Latest news with #Daffy
Herald Sun
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Herald Sun
Oh Too Good owners will celebrate a Winter Championship Final win with a party in Bali
Don't miss out on the headlines from Horse Racing. Followed categories will be added to My News. Oh Too Good could inspire a rebrand of the Winx Sports Bar in Bali on Saturday, with victory in the Listed Winter Championship Series Final (1600m) at Flemington. One-horse trainer Kevin Daffy, wife Christine and daughters Jade and Amber will be trackside while Rick Bayliss, a long-time friend and part-owner of Oh Too Good, will be cheering from afar. 'He'll be watching it from the Winx (Sports) Bar in Bali (Seminyak) … hopefully we might be able to rename it to the Oh Too Good Bar tomorrow,' Daffy said. 'The 16 of them (Bayliss family) are going to be cheering her on from there.' • PUNT LIKE A PRO: Become a Racenet iQ member and get expert tips – with fully transparent return on investment statistics – from Racenet's team of professional punters at our Pro Tips section. SUBSCRIBE NOW! Oh Too Good is $2.80 favourite to win the Listed Winter Championship Series Final from Jimmy The Bear ($6), Cafe Millenium ($6.50) and Yellow Sam ($9.50). Daffy, 'Australia's smallest trainer', was compelled to target the Winter Championship after Oh Too Good won brilliantly last start at Flemington. Jimmy The Bear, who finished second, has won since. 'I guess you can't get much smaller than one horse,' Daffy laughed. 'It's a bit of a novelty for some people … they can't believe it really, it is quite unique, quite special.' • Egan chasing more success with Payne team on Finals day Oh Too Good has earned $569,450 with five wins and five minor places from 11 starts. The five-year-old, affectionately known as 'GiGi' at home, has also become a social media sensation, thanks to Daffy's eldest daughter, Jade. 'Jade started a bit of social media with her this week, and it went nuts. She's quite clever,' Daffy said. 'She came up with a couple cute little videos on Instagram and TikTok … one had 50,000 views and 5000 likes, with people from all over the world commenting.' The viral 72-second clip on the Ohtoogoodracehorse TikTok account celebrates Daffy's dedication to the 'diva' with behind the scenes footage and a witty script. 'GiGi only likes two things,' the video voiceover states. 'Winning (and) Kevin … everyone else, tolerated at best.' Daffy is rarely too far from the mare. 'No one else touches this horse, ever, that's why I never let her out of my sight,' Daffy said. 'I do hire a strapper to come with me race day but that's more to go and get the saddle, run the colours up, and help do a few little things I need done. 'She frets if I get too far away from her … she's getting better. When she first went to the races I couldn't walk across from the stall to the fence to talk to anybody, she wouldn't be happy. 'She does at least let me do that a bit now.' • Flemington Saturday tips, analysis: $9.50 best bet Despite saddling the favourite, Daffy has respect for the entire field on Saturday. 'No matter what the market says, they're all good horses,' Daffy said. 'I'd be foolish to think I'd be going to a Listed race at Flemington with confidence of winning … I'm happy I'm going there with a horse in the best shape, as happy and as healthy as I could have her. 'With some luck in running, she'll definitely be right in the finish and hopefully winning.' Trainer Kevin Daffy with Oh Too Good and jockey Ben Allen at Flemington last month. Picture: Getty Images He also praised jockey Ben Allen for his commitment to stick with Oh Too Good. Allen brought forward a suspension, had to forgo bulk rides to do so, and all but made the 54kg cut. 'He will be riding her a little bit over the 54kg … that will depend on how he is tomorrow.' Daffy said. 'She could potentially be carrying 55kg, worst case. He's been so committed to wanting to ride her, I didn't ask him to do that because I know how difficult it is for jockeys but he wanted to do it. 'Set himself the task to get down to ride … I really appreciate that and hopefully she can repay him.' Originally published as Oh Too Good becomes social media sensation ahead of Winter Championship Final bid at Flemington
30-06-2025
- Business
GoFundMe is refurbishing financial tool in a bid to supercharge everyday giving
NEW YORK -- GoFundMe CEO Tim Cadogan had some complications while fundraising on his own website last fall. Several friends wanted to help Cadogan reach his $28,000 goal as he crowdfunded for a Los Angeles area wilderness rescue team. But they tried to donate through a lesser-known wealth management tool called a donor-advised fund, or a DAF, a no-frills investing vehicle for money earmarked as eventual charitable gifts. After cutting checks and waiting three weeks, Cadogan said, the money finally arrived. 'It was just a bit of a thing,' he added. "If they were using a Giving Fund, it would take ten seconds.' Giving Funds are GoFundMe's latest in a flurry of product rollouts with the purported goal of moving stagnant U.S. charitable contributions beyond the 2% GDP mark where totals have long hovered. But the for-profit company's DAF, announced Monday, enters a crowded market of more than a thousand providers — products often with older, wealthier clienteles that are often criticized for warehousing gifts. To transform the way that everyday users plan their donations, Cadogan will have to widen the appeal of DAFs beyond the likes of the technology entrepreneur's circles. And he wants to change public perceptions of his company as just a crowdfunding site. 'We're also hopeful that more people will start using GoFundMe for a broader set of things in their lives: not just that one fundraiser they're supporting, not just that one nonprofit. But they're coming in and they're managing their giving portfolio with us and through us,' Cadogan said. 'That connects directly to our mission, which is we want to help people help each other.' Donor-advised funds grew popular over the last decade among ultra-high net worth individuals as a tax-efficient instrument for grantmaking without the hassle of a more sophisticated charitable foundation. Donors can immediately write the contribution off on their taxes but face no deadline for giving the money to a nonprofit. The idea: account holders could invest money they wanted to ultimately donate, let the funds grow tax-free while they sit and give themselves time to identify the recipients best aligned with their giving goals. There's since been a rush to court average givers. Legacy financial services firms such as Fidelity Charitable lowered the minimums to open accounts. Fintech startups such as Daffy contrast their flat fees with the hidden expenses they allege their competitors charge. All that traction brought IRS proposals last year to impose penalties on those who abuse DAFs and Congress has considered legislation that would require some deadlines for disbursements. GoFundMe's Giving Funds will have no minimum balances, zero management fees and donations starting at $5. Users can load their DAF through their bank accounts or direct deposits for free. Credit card payments will be covered through the end of the year and then face the company's standard transaction fee of 2.2% plus 30 cents. Contributions can then be invested in a choice of exchange traded funds from managers including Vanguard, Blackrock and State Street Global Advisors. Cadogan pitches Giving Funds as a way to be more intentional about giving — something he said user feedback suggests more people want. As he sees it, widespread adoption hasn't occurred because DAFs have been framed as 'wealth management products.' 'This is a giving product,' Cadogan said. 'It's something for everybody. And you don't need to know the words 'donor advised fund.' It doesn't show up.' DAFs remain scrutinized for allowing donors to reap tax benefits before they ever redistribute any money to charitable causes — even if the notion that the channel is being exploited is fiercely debated in the nonprofit sector. Opaque disclosure requirements make it difficult to put a number on the overall assets held within the funds. The National Philanthropic Trust placed the total at more than $250 billion in 2023. Cadogan believes GoFundMe's culture is uniquely suited to nudge users with targeted spotlights of the 1.5 million charities already active on the platform. Giving Funds holders will be peppered with information about local nonprofits, crisis responders, their friends' charities of choice and potential beneficiaries that address their selected issue areas. That 'dynamic, alive community' is very different from the 'fairly static, passive' financial vehicles in the current market, according to Cadogan. 'It's essentially inspiring the money to move,' he said. Other features seek to encourage contributions by simplifying things. Users can set annual giving goals by a percentage of their income or a fixed number. Their gifts will tally up in real-time records to track their progress and ease year-end tax planning. Streamlining the process was one area for improvement identified in the DAF Research Collaborative's recent survey of more than 2,100 donors. But Jeff Williams, one of the researchers, said DAFs are currently hitting the 'sweet spot of convenience and connection to nonprofits.' The challenge for any new player, he said, is that it's a competitive environment with many different options. Plus, he added, many DAFs already are 'available-to-everyone vehicles" considering that half run balances under $50,000. 'Givers are voting with their feet that DAFs are increasing with popularity. More options are generally better,' Williams said. 'Anything that makes sure we maintain or enhance the ease of giving, it makes me happier.' But Direct Relief CEO Amy Weaver, previously the CFO at Salesforce, described GoFundMe's entrance as 'a game changer' that could unlock additional funds. Direct Relief, a nonprofit that supplies free medical resources worldwide, reported receiving more than 18,000 DAF gifts totaling $116 million over the past five years. Weaver acknowledged DAFs have been traditionally used by those with more substantial wealth. But she encouraged people to view them as a 'savings account" for "good works." 'And GoFundMe, with its name familiarity and the fact that it really attracts people making smaller gifts, I think could be incredibly powerful if they can bring DAFs to that group of people,' she said.
Yahoo
23-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How a donor-advised fund can help you give to charity and save on taxes
Listen and subscribe to Financial Freestyle on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. When it comes to planning for the future, many of us consider opening investment funds dedicated to retirement or saving for a child's future education expenses — but how often do we consider putting aside money for charity? On Yahoo Finance's Financial Freestyle podcast, Daffy co-founder and CEO Adam Nash revealed how donor-advised funds can actually help people save more money for charitable contributions — and receive additional tax breaks along the way. "It's a complete myth that only the wealthy give," Nash said. "In fact, a lot of studies actually show that the average person proportionally is more generous. It's about 60 million households in the US every year that give to charity." This embedded content is not available in your region. Nash pointed out that people often don't make a charitable donation until they're asked, but that doesn't mean individuals can't include money for giving in long-term budgeting goals. Daffy is an acronym for "donor-advised fund for you," and the company aims to make these accounts easier for the average person to open and contribute to regularly. They allow individuals to not only set aside money for donations but also help to smartly invest that money. "A donor-advised fund is just a tax-advantaged account for charity," Nash explained. "You can think of it like an IRA or 401(k) for charity, right? It's designed for that. You can put money aside in this account, you immediately get the charitable deduction for your taxes, and then that money can be invested tax-free in any number of portfolios." He noted that Daffy allows users to donate the money in their donor-advised fund whenever they're ready to contribute. "I honestly believe that, Daffy aside, everyone who gives to charity regularly should have a donor-advised fund," Nash said. For those who receive stock options as part of their compensation package or have crypto investments they'd like to use to contribute, using these assets as a donation can give investors a "double tax win." "If you've held the investment more than a year, first of all, you get to deduct the full market value of that investment today — not what you invested in it years ago, but what it's worth today," Nash said. "And second, you'll never pay the capital gains taxes on that gain. So you get this double win." Daffy allows users to contribute their crypto and stock options as a donation, which Nash said can be "an incredibly smart financial move" if your investment has a large capital gain due to the tax benefits. Nash also explained how these accounts benefit charitable causes, noting that those who intentionally set a donation goal give about 32% more to charity on average. "The truth is, if you talk to the organizations, ... they want people who are going to support them for long periods of time," he said. "They don't just want one check, one donation. They want to build a community around the cause and the organization that they're passionate about." Every Monday, Financial Freestyle host Ross Mac talks with key guests to discuss their wealth-building journeys and what it takes to build a lasting financial footprint. You can find more episodes on our video hub or watch on your preferred streaming service. Sign up for the Mind Your Money newsletter Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Giving to charity isn't just for the rich anymore
In this episode of Financial Freestyle, host Ross Mac is joined by Adam Nash, co-founder and CEO of the charitable donation app Daffy. Adam breaks down his incredible career in Silicon Valley, what a donor-advised fund is, and his mission to democratize personal finance. To learn more about how a gifting plan can help support important causes and give you a valuable tax write-off, check out this week's episode of Financial Freestyle. Listen and subscribe to Financial Freestyle on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Financial Freestyle with Ross Mac on Yahoo Finance is dedicated to promoting economic prosperity for all. Through expert insights, practical advice, and inspiring success stories, we empower you to build and grow wealth. Join us on this transformative journey toward financial freedom and inclusive economic growth. This post was written by Dennis Golin. Welcome to Financial Freestyle. I'm Ross Mack, and this is sponsored by to Financial Freestyle here on Yahoo Finance. I'm your host, Ross Mack. No matter where you are on your financial journey, you could always learn more and that's why I'm always talking to some of the most informative people, inspirational people in the world of finance, helping you get to a bag. In today's no different, I'm talking to Adam Nash, CEO and co-founder of Daffy. Adam, how are you doing today? Good, good. It's great to be here. Thanks so much for coming, man. I know you're coming from the West Coast, so thanks. Thanks for that. But also write to the people, who is Adam Nash? Oh, as you said, I'm the CEO co-founder of Daffy. Um, I've had a long career in technology, I actually started at Apple early on as an engineer, and I've worked for a large number of startups, um, and, and famous companies along the way, but very passionate about building products that actually make a difference for a real passion for personal finance and I just feel like it's been an amazing run the last 10 to 15 years where we've been able to use technology to create better products to help people spend better, save better, invest better and and you know, with Daffy now give better. I love it. So let's kind of go back, right? You're you're venture guy from Silicon Valley type vibes, right? And something that you talked about was, and obviously we talked about this offline, but you're not just a tech guy, right? You're also a person that is adamant about helping people understand personal finance. In fact, you lecture at Stanford. So when you start thinking about Fintech and the democratization of access to information, right?How are you seeing Sofi actually change people's access to information when it comes to personal finance? Yeah, well, I think, you know, it starts with the basics of recognizing that it's, it's a problem. I mean, the reason I teach the class at Stanford on personal finance is because I wish that class existed when I was in school. I mean, if you don't teach personal finance to people, you can't expect, it's not an IQ thing. You can't just expect people to learn it. Mostly what they're going to learn and internalize is from their parents and their friends and the friends of their parents and the parents of their friends. And the truth is that's a really bad set of information to be learning so I think that the great thing about the web, of course, and, and all these technologies, they brought a lot of information to people. Originally it was just basic content, now it's it's shows like yours and and other things people can subscribe to and learn from. Um, but the great thing about FinTech is we actually can build better products and services now, right? We don't have to just tell people what they should be doing with their money or how they should treat their money. We can actually build tools to help do it for them or help them learn along the way as they make these decisions and you're passionate about helping people with these problems around money and and personal finance, I I I think it's, it's a wonderful time to be building and it's a wonderful time um to be learning about personal finance. I love it, man. I,I'm clear as day, right? Very adamant and passionate about personal finance and actually helping people, you know, become better with their finances and their money. And so if you were, you know, just one lesson that you can leave us with that you are, you know, speaking, if this was a Stanford class, what's one personal finance lesson everybody needs to know? You know,Believe it or not, I mean, in the Stanford class, right, you know, the students are fairly smart, like there's not a problem with IQ in the room, etc. but a lot of the students in the class, um, some of them are the first in their family to go to college, um, others are are majoring in in computer science or engineering degrees, they, they know they're going to make some money when they graduate and they don't want to mess it often I just have to convince them to start slow. The basics are really important. I, I can't tell you how important it is to just spend less than you make, right? Everyone wants to jump to how to make money in the market or do this or it's like, slow down, you spend less than you make, um, I'm a big advocate for emergency funds and having a little bit of a cushion, and if you don't have one building that you get to the basics of, you know, investing and, and, and aiming for financial goals in the future, you know, keeping expenses low and, you know, having some humility about your ability to kind of magically pick the winners. Um, and then we talk a little bit about taxes and the other realities. We even talk about, you know, what it means to manage money as a, as a couple versus an individual, which is another problem that most people ignore. And yet it turns out it's a very hard problem and money breaks up a lot of relationships, uh, both married and otherwise. And so, um.I think if you look at the content, I put it online for free. If you look at the content, there's no rocket science there. These are not, you know, this is not difficult math. Um, the hard part is to get people into a a zone in my experience where they have enough humility to say, like, just because I'm an expert in something else doesn't mean I'm an expert in handling money, and having kind of that mind to just learn the basics of how do you lead a healthy financial life and what does that even mean? That's,honestly, that's, that's very interesting. You don't hear that too often when you start thinking about managing money as a couple, right? There was a statistic that came out where it was saying like, which states and cities are, you know, the most expensive to live in and when you actually take in like the average income of those states, like,You know, the average person can't even live in like half of the states, right? And then you actually take into account if you are in a relationship or not. And now it's like, OK, you can actually afford to live in here, but if it's a two-parent household, right, or a two income household. And so the idea of managing money as a couple is, it's no right answer, but there's obviously a few ways to hopefully end in success. So I love that you brought that up. But let's actually get kind of to where you are now, right? Obviously, CEO of Daffy andHow do we get there, right? Because you got a very extensive resume when it comes into the tech world. Oh, well, um, I mean, that's, that's flattering, and I, I have had the chance to work at some amazing companies, you know, when you, you know, each generation of technology, it's funny looking back on my career, you know, from Apple to a company like eBay, um, LinkedIn, of course, for Web 20 and, and, and, um, and then Wealthfront, um, it's just been an embarrassment of riches and sort of in some ways in terms of the people I've gotten to work with and the problems, etc. Um, Daffy comes out of, you know, both a personal I have around um building these products that can help people with important problems, and a feeling thatWell, there's a little bit of hubris with founders, you're gonna have to forgive me, you know, I, I wasn't convinced it was gonna happen otherwise, right? It, it turns out we've had 15 years of fintech of, of these amazing apps and services to help people spend better, save better, invest where are the apps and services to help us give better? I mean, actually giving is huge in the US it's over half a trillion a year. I think last year was 557 billion, and over 370 billion of that's from individuals. So this is a big problem. I mean, that's like 2% of GDP. It's, it's bigger than yet, um, I don't think a lot of people embrace the reality of this is a financial goal that means something to people. I mean, we teach our kids to give. This is not just, you know, budgeting, um, I don't, I don't want to be a little anything that is saving, investing, etc all important, but, um, and so Daffy was really born on this idea of like, hey, those 60 million households in the US who give to charity every year. Um, what if we build a great product for them? They can put aside money for charity proactively when it makes sense for get that tax receipt, right, for the charitable deduction, the money is invested tax free, and then anytime they're inspired to give just a few taps on their phone, and the money can go to any legal charity in the US. So when I really, when that really crystallized, my co-founder and I really felt like that that's a product worth building, that's a that's a platform worth building, um, and that's how Daffy was born. Daffy actually literally stands for the the donor advised fund for you. I love it. I love it. And you know, one thing you might hear, right, is that it's a luxury to give, right? And so if the average person thinks you need to be rich to be generous, rich to give, how is Daffy not only you know dispelling that, but also making it a lot more accessible for someone that is trying to be interested ingiving. You know, it's funny. I think this has to do with the fascination our culture has right now around billionaires andAnd beyond and what they're doing, we, we talk so much about what they do with money. We sometimes miss the forest for the trees about what most people's lives look like. Um, it's a complete myth that only the wealthy give. I mean, in fact, a lot of studies actually show that the, the average person proportionally is is more generous, right? It it's, um, and I wasn't kidding, it's about 60 million households in the US every year that give to um those, um, and that's meaningful to them, right? So it's not about dollars, it's about people. And so I was inspired, I have to say I am inspired by their founders and other companies I've worked with in the past. I was on the board of this company, uh, Acorns, wonderful service, now helps millions of lead a better financial life, um, just by having this simple app and service that makes it easy to save, you know, easy to spend better, etc. And so some of the inspiration for Daffu is we can do that for giving, you know, the, the research shows that if you set a goal, if you're intentional about it, right, if you give 32% more to charity. I mean, think of what that would mean, out of those hundreds of billions of dollars, as big as that number is, we actually want to give more. Um, the question is how to do it smart and, and, and, and in a financially prudent the reality is most of giving that is done today when someone asks you, right? But, but how many of us would save for retirement, well, if uh we only put money aside for retirement when someone not how it works. What you want is to say, oh, I have a goal for my retirement. I'm gonna have this much come out of my paycheck every couple of weeks, and over time it'll build up. Um, it turns out some of those lessons apply to giving too. Uh, you set a goal in Daffy, you can set a goal for your giving. You can put aside money every week or or every month. Some of our members actually, you know, they have income is not standard for people. More and more people have good years and not so good years. So putting money aside in the good your taxes are higher, right? And you actually have the money to give, ensures that in the not so good years, you still have some money put aside for the organizations and causes you care about. And the truth is if you talk to the organizations, that's what they really want. They want people who are gonna support them for long periods of time. They don't just want one check, you know, one donation, um, they want to build a community around the cause and and and the organization that that they're passionate about. That's very interesting. So let's actually kind of walk us through it, right? Say I'm a, you know, a person that's making, I don't know, $80,000 a year, right? And I'm making a point that I want to give 10% a year to charity. How exactly would I utilize Daffy? Oh, that's, well, first of all, you're describing a very generous person, which is fantastic though. Um but no, no, no, no, not, not unusual actually, you know, it turns out, um, so there's a couple options there, right? Like, so you, you said this they always make $80,000 a year? Is it the kind of job where there's some years where better or worse? Um, I would probably say putting a little more money aside in the years that you make more money is, it's smart for your taxes and and an easier way to do it. But it's amazing you can treat it just like retirement or any other financial goal, right? You could decide to put aside, like you mentioned, if it was $8000 a year, you can do that simple math if, if you get paid, you know, that turns into what, you know, sorry, I'm doing this math on the fly, you know, $600 to $700 or something like that every month. Just have it come out of your paycheck and and go to Daffy. You pick a portfolio, it's kind of like a 401k for charity. It could be that simple. And the only advantage is, of course, besides being tax free, is that you're not limited, you don't have to wait to use the money until you're, you know, at retirement age, 59.5 or or something like that. You can actually, um, anytime you're inspired to give, tap tap tap on your the money go to the charity of your choice. That's awesome. We're going to take a quick break, but when we come back, we're gonna have more with Adam Nash of right, welcome back to Financial Freestyle. I'm Ross Mack and I'm talking to Adam Nash. So Adam, quick question, right? What exactly is a donoradvised fund? Oh, no, this is a great question. I mean, obviously we named the company Daffy, the donor advised fund for you, but a lot of people haven't heard of a donor advised fund before, which is kind of amazing because they've been around for a very long time, you know, more than 50 a donor advised fund is just a tax advantage account for charity. You can think of it as like an IRA or 401k for charity, right? Um, and it's designed for that. You can put money aside in this account, um, you immediately get the charitable deduction for your then that money can be invested tax-free in any number of portfolios, and then anytime you want that money to go to a charity, tap tap tap, you tell the donor advise fund where that money should go, and they send it off. So it's really a fantastic product. I honestly believe that Daffy aside, everyone who gives to charity regularly should have a donor advised fund. Um, and a lot of what Daffy does is just makes it simple and easy for you to get started with a little account for money put aside for charity. I mean,It is one of the oldest ideas, right? The idea of putting money aside every year for those less fortunate than yourself is is a pretty old idea. Um, Daffy just puts a modern tech rapper over what is a fantastic financial product that most people haven't heard of. No, no, no, no, that I, I think you just truly broke it down and so correct me if I'm wrong, you don't just have to invest money though, right?You have the ability to invest maybe stocks, etc. other investments. Yeah, yeah. Our, our mission at Daffy is actually to help people be more generous more often and so anything that people want to give, we're, we're super excited to help them do that. So you can just use cash, you could use a card, a debit card, credit card, you, um, you can even use Apple Pay, but there's immense tax benefits, you know, so many people now work for companies where they get some compensation in stock. We have a lot of people who are investing in when you donate stock or crypto to charity, you get a double tax win, because if you've held the investment more than a year, first of all, you get to deduct the full market value of that investment today, not what you invested in it, you know, years ago, but what it's worth second, you'll never pay the capital gains taxes on that gain. So you get this double win and so the problem is most charities are not that big. Most charities can't take stock donations, they can't take your ETF or your mutual fund, and they certainly can't take crypto in most cases. But if you use a service like Daffy, we take everything, right? So, you know, we support every crypto that Coinbase supports, right? You know, any ETF, right, any if you happen to be fortunate enough to be sitting on an investment that has a large capital gain on it, it is an incredibly smart financial move to use that instead of cash to give to charity, because you get those extra tax benefits and using an app like Daffy makes it trivial to do, literally can take seconds. Wow. That's that's fascinating. That's fascinating. So I definitely kind of want to pick your brain, uh, from the lens of like an actual founder as well, right? So like you know I speak with a decent amount of founders, tech founders, and you know I always am curious when it comes to starting a company, right? What is the mindset? Right? Are you solving a problem? Are you adding new technology to things that are existing? Like what was the reason you started Daffy? And let's kind of talk aboutYou know how you went from idea to true business. Yeah, well, it's interesting, and this has been a lot of my career is like when you think about building a great product, it's easy to talk about the technology. Um, it's less easy but important to talk about the design, right, and the real product you're building. But the truth is, if you don't wrap a product in a great organization in a great business, um, it won't go forever. You won't have the people on the platform to really solve the problem you're going after. So I think what I tell founders, you know, the, the basic things to think about in the beginning is,You know, what is the product, you know, what's the market for this product? I I spent a lot of time talking to founders, not about the technology, but, but who is this designed for? Where do you really create value? And then building a business around that, you have to have some eye for, wait, why hasn't this happened already? Why now? Right? What what are you seeing that all the incumbents aren't seeing, right? They have money, they have resources, they have smart people, they have customers. Why aren't they building this?And I just happen to be a student, you know, if you go back to Clay Christensen, you know, the innovator's dilemma, um, I always believe that there has to be a reason, what has to be happening for it to be a great opportunity is that the best customers for the existing companies don't want there's a huge base of other people who want something simpler, easier, maybe with a different business model, and the existing companies can't see it because their best customers aren't asking for it. And to me, when you find one of those opportunities, you really have an opportunity to be transformational. I mean, so for know, it turns out most donor advised funds charge fees that they borrowed from the investment industry. They charge you a percentage of assets, even Vanguard, which I love, I love Vanguard as an organization, I love their products, they charge 60 basis points, 0.6% on their donor advised fund, um, and they have a minimum of $25, if you're one of the existing institutions and you have a business model based on making a percentage of assets, you're gonna chase the biggest accounts. You want to acquire the most so at Daffy, we actually were very purposeful. It wasn't just the product and the technology, we said no, let's align our business model with giving with those 60 million households who don't have millions of dollars, but give a few $100 or a few $1000 to charity every year. And so we make it free to get started under $100. Um, most of our members pay $3 a month, it's flat, and we have a family plan in a higher tier that costs a little bit we really tried to align ourselves on what we thought was the best business to support a product like this, which is a a revenue model that's aligned around people staying with us for very long periods of time and making giving something they do not just once but every year, possibly for decades. That's amazing, right? You're in a very interesting place because you're at the fintech and philanthropy. Where do you see that?Growing in thefuture. Oh, there's there's so much to do. I am so excited about the potential in this area, and part of that self-serving, right? I care about giving, I care about, um, philanthropy, and, you know, I'm very serious as a parent, I have, I have 4 children, um, it's not like other financial goals. It's, it's, it's even more important. It's not just a budget item, although it should be. Um, we, we teach our kids about giving, right? You know, most of us grew up knowing that it's not all for that actually there's other people out there and so I am very passionate about the topic, but I think we're at an exciting time. I mean, the truth is, after 15 years in FinTech, the platforms that are available, I mean, I can't tell you 15 years ago how hard it was to build one of these applications and services. We've learned so much. The fact that I can leverage platforms from companies like Plaid, these might be companies that most people haven't heard of, but you know, what it means is to build a new financial service that has great security, um, that has great features, right? Think about how hard it was to imagine 15 years ago, a computer managing a portfolio for you. But now Daffy can have, you know, 1617 different portfolios, everything from cash to bonds to index funds. We even have crypto for people who want we can do that all automatically in software, not because we're so amazing, although, you know, Alejandro's team really is very impressive, um, but we can build those features and capabilities in in weeks and months because of all these other companies and platforms out there. And so I think we're gonna see an immense amount of innovation in the space, um, at Daffy, you know, this might sound simple. um before Daffy, there wasn't a donor advice fund with a family so many people, you know, we, we see people with their siblings, with their parents, grandparents want to teach their grandkids about giving, um, what, what tech product doesn't have a family plan? I mean, I'm I'm inundated this as a parent, like the, the request from, you know, Apple or Xbox, I get a lot of Xbox requests, that sort of thing, um, but why not forgiving, so I just think the innovation we're gonna see in this category is just phenomenal andI think it's meaningful because the truth is, people always think about the donation, about the benefit to the organization, cause they're going to use that money to have impact and do something good. I think people underestimate the value that people find on feeling like they as a donor has have an impact, that they didn't just talk about something, they did something. It the the the amount of dollars actually doesn't matter, whatever is meaningful to you is what really but I think technology is going to have a huge role to play, and, and we just rolled out some new features that are based on some of the new AI platforms, etc. Um, a lot of the advantages that the ultra wealthy had, you know, teams of people to advise them on giving or kind of make something happen when they're inspired to give, we can now put these innovations in an app that that's available to everyone. That's it for this episode. I just want to give a warm, warm thank you to Mr. Adam Nash for a phenomenal conversation, right, being at the intersection of philanthropy and tech. But that's it for this episode. Make sure you like, subscribe. If you see this QR code, just hit it so you can watch other podcasts on this exact network. And so then, guys, we'll see you next week. I'm Ross Mack and this is Financial Freestyle. This content was not intended to be financial advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional financial services. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Washington Post
14-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
What to watch with your kids: ‘The Day the Earth Blew Up' and more
Porky and Daffy's alien adventure mixes scares and silliness. Tied to the 2020 'Looney Tunes Cartoons' series, this animated sci-fi horror spoof follows Porky Pig and Daffy Duck (both voiced by Eric Bauza) as they team up to save Earth from an alien scheme that turns humans into zombies when they chew gum. The tainted gum takes over people's tongues, then grows an eyeball and morphs into a living gum monster. It's all quite silly but could still give younger kids a real scare. The over-the-top, consequence-free cartoon action and slapstick violence are typical for Looney Tunes: Expect to see characters catapult through a wall, explode or suffer electrocution, then be fine a moment later. Daffy and Porky's father figure, Farmer Jim, passes away by disappearing into the sunset, though it's presented so subtly that small children may not perceive that he has died. There's some rude humor and a bit of innuendo ('you can tickle my taste buds anytime!') that might raise adults' eyebrows but will probably sail over kids' heads. A negative character is drawn with breasts so large that she can barely fit into her car. Insults include 'losers,' 'nerd' and 'stupid.' Porky and his love interest, Petunia, bond over their mutual stutter, which isn't portrayed negatively, and the film has clear messages about the importance of teamwork. (91 minutes) Available in theaters. Streaming Violence, peril and language in book-based sci-fi tale. This sci-fi western comedy, based on Simon Stalenhag's graphic novel, is set in a dystopian version of the 1990s. Millie Bobby Brown stars as a teenager who lives with a callous foster father (Jason Alexander) after losing her family in a car accident. Expect violence and peril: A young boy is kept in a comatose state for nefarious purposes, and there are scenes from a deadly war between humans and robots. Expect battles among humans, human-driven drones and robots. These conflicts involve a multitude of deaths, including those of main characters. Weapons range from guns to Tasers. There is one penis joke and a mention of a mother with an alcohol problem. Characters connected to virtual-reality-style helmets look like they're strung out on drugs, and there are timely messages about ditching screens and interacting with others instead. Swearing includes variations of 's---,' 'damn,' 'hell,' 'b----,' 'a--,' 'frickin',' 'moron' and 'b-----d.' Chris Pratt co-stars. (128 minutes) Available on Netflix. Streaming Forgettable horror comedy has scares, language and slurs. This horror comedy has a star-studded cast (including Parker Posey, Brian Cox, Edie Falco and Lisa Kudrow) and some scares. A demon possesses humans — entering them through their nostrils — and the ghosts of people from decades ago haunt a home. A possessed man threatens loved ones, projectile vomits, yells slurs and stabs people (they're sewn up with floss). His head also spins, and he levitates while begging to be killed. Dogs are killed or injured. Adults drink alcohol and get high on marijuana gummies. Two characters kiss and plan a marriage proposal. A man's naked butt is seen. There's discussion of being 'horny,' 'pants-petting' and penis size, and there's a joke about a dog being a lesbian. Sounds in one scene are assumed to be lovemaking. Language includes 'f---,' 's---,' 'goddamn,' 'dammit,' 'hell,' 'b----,' 'a--' and 'whore.' (100 minutes) Available on Max. Streaming Kids jump into a video game world to practice life skills. 'Skillsville' is an educational show about a diverse group of friends who practice life skills within a virtual reality video game. Young viewers will learn about executive function skills like cognitive flexibility, focus, organization and memory, as well as different jobs. The show promotes teamwork, helping others and problem-solving when you make a mistake. There are no iffy or scary moments, but the content will be most relevant for older preschoolers or younger grade-school kids. (40 episodes) Available on PBS Kids. Common Sense Media helps families make smart media choices. Go to for age-based and educational ratings and reviews for movies, games, apps, TV shows, websites and books.
