tifin Give board.

“The key to solving many pain points for donors and their advisors will be powered by the integration of Tifin Give’s digital-first DAF platform with Giving Place’s philanthropy software solution for family offices and private foundations,” Paul said.

This acquisition comes shortly after Tifin announced it was spinning off Tifin AG, its AI-driven solution aimed at helping advisory firms grow.

Last year, the advisor wealthtech company announced the spinoff of its asset manager distribution software, Tifin AMP, following the close of a $10 million Series A funding raise.