Zac Kester is the Managing Director of Advanta Management and the Manager of Advanta Charitable Lending Fund LLC (Advanta Fund). This private credit facility provides bespoke charitable gift financing loans to individuals. He was promoted to this position within six months of joining the firm because of his deep understanding of complex charitable giving, personal tax planning, and pooled charitable investment funds. His professional expertise includes private placement accredited charitable pooled investing, private credit lending, and private debt fund management.
The Advanta Fund is structured and operated as a program-related investment (PRI), which is an advanced philanthropic tool. As a PRI, the fund places charitable purpose ahead of financial returns, focusing on reversing the nationwide decline in charitable giving by making sophisticated charitable giving strategies more accessible through the PRI Mission. At the same time, it preserves appropriate returns, allowing capital to be recycled for future philanthropic efforts.
Kester joined the Advanta Fund in 2025 as Executive Vice President, where he worked with accredited charitable institutional investors as they completed due diligence and invested in the fund by pooling resources with other charities. During his first year in investment relations, he secured $50 million in new investments.
Within the second year, he and the Advanta Fund anticipate generating more than $100 million in new investments, funding more than $100 million in loans, and supporting more than $100 million in charitable gifts.
As Managing Director of Advanta Fund, Kester supervises both the lending and investment teams while overseeing the organization as a whole. His role places him at the center of several specialized disciplines that must work together to maintain a healthy and effective organization.
His primary responsibility is ensuring that the fund operates as a PRI while properly managing lending and investment risks.
While leading the lending team, Zac Kester aligns incentives by tying compensation to the proper documentation of each loan's connection to the PRI Mission, long-term loan and collateral performance, and overall loan yields. He works to ensure that sales representatives carefully evaluate borrowers and avoid unsuitable transactions.
Because the loans are bespoke and asset-backed, he ensures that strict, data-driven standards for collateral valuation are followed. He also supports ongoing industry education so that team members remain informed about the specialized and evolving markets connected to the assets securing the loans.
Although the Advanta Fund is designed to accept more risk than traditional commercial lenders, it does not accept unlimited risk. Instead, it focuses on strategic and appropriate risk. To support this approach, he ensures that collateral covenants are established, monitored, and enforced when necessary.
Kester also brings sales, credit, and compliance professionals together early in the evaluation process to review transactions before moving forward, helping avoid spending time on opportunities that are unlikely to succeed.
As Managing Director, Kester works closely with charitable and mission-driven investors to demonstrate how the fund's lending programs support charitable purposes and advance the PRI Mission. He focuses on illustrating how financing enhanced charitable giving with paid-up assets can create a measurable impact that aligns with an organization's mission and investment objectives.
He also assists in structuring loans that help protect investor capital through specialized collateral strategies. This allows organizations to preserve capital and potentially reinvest it in future charitable and community-focused initiatives.
In this leadership position, Zachary Kester oversees the fund's overall strategy and financial stability. He works to maintain sufficient liquidity to support operations, satisfy investor obligations, and respond to changing market conditions. Because many of the loans and assets associated with the fund are highly specialized and held for the long term, he carefully manages cash flow and investment exposure to reduce unnecessary risk.
Kester works closely with the lending, underwriting, treasury, and risk management teams to evaluate the assets that support the fund's loans. This includes implementing real-time collateral monitoring and stress testing to help determine whether the assets can continue to support the loans if market conditions change or borrowers default. By encouraging collaboration early in the process, he helps maintain a balanced and disciplined risk management strategy across the organization.
He also oversees investor reporting, financial controls, and audit preparation to maintain transparency and accountability with charitable and institutional investors. His responsibilities include ensuring that investment activities align with financial objectives and mission-driven goals while meeting complex compliance and reporting requirements.
Ultimately, Kester serves as the central coordinating force of the fund, helping ensure that sophisticated financial operations never compromise organizational stability or the core charitable mission.
Kester serves as a Director of Advanta Philanthropic, an organization dedicated to advancing charitable giving by making complex giving strategies and sophisticated 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 devoted to financial services professionals. The CAP® designation is held by advisors who help clients integrate charitable giving into financial and estate plans. These professionals focus on tax-efficient giving strategies, legacy planning, and aligning philanthropic goals with personal wealth management while serving both high-net-worth/high-earning 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 professional leadership, volunteer service, and continued educational development, Zac Kester remains committed to supporting charitable giving, mission-focused investing, and responsible philanthropic fund management.
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