Zac Kester

Managing Director, Financial Services (Private Credit)

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, in part due to his knowledge of complex charitable giving, personal tax planning, and pooled charitable investment funds. His expertise includes accredited private placement, charitable pooled investing, private credit lending, and private debt fund management.

The Advanta Fund is organized and operated as a program-related investment (PRI), an advanced philanthropic vehicle. As a PRI, the fund places charitable purpose before financial return, focusing on reversing the nationwide decline in charitable giving by making sophisticated charitable giving strategies more accessible through the PRI Mission. While prioritizing charitable outcomes, the fund also seeks to preserve appropriate returns so capital can be reused in 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 for investment in the fund. In his first year in investment relations, he achieved $50 million in new investments.

Within the second year, he and the Advanta Fund expect to surpass $100 million in new investments, fund more than $100 million in loans, and support more than $100 million in charitable gifts.

Kester's Role as Managing Director

As Managing Director of Advanta Fund, Kester supervises the lending and investment teams while overseeing the organization as a whole. His position requires balancing several complex disciplines that work together to support the fund's operations and mission.

His primary responsibility is ensuring the fund continues to function as a PRI while appropriately managing lending and investment risk.

Supervising the Lending Team

While overseeing the lending team, Zac Kester aligns incentives by linking compensation to proper documentation of each loan's alignment with the PRI Mission, long-term loan and collateral performance, and overall loan yields. He works to ensure that sales representatives thoroughly evaluate borrowers and avoid unsuitable transactions.

Because the loans are bespoke and asset-backed, he ensures that strict, data-driven collateral valuation standards are maintained. He also promotes ongoing industry education to help team members stay informed about the highly specialized and evolving markets associated with the assets supporting 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 the sales, credit, and compliance teams together early in the evaluation process to review opportunities before advancing them, helping reduce time spent on transactions that may not succeed.

Supervising the Investment Team

As Managing Director, Kester works closely with charitable and mission-driven investors to explain how the fund's lending programs support charitable purposes and advance the PRI Mission. He focuses on demonstrating how financing enhanced charitable giving with paid-up assets can create a measurable impact that aligns with organizational missions and investment goals.

He also assists in structuring loans that help protect investor capital through specialized collateral strategies. This approach allows organizations to conserve resources and potentially reinvest them in future charitable and community-focused initiatives.

Overseeing the Organization

In this role, Zachary Kester oversees the fund's overall strategy and financial stability. He works to maintain sufficient liquidity to support operations, meet investor obligations, and manage market fluctuations. Because many of the loans and assets associated with the fund are highly specialized and held for long periods, he carefully manages cash flow and investment exposure to avoid unnecessary risk.

Kester works closely with lending, underwriting, treasury, and risk management teams to evaluate the assets backing the fund's loans. This includes implementing real-time collateral monitoring and stress testing to 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 approach across the organization.

Kester 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 remain aligned with financial objectives and mission-driven goals while meeting complex compliance and reporting requirements.

Ultimately, he serves as a central coordinating figure within the fund, helping ensure that complex financial operations remain aligned with organizational stability and the fund's charitable mission.

Volunteer Work

Kester serves as a Director of Advanta Philanthropic, whose mission is to advance 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.

Certifications

Kester received his Certificate in Fundraising Management and Philanthropic Studies from the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy in 2012.

Kester 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 advisors specialize in tax-efficient strategies, legacy planning, and aligning philanthropic goals with personal wealth management while serving both high-net-worth/high-earning donors and nonprofit organizations.

He 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 involvement, and continued professional development, Zac Kester continues to support charitable giving initiatives, mission-driven investing, and responsible philanthropic fund management.