Zac Kester serves as the Managing Director of Advanta Management and the Manager of Advanta Charitable Lending Fund LLC (Advanta Fund). This private credit facility provides customized charitable gift financing loans to individuals. He was elevated to this position within six months of joining the organization, partly because of his extensive knowledge of charitable giving strategies, personal tax planning, and pooled charitable investment funds. His professional background includes private placement accredited charitable pooled investing, private credit lending, and private debt fund management.
The Advanta Fund operates as a program-related investment (PRI), an advanced philanthropic structure. As a PRI, the fund places charitable purpose ahead of financial return, focusing on reversing the nationwide decline in charitable giving by making sophisticated charitable giving strategies more accessible through its PRI Mission. At the same time, it seeks to preserve appropriate returns so capital can be reused for future charitable activities.
Kester joined the Advanta Fund in 2025 as Executive Vice President, where he worked closely with accredited charitable institutional investors during their due diligence and investment process. In his first year in investment relations, he secured $50 million in new investments.
During the second year, he and the Advanta Fund expect to exceed $100 million in new investments, provide more than $100 million in loans, and help generate more than $100 million in new charitable gifts.
As Managing Director of Advanta Fund, Kester supervises the lending and investment teams and oversees the organization's broader operations. His position requires balancing several specialized disciplines to support the fund's long-term success.
A major part of his role is ensuring that the fund continues to function as a PRI while maintaining appropriate lending and investment risk management practices.
In leading the lending team, Kester structures incentives so compensation reflects proper documentation of each loan's connection to the PRI Mission, long-term loan performance, collateral performance, and loan yields. He works to ensure that sales representatives thoroughly evaluate borrowers and avoid unsuitable transactions.
Since the loans are customized and asset-backed, Kester enforces data-driven standards for collateral valuation. He also promotes continuing education so that team members remain informed about the specialized and evolving markets associated with the assets securing the loans.
Although the Advanta Fund is designed to accept more risk than conventional commercial lenders, it does not pursue unlimited risk. Instead, it focuses on strategic and appropriate risk. To support this objective, he ensures collateral covenants are established, monitored, and enforced when necessary.
He also encourages collaboration among sales, credit, and compliance teams early in the review process to identify challenges before significant resources are committed to a transaction.
As Managing Director, Zac Kester works with charitable and mission-focused investors to demonstrate how the fund's lending programs support charitable purposes and advance the PRI Mission. He highlights how financing enhanced charitable giving through paid-up assets can produce measurable results that align with organizational missions and investment objectives.
He also assists in designing loan structures that help protect investor capital through specialized collateral strategies. This approach enables organizations to preserve resources and potentially reinvest them in future charitable and community initiatives.
In this leadership role, Kester oversees the fund's strategic direction and financial strength. He works to maintain adequate liquidity for operations, investor obligations, and changing market conditions. Because many of the fund's loans and assets are highly specialized and held for extended periods, he carefully manages cash flow and investment exposure to reduce unnecessary risk.
Kester collaborates closely with the lending, underwriting, treasury, and risk management teams to assess the assets that support the fund's loans. This includes implementing real-time collateral monitoring and stress testing to determine whether assets can continue to support loans if market conditions change or borrowers default. By bringing different teams together early, he promotes a balanced and disciplined approach to risk management.
Zachary Kester also oversees investor reporting, financial controls, and audit preparation to support transparency and accountability for charitable and institutional investors. His responsibilities include ensuring that investment activities remain aligned with both financial objectives and mission-driven priorities while meeting complex compliance and reporting requirements.
Ultimately, he serves as a central coordinating force within the fund, helping ensure that sophisticated financial operations remain aligned with organizational stability and charitable purpose.
Kester serves as a Director of Advanta Philanthropic, an organization dedicated to advancing charitable giving by making complex giving strategies and philanthropic approaches more accessible through expertise, technology, and partnerships with professional advisors.
He is also a Director of a large charitable grantmaking (regranting) organization and remains actively involved in his local church.
Kester earned his Certificate in Fundraising Management and Philanthropic Studies in 2012 from the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
He also earned the Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy® (CAP®) designation from The American College of Financial Services, the nation's largest nonprofit educational institution focused on financial services professionals. The CAP® designation is awarded to advisors who help clients incorporate charitable giving into financial and estate planning. These professionals specialize in tax-efficient giving strategies, legacy planning, and the alignment of philanthropic goals with wealth management objectives for both donors and nonprofit organizations.
Kester is expected to soon receive his Chartered Life Underwriter® (CLU®) designation from The American College of Financial Services and is also pursuing his Chartered Financial Consultant® (ChFC®) designation.
Through his leadership, volunteer service, and continued professional education, Zac Kester continues to support mission-driven investing, charitable giving initiatives, and the responsible management of philanthropic capital.
