Daniel Heist

Dr. H. Daniel Heist is an Assistant Professor of Nonprofit Management and Social Impact at the George W. Romney Institute for Public Service and Ethics at Brigham Young University. His teaching and research focus on fundraising, philanthropy, and program evaluation. He teaches courses in Fundraising for Nonprofits and Program Evaluation in BYU’s Master of Public Administration program. He also serves as faculty advisor to the BYU Collegiate Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and to the Grantwell program, which engages students in community-based grantmaking and grantwriting projects.

Dr. Heist is a leading scholar of donor-advised funds (DAFs) and is the co-founder of the Donor-Advised Fund Research Collaborative (DAFRC), a nationally recognized initiative that produces empirical research to inform public understanding, nonprofit practice, and policy discussions related to DAFs. His work has been cited by practitioners, policymakers, and philanthropic organizations, and in 2026 he received the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Emerging Scholar Award for his research on DAFs and philanthropic behavior.

Prior to entering academia, Dr. Heist spent nine years as a professional fundraiser, including five years as a major gifts officer with LDS Philanthropies. He holds a master’s degree in Philanthropic Studies from the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis and a PhD in Social Welfare from the University of Pennsylvania. His scholarship is deeply informed by his professional experience and focuses on donor behavior, fundraising strategy, and the ethics and effectiveness of philanthropic vehicles. Dan and his wife Katie have five children.