FROM LEAH MAYOR, SENIOR DIRECTOR, ASSET FUNDERS NETWORK
FEBRUARY 2026

AFN Short Take is a blog series highlighting insights and perspectives from recent AFN programming events.

Early wealth building has reached a new stage of scale and opportunity to advance more progressive and inclusive approaches, grounded in two decades of work by funders, non-profit advocates, researchers, policymakers, and public finance leaders who have tested and advanced these ideas across contexts.

With the creation of 530A Accounts, known as Trump Accounts, the U.S. now has a national, lifelong savings-and-investment platform that could help more children begin adulthood with capital to support long-term financial security. How this platform functions in practice—and which children it ultimately serves—will depend in large part on how philanthropy, employers, nonprofits, and other partners engage from the outset to ensure children with the least access to capital are positioned to benefit.

That opportunity was the focus of a recent AFN funder-only webinar with Ray Boshara of the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis and the Aspen Institute’s Financial Security Program, and Brittany Urick, Head of United States, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, moderated by AFN President and CEO Joe Antolín.

The conversation situated 530A Accounts alongside two other core early wealth-building strategies. Children’s Savings Accounts (CSAs), often structured through 529 accounts for post secondary education, represent the longest-standing approach. As Boshara noted, “most of what we know about how early accounts shape expectations and outcomes comes from the CSA field,” including evidence from large-scale demonstrations such as SEED OK that informed later state and federal policy.

Baby Bonds reflect a more recent strategy. Designed as publicly funded endowments provided at birth, they aim to support long-term wealth building. Baby Bonds have moved from concept to policy, with Connecticut implementing the first statewide program, four additional states passing legislation, and sixteen states advancing statewide proposals.

Taken together, these approaches underscore that early wealth-building strategies are not in competition. Instead, the discussion focused on what each is designed to do and how 530A Accounts introduce new rules and pathways for philanthropy to actively translate this moment into real participation and more equitable opportunity for children across different geographies and scenarios.

What We Know About 530A Accounts

530A Accounts introduce a new national platform for early wealth building through the federal infrastructure of the IRS. Structured as individual retirement accounts with special rules before age 18, they are designed to support long-term growth through market investment.

For newborns born between 2025 and 2028, the federal government will deposit $1,000 once a parent or guardian opens an account. For all other children, an account must be opened without a federal deposit. Accounts are opt-in and are intended to remain invested long term, with no provision for hardship withdrawals.

A concise visual summary of the core mechanics of 530A Accounts—covering account opening, contribution pathways, tax treatment, and allowable uses of funds in adulthood—was shared by Boshara during the webinar and is available here.

What most distinguishes 530A Accounts is their capacity to bring multiple actors into a shared investment framework. Families, employers, philanthropy, nonprofits, states, tribes, and other non-federal entities can all contribute through the same platform. Antolín underscored the impact of this approach will depend on uptake and engagement, particularly among families who have historically had limited access to long-term savings and investment tools—an area where philanthropy can play a catalytic role.

The Intent Behind Michael and Susan Dell’s Engagement

Urick noted that investing through the 530A platform aligned with Michael and Susan Dell’s long-standing belief that philanthropy can have its greatest impact when it puts resources as close to families as possible and allows opportunity to grow over time. By enabling contributions to be invested and compound, the platform offered a new way to expand children’s wealth-building potential.

In December 2025, the Dells announced a $6.25 billion commitment to seed an initial $250 contribution into the Trump Accounts of 25 million children, primarily from low- and moderate-income families, using the law’s general contribution provision. Urick emphasized that the intent was to use philanthropic capital to accelerate participation and demonstrate what could be possible at scale. The goal was to help ensure that a new national platform translates into real opportunity for all families.

That orientation helps frame the role philanthropy can play as 530A Accounts move from policy to practice.

Making Opportunity Real: Philanthropy’s Role in Expanding Access and Participation

Philanthropy has a distinct role to play in this moment: not by redesigning the policy itself, but by helping translate a new federal platform into real, usable opportunity through early engagement, strategic contributions, and support for the systems that connect families to accounts.

•  Use geographic targeting to reach families least likely to benefit on their own
While the law does not allow 530A contributions to be directed to specific families, it does allow deposits within defined geographic areas. To operate at scale while prioritizing impact, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation defined its contribution nationally and focused on zip codes with median family incomes of $150,000 or less, using publicly available Census data to reach children more likely to lack access to long-term assets.

Since that commitment, Dalio Philanthropies announced a complementary effort in Connecticut, providing $250 contributions to the 530A accounts of children under age 10 living in similarly defined zip codes. Subsequent rule clarification specifies that Treasury-facilitated general contributions must reach at least 5,000 eligible children within a defined geographic area, while direct contributions may be made to smaller geographies or cohorts — creating multiple entry points for funders with different capacities to make local and regional commitments as well.

•  Prioritize timing where compounding has the greatest effect
Philanthropic contributions can be most powerful when they allow time for investments to grow. The Dell commitment prioritized children ages 2–10, complementing and augmenting—rather than replacing—the federal deposits available to newborns born between 2025 and 2028.

•  Leverage public infrastructure for efficiency
Working through the Treasury’s general contribution mechanism, as the Dell and Dalio gifts did, avoids the administrative burden of individual transactions and flows through a public system designed to operate at scale. Importantly, philanthropic contributions do not count against nor limit the potential for annual deposits by employers or families.

•  Invest in deposits AND activation
Seeding accounts is powerful, but participation is not automatic. Accounts must be opened by a parent or guardian—either through IRS Form 4547 or via trumpaccounts.gov. A child’s ability to benefit hinges on whether families know the accounts exist, understand how to claim them, and encounter clear, trusted prompts to take action.

Tax filing is a critical entry point, but it is not sufficient on its own. Philanthropy can support schools, childcare providers, community nonprofits, tax assistance programs, and other trusted touchpoints where families already seek guidance—and where opening an account can be made clearer and more achievable.

•  Design for momentum, not a one-time event
Beyond making deposits, funders can invest in outreach strategies that prompt parents and guardians to open accounts for all eligible children, support trusted intermediaries that help families navigate claiming, and reinforce long-term expectations about asset building within households.

Engaging through Treasury also positions funders to shape how the platform evolves. Early participants can surface implementation challenges, contribute to practical guidance, and help inform future refinements—such as clearer communications as account holders approach adulthood or safeguards to reduce exposure to predatory financial practices. In this way, philanthropic engagement helps turn early experience into shared learning that strengthens the platform for those who follow.

A Complementary Ecosystem, Not a Choice Between Tools

Early wealth-building strategies are most effective when understood as complementary rather than competing. For funders, the opportunity is to align investments with purpose, using each tool where it is most effective, and strengthening the connections between them. As 530A Accounts move into practice, their impact will depend on intentional philanthropic engagement to ensure this national platform expands participation and reaches children who have historically had the least access to long-term asset building.

To support funders navigating these choices, AFN has updated its fact sheet comparing Children’s Savings Accounts, Baby Bonds, and Trump (530A) Accounts, outlining the distinct goals, design features, and policy implications of each instrument.

AFN is grateful to the Annie E. Casey Foundation for their support of this webinar and to our peer partners—the Grantmakers In Health, Economic Opportunity Funders, Tax Equity Funders Network, and the Early Childhood Funders Collaborative—for their engagement and shared leadership in advancing this work.