Company: DAFgiving360, Charles Schwab's donor-advised fund program
My role: Senior Manager, Content Marketing
Timeline: January 2025 to March 2026
Audience: Donors, high-net-worth clients, and financial advisors
At a glance
Wrote with two subject matter experts: a Certified Advisor in Philanthropy and a CPA/CFP
Every claim, figure, and recommendation passed legal and compliance review to YMYL financial standards
Explained 10 tax strategies in plain language, each labeled by who benefits
Built for a seasonal, high-intent search moment: year-end tax planning
The challenge
Donor-advised funds are a complex financial product, and charitable tax rules are harder still. Donors want to know how to give more and lower their tax bill, but the answer depends on their age, their assets, and whether they itemize. The content had to be accurate enough for legal, compliance, and a CPA, and clear enough for a donor reading on their phone in December.
What I built
10 Ways to Give More to Charity and Reduce Your Taxes is DAFgiving360's annual year-end giving guide.
Structure built for scanning. I organized the guide into 10 numbered strategies, from donating appreciated stock to bunching gifts and giving through an IRA. Each strategy carries a label (Standard deduction, Itemized deductions, or both) so readers can skip to what applies to them.
Headings that match how people search. Section headings are the questions donors actually ask: "Should you itemize deductions or take the standard deduction?" and "Is there a limit on itemized deductions for charitable donations?" That format serves search engines and AI answer engines.
Expert sourcing and compliance. I worked with DAFgiving360's Director of Charitable Strategies and Schwab's Director of Tax Planning, who carry the byline, to get every figure and recommendation right. Then I took the guide through legal and compliance review.
Next steps for every reader. The guide ends with a downloadable PDF, and a phone line where donors and their advisors can talk with a charitable specialist.
The bigger program
The guide was one piece of a larger content program I led at DAFgiving360:
Content audit and keyword research across the full donor journey, which turned into a prioritized roadmap to improve conversion and clarify value propositions
An optimization framework with defined success metrics and criteria for identifying outdated and decaying content to refresh, revise, or retire
Persona-based messaging for donors, high-net-worth clients, and financial advisors in the same journey
Lifecycle content, thought leadership, webinars, and co-marketing with ecosystem partners
Infographics that turned charitable tax concepts into visuals (since retired from the site)
What I'd do differently
I'd move the guide to one evergreen URL that gets updated every year, instead of a new year-specific URL, so rankings and backlinks carry over from year to year. I'd also add FAQ schema to the question sections and a summary table of all 10 strategies that AI search tools can pull from directly.
