Year-End Message from the President

to almost 55,000 charities through November 30, 2009. This resiliency is inspirational, and provides much-needed assistance during a time when charities continue to struggle.

One of our primary goals at the Gift Fund has always been to simplify charitable giving and encourage philanthropy. To achieve this objective, we introduced several new programs and further enhanced existing programs during the past year.

In order to make it easier for donors to support their favorite charities, we reduced the grant recommendation minimum from $100 to $50 and eliminated the minimum to add to their Giving Accounts^®. We also lowered the minimum for our Charitable Investment Advisor Program, from $1 million to $250,000. These changes provide the increased flexibility that many desire.

We added a new investment pool, as part of our continuing effort to help donors achieve their giving goals. The U.S. Bond Index Pool provides a fixed income investment option for Giving Account balances as an alternative to active management.

Gift Fund donors increasingly rely on the Web to manage their personal finances as well as their charitable giving, and we further enhanced our online capabilities to better support them. Our recently introduced Electronic Funds Transfer feature makes it easier and more convenient to make contributions, allowing donors to contribute funds directly from their bank accounts to the Gift Fund. Additionally, we've made more robust pool performance reporting available online to ensure full transparency, and all Gift Fund communications can now be received electronically.

In my role as President of the Gift Fund, I have the privilege of speaking with donors about their charitable activities. What I've learned is that Gift Fund donors are not only generous with their donations, but also with their time as volunteers. We wanted to explore whether this was true for Americans at large. The Gift Fund's survey, Volunteerism and Charitable Giving in 2009, found that Americans who volunteer their time to nonprofit organizations are more generous in their charitable giving than people who don't. The survey also found that one of the reasons cited for not volunteering was the inability to find the right organization to match their interests. To offer a solution, the Gift Fund has formed an alliance with VolunteerMatch to provide a free matching service for all visitors to our web site.

As we approach the end of the year, we expect to further increase the number of grants and level of financial support we provide to nonprofit organizations nationwide.

Gift Fund donors have long responded to requests for assistance with an outpouring of support, and we ask you to consider how you can do even more as nonprofit organizations' needs continue to escalate. Many opportunities still exist, and Gift Fund donors are in an enviable position to have an immediate impact. With donors' ongoing dedication and generosity, we are confident these goals can be achieved.

Best regards,

Sarah Libbey
President, Fidelity^® Charitable Gift Fund