The Problem
Many RIAs have spent decades building systems to scale and grow. Whether focused on wealth management, retirement plans, or other advisory services, firms have collectively invested millions in attracting advisors and clients, managing assets and educating investors.
Those investments have made growth more efficient. The next question is what creates momentum after the relationship begins?
The next competitive advantage may be infrastructure that helps relationships compound.
Creating momentum after the relationship begins is still largely handcrafted.
The playbook is familiar:
- Annual client reviews.
- Estate and legacy planning.
- Family meetings to engage the next generation.
All valuable. But they still depend on the next meeting.
What if the relationship kept growing between meetings?
A New Growth Playbook
Financial firms have spent decades building systems to support asset growth.
GoFundMe built a platform for engagement. In just 15 years, it has facilitated more than $40 billion in giving by making generosity easy to share.¹
What if advisory firms could bring that same engagement model inside the advisory relationship instead of outside it?
Historically, donor-advised funds (DAFs) have been used as a vehicle for charitable giving and often lived outside a firm's core client experience. Today, modern DAF technology can serve as a platform for relationship growth. Through branded charitable campaigns and family giving experiences, firms can create meaningful interactions without leaving the advisor's ecosystem.
Imagine what that looks like in practice:
- From the invitation that carries your firm's brand.
- To the tax receipt reinforcing your firm's brand.
- To charitable campaigns that bring clients, family members, and their communities into your firm's ecosystem.
Technology doesn't replace the advisor. It becomes the platform that gives clients, families, and communities new reasons to keep engaging while keeping the advisor at the center of the relationship.
The Flywheel
This isn't primarily about charitable giving.
It's about creating momentum after the relationship begins.
Funnels are designed to acquire clients.
Flywheels create momentum after the relationship begins.
Modern DAF capabilities make that flywheel possible by giving clients, families and communities new reasons to interact within your firm's ecosystem. Each interaction creates momentum for the next.
Research suggests that this isn't just a theory:
T. Rowe Price found that advisors who actively engage clients in charitable planning report measurable business benefits, including 54% reporting improved client retention and 40% reporting stronger relationships with heirs and beneficiaries.²
Those aren’t charitable outcomes. Those are business outcomes.
When firms create more reasons to engage, relationship building no longer has to wait until someone becomes wealthy. Digital giving experiences allow advisors to begin engaging future clients much earlier in the relationship lifecycle.
Retirement-focused firms provide a useful example. The rollover isn't the finish line. It's the beginning of the next phase. The opportunity is to keep creating meaningful reasons for clients, families, and future wealth relationships to engage after the rollover.
Annual meetings don't scale. Family meetings don't scale. Meaningful client experiences do.
The growth opportunity isn't more meetings.
It's building a relationship flywheel that creates momentum from one meeting to the next.
Important Disclosures & Definitions
1 GoFundMe (2025, May 6). GoFundMe Surpasses $40 Billion Raised and Launches GoFundMe Pro to Expand Support for Nonprofits [Press release]. Businesswire.com/News.
2 T. Rowe Price (2026, January 20). The Generosity Effect: Advisor Engagement in Charitable Giving Among High-Net-Worth and Affluent Investors. T. Rowe Price/Insights/whitepaper.
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