Fidelity Charitable, a national donor-advised fund program, is moving its headquarters to North Carolina from Boston.
Fidelity Charitable, which will make the move in about a year, is a division of Fidelity Investments, which already employs over 3,200 people in North Carolina, mainly in the Triangle at its campus in Durham and a data center in Cary, and also at investor centers in Charlotte, Durham, Greensboro and Raleigh.
A Fidelity Charitable spokesman would not provide details about how many people it employs in Boston or how many employees would be involved in the move.
“We don’t typically release numbers for individual business units and we don’t speculate on future moves,” Jenny Engle, the spokesman, said in an email message.
“We’re taking a measured approach and are currently working out many of the operational and organizational details involved in this transition and intend to execute it in a way that minimizes disruption to donors and continues to ensure the highest level of service,” she said.
Engle said the move “will position us to meet the needs of our donors over the long-term with room to grow, access to a talented pool of employees and the ability to establish an independent physical site for our organization.”
Engle did not respond to questions about any plans at Fidelity Charitable to attract new donors in North Carolina, and would not provide details about the company’s corporate giving.
Fidelity Investments “practices quiet philanthropy,” she said by phone. “When we do talk about community commitment, we tend to focus more on what our employees are doing in the way of volunteerism.”
Formed in 1991, Fidelity Charitable is an independent public charity that has worked with donors to support over 160,000 nonprofits with over $14 billion in grants.
With $9.3 billion in assets as of Dec. 31, 2012, donor contributions to Fidelity Charity totaled over $3.6 billion last year, and grants made to charities totaled $1.6 billion.
Grants in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012, included $21.2 million to North Carolina charities and nearly $15.5 million recommended by North Carolina donors.
(C) Philanthropy North Carolina
