Give From Your DAF, Right Inside ResearchHub
· 4 min read · Endaoment
If you hold an Endaoment donor-advised fund, you can now back a ResearchHub proposal at checkout in their portal. The grant (like magic) goes to the eligible nonprofit behind it thanks to our newest API integration.
When we first partnered with ResearchHub, the problem was simple. Their community funds science with ResearchCoin (RSC), the platform's own token. Universities cannot easily accept that or most digital assets for that matter, and researchers should have access to more efficient funding streams for their work. Since April 2025, we have been converting RSC into dollars, sending a standard grant the institution can receive, and issuing a tax-deductible receipt to the person who funded the work together.
Read the backstory of our partnership.
So what's the exciting update? If you already have dollars in an Endaoment DAF, you can now grant then to a ResearchHub proposal natively, on their platform. At checkout, simply select your DAF as the payment method. You do not leave the page to arrange a grant somewhere else. For some time we have called a DAF a charitable checking account. It's thrilling to see this be expanding in new and practical ways by fellow builders like ResearchHub.
Together we have moved over $1.6 million in grants to labs across ResearchHub's network. That number is still climbing. It is bringing community funding to established institutions, on a weeks-not-months clock!
See it in action
ResearchHub put together a short walkthrough of the new DAF experience. Watch it below, then follow the steps to fund your first proposal.
How to fund research from your DAF
- On ResearchHub, open Fund and pick a proposal.
- Click Fund Proposal, enter an amount (or use $100, $1K, $5K, or Remaining), and continue to payment.
- Choose Donor-Advised Fund (DAF).
- Connect Endaoment and select the fund you want to grant from. After the first time, it stays linked.
- Hit Confirm & Pay. Your pledge is added now. The dollars stay in your DAF until the fundraise succeeds. Then Endaoment does the diligence and routes the grant.
You'll get a confirmation and a link if you want others to back it too!
What the API enables
The hard part of putting real giving inside a product is not the idea. The plumbing is elaborate to run due diligence, asset conversion, receipts, and get funds to a 501(c)(3) in a way that remains compliant.
Most teams spend years building that. With the Endaoment API, builders can add giving to a product in weeks. ResearchHub has done it twice.
First they used the API to turn crowdfunded RSC into university grants. Now a DAF sits next to ResearchCoin, Funding Credits, and card as a way to back a proposal.
Two things happen that link our two platforms:
- You fund your DAF on Endaoment. Contribute crypto, stock, or cash whenever it suits you. That contribution is the tax-deductible donation.
- You grant to a proposal on ResearchHub. When a proposal earns your conviction, back it there by choosing your DAF at checkout. The proposal pick always starts on ResearchHub. That is what points the grant at the research you chose. Endaoment then routes it to the eligible institution behind it.
A DAF has spent a long time looking like a place to park dollars and forget them. Meeting you inside a tool you already use is the opposite. Money you already committed to giving can move the moment a proposal sparks conviction. ResearchHub's community is doing that now, one funded proposal at a time.
If you hold an Endaoment DAF, two things stay true. Endaoment handles due diligence and routing, so the eligible institution receives funds in a form it can take, and the gift stays tax-deductible. Grants keep moving on the weeks-not-months timeline this partnership is known for.
What's next
A few years ago, a team like ResearchHub had no rails to move funding like this. Open giving infrastructure is what let two teams invent a path neither would have shipped alone. More capital gets to inspired scientists doing dynamic research, faster.
We want funding a study to be as straightforward as deciding you believe in it, and we want a DAF to be something you use more actively, rather than an abandoned parking lot. We will keep adding assets, institutions, and ways to give that communities can feel empowered to use.
Go peruse proposals now and see what catches your attention, and test granting from your DAF at checkout. To see what this partnership has already funded, follow the ResearchHub Charitable Fund on Endaoment.
If you want this kind of giving inside your own product, the Endaoment API is how, and we'd love to hear from you.
About ResearchHub: ResearchHub is a decentralized science platform that enables open-access publishing, preregistration of research proposals, and community-driven research funding. Learn more at researchhub.com.
About Endaoment: Endaoment is a nonprofit that provides the technology and services for turning investments into impact. We give platforms and donors alike the infrastructure to convert any asset, from cash, stocks, and bonds to crypto and alternative assets like private equity, real estate, and pre-IPO shares, into transparent, tax-deductible support for any of more than 1.8 million nonprofits, with every gift verifiable onchain. Builders can embed giving directly into their own products through our modular API, and donors can give and invest in DAFs through the Endaoment app. Learn more at endaoment.org.
