Our Purpose
The principles of limited government, personal responsibility, and free enterprise are under pressure. The fight to preserve these principles can feel overwhelming. DonorsTrust’s Catalyst Portfolio offers donors a leveraged path to meet this moment: a pair of focused, actively managed philanthropic funds built to measurably advance liberty and strengthen the foundations of the American experiment.
Each fund has bold ambitions, clear metrics, and expert advisory oversight. These funds allow donors to take on the challenge of a whole issue set without needing to parse out the value of each individual charitable group. Together, we will add fuel to the vetted organizations and ideas ready to make a difference.
In this first iteration of Catalyst, we focus on two areas: one where we are in a unique moment for action, and a second where rapid capital can advance our ideas. We intend to later expand the Catalyst Portfolio across strategic themes that address other key areas of opportunity in the liberty movement.
The Funds
Education Choice Implementation Fund
School choice has won major legislative victories—but the gains must be defended and expanded. This fund supports organizations that are: a) increasing the supply of school options, b) helping families enroll their students, and c) helping to win the public narrative so families understand and make best use of the choices available to them.
The Lightning Fund
A rapid-response vehicle for high-impact, early stage opportunities. These grants will be targeted to think tanks, public-interest law groups, and cultural efforts taking advantage of a unique and potentially fleeting opportunity to advance liberty. For groups with a sound plan at pivotal moment, this fund provides catalyzing grants of $10,000–$100,000 to move quickly, validate the idea, and unlock future support.
A Growing Force For Good
These funds join the Whitney Ball Memorial Fund, which was established in 2015 in honor of our late cofounder to support DonorsTrust’s efforts to serve the liberty movement. Together, these funds will be a powerful tool to deploy resources to high-impact opportunities for the purpose of advancing our shared ideals and creating meaningful change.
2026 Targets
This effort aims for a $2.5 Million combined fundraising goal across the two new funds in 2026, growing to $4 Million or more in 2027. Each fund is guided by an in-house advisory committee that reviews applications, directs grants, and tracks progress. DonorsTrust will report back to all Catalyst Portfolio donors on a regular basis, and will change the mix of groups being supported in alignment with the bold aims of the fund.
How to Support the Catalyst Portfolio
The Catalyst Portfolio funds operate under Donors Capital Fund, DonorsTrust’s sister organization. There are three ways to support one of these funds:
Through Your DAF: Request a grant to Donors Capital Fund and make the grant purpose the name of the fund you wish to support.
Directly: Individuals and private foundations without a DAF may write a check or send appreciated stock shares to Donors Capital Fund for the purpose of supporting one of the funds.
Through Your IRA: As programmatic funds and not donor-advised funds, you can support the Catalyst funds with a qualified charitable distribution through your IRA. Simply request the donation with your IRA provider to Donors Capital Fund, with a designation of which fund you’d like to support. If your IRA provider does not allow for entering that additional information, email DTgrants@donorstrust.org and let us know which fund you wish to support.
Additional Questions?
If you have any additional questions about the funds, please email Courtney Myers at cmyers@donorstrust.org.