Sarah Libbey, president of Fidelity Charitable Services and the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, is working toward the day when the donor-advised fund is ubiquitous.

“One vision that I talk about here is that, someday, donor-advised funds will be as accepted and as prevalent in American households as mutual funds and checking accounts. That’s all with the notion that I want to help Americans feel empowered to give,” she says.

Giving is second-nature to Libbey, who grew up participating in youth mission trips and other charitable work.

Intrigued by the concept of having a giving account along with other investment accounts, she moved into the charitable services division as head of marketing and program development in 2007 after 26 years at Fidelity in retail and customer service.

“I thought about it in the way of helping people to give away their savings, whereas I had been spending most of my career helping people build up their savings,” she says. “It was something I wanted to learn more about and make some impact on.”

Libbey’s ability to make a difference gelled in January 2008, when she became the interim president of Fidelity Charitable Services and the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, a 501(c)(3) organization. Six months later, she was named president.

The Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund is the third-largest public charity in the nation, with more than 50,000 donors and $4 billion in assets under management.

Since the fund’s inception in 1991, donors have recommended grants totaling more than $9 billion to some 131,000 nonprofits. A $5,000 minimum makes the giving vehicle appealing to a broad set of donors.

Libbey undertook her interim presidency from the point of view of a leader with a mission.

“I was a member of the senior team, developing our five-year strategic plan and understanding our primary areas of growth,” she says. “When I was named interim president, I was responsible for keeping the organization running smoothly and seamlessly and, at the same time, I was starting to put my own mark on what I thought were important areas for us either to emphasize or not, depending on a particular market environment.

“Said another way,” Libbey continues, “I tried not to act interim. I tried to say, ‘Here I was voting as a senior team member and now I need to act like the head.’ ”

Libbey came to the position with plenty of leadership experience. Starting at Fidelity in 1981 – her second job after graduating from the University of New Hampshire – she was a phone representative answering investor questions about the mutual funds Fidelity offered.

Initially considering law school as a way to work in social services, Libbey instead grabbed the opportunity of an opening in Fidelity’s legal department to lead the staff responsible for many of the company’s mutual fund filings.

“After four years of that, I realized I was enamored with financial services and Fidelity. I decided not to go to law school,” Libbey says. “That’s when I transitioned into retail product marketing. I spent the bulk of my career in various product development, marketing and operational roles, primarily on the direct retail side of Fidelity.”

Libbey’s roles were many: marketing director of fixed-income product management for Fidelity Investments Retail Marketing Co., vice president of high net worth and electronic channel programs for Fidelity Retail Investor Services, vice president of investment planning product development for Fidelity Investments Institutional Retirement Group, and senior vice president of product management and development and then senior vice president of Portfolio Advisory Services for Fidelity Personal Investments.

For three years, from 2004 to 2007, Libbey also served as chairman and director of the board for Fidelity Personal Trust Company.