Probably yes.  The Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act (“UPMIFA”), which has been adopted in some form in every state except Pennsylvania, specifically authorizes a donor to “release or modify, in whole or in part, a restriction contained in a gift instrument on the management, investment, or purpose of an institutional fund” so long as it does not allow the gift to be used for any purpose other than a charitable purpose of the institution.  The Act does not require the approval of a court or the state attorney general to make the change.  You just have to get the charity to agree and memorialize the change in writing (or some other electronic form).  (See Ready Reference Page: “New UPMIFA Sets Rules for Management of Charitable Funds”)

If you are thinking of making a change, however, don’t wait until you are incompetent or dead.  Without a written record from you, the charity will have a much more difficult time in making a change and may not be able to do it at all. 

The charity can ask a court to modify a restriction if the restriction becomes “unlawful, impracticable, impossible to achieve, or wasteful.”  What if you gave money to support your college football team, but the football team has fallen on hard times and you would rather support the up and coming basketball team?   If the football team still exists, it is certainly not unlawful, impracticable or impossible for the charity to use such a gift for the football team.  It would pretty hard to get a court to determine that it would be “wasteful” to give to the football team merely because they are currently losing.  You might be stuck supporting the football team forever.

UPMIFA provides other significant possibilities for changing the purpose, but mostly in the same extreme circumstances.  If you want to make a change, or at least allow the charity to expand the purpose, make it now while you still can.