Your donors are ready to give more than cash
About 90% of donor wealth is held in assets like stocks, investments, and retirement accounts, not in a checking account. Cash is usually set aside for rent, bills and everyday needs, so asking only for cash gifts means starting from the smallest, hardest-to-part-with bucket.
The opportunity is growing fast. The Great Wealth Transfer is underway, with an estimated $18 trillion projected to go directly to charity in the coming decades. And the average donor makes their first planned gift at age 52.8, far earlier than many teams assume.
In our recent webinar, Infrastructure for Gifts of Wealth: Your Asset Giving Checklist, Kasey Hardin, Head of Growth at Infinite Giving, and Jordan Cassidy, Co-Founder of LifeLegacy, walked through how nonprofits can get ready to accept the four asset gifts donors ask about most: stock donations, crypto donations, donor-advised fund (DAF) grants and qualified charitable distributions (QCDs).
Here's the checklist for nonprofits to receive stock, crypto, DAFs and QCDs
1. Stock donations: open a brokerage account and make giving easy
The average cash gift in the US is $128. The average stock gift is over $8,000. The difference comes down to taxes: when donors give appreciated stock directly, they can avoid capital gains tax and deduct the full market value of the shares. Money that would have gone to taxes goes to your mission instead.
To accept stock donations, your nonprofit needs:
- A brokerage account in your organization's name. This is often the hardest step. Kasey shared how she spent six months trying to open one with traditional firms as treasurer of a small nonprofit before finding Infinite Giving.
- Clear transfer instructions that donors and their financial advisors can follow.
- A way to know who gave. Shares often arrive with no donor name attached, so give donors an easy way to tell you a gift is coming.
- Automatic liquidation, so stock is converted to cash per nonprofit best practice and moved to your operating account.
- A receipt sent to the donor.
Infinite Giving opens your nonprofit brokerage account, liquidates stock gifts, deposits funds to your bank (or reinvests them) and sends the donor receipt. An online stock donation portal allows donors to streamline asset donations without needing to call or email your team.
That matters. Washington's National Park Fund already accepted stock through a "contact us" process. Within a month or two of adding Infinite Giving's "More Ways to Give" to their website, a donor they'd never heard of gave a six-figure stock gift without ever talking to the WNPF team.
2. Cryptocurrency donations: set up a crypto wallet
Crypto donations work much like stock gifts and carry similar tax benefits for donors, with the average crypto gift topping $10,000. Instead of a brokerage account, you need a crypto wallet and a plan for converting gifts to cash.
Your crypto checklist:
- A secure wallet held in your organization's name.
- A conversion plan, so volatile assets are liquidated quickly.
- Clean records. For non-cash gifts over $5,000, the donor files IRS Form 8283, and your nonprofit may need to sign it.
With Infinite Giving, donors choose the coin and amount (partial coins included), scan a QR code and send. The gift is liquidated, deposited to your account and receipted automatically.
3. DAF grants: know when a gift is coming
Donor-advised funds hold hundreds of billions of dollars already earmarked for charity. That's money set aside for nonprofits and waiting to be granted.
DAF grants usually arrive by check or ACH from the sponsoring organization, not the donor, and donors can choose to stay anonymous. That makes DAF gifts easy to miss or misattribute. Keep these in mind:
- Thank the donor warmly, but don't send a tax receipt. They took the deduction when they funded the DAF.
- Match each grant to the right donor record so your stewardship stays accurate.
- Ask donors for a heads-up. Infinite Giving's platform includes a DAF pledge notification form, so your team knows a grant is on the way, can thank the donor sooner and can plan for the funds.
4. QCDs: educate donors 70½ and older
Jordan called qualified charitable distributions "the planned gift of the year," and the numbers back it up. More than 10,000 Americans turn 65 every day, and a growing wave of donors is reaching the age where QCDs make sense.
A QCD lets IRA owners age 70½ and older give directly from their IRA to a nonprofit. The distribution isn't counted as taxable income, and it can count toward the donor's required minimum distribution (RMD). In 2026, the QCD limit is 111,000perperson(222,000 for a couple), and it's now indexed to inflation.
Two details to share with donors:
- The transfer must go directly from the IRA custodian to your nonprofit. If the donor cashes a check first, it doesn't qualify.
- QCDs can't go to a DAF. Make your legal name, EIN and mailing address easy to find so custodians can process gifts correctly.
Marketing is the name of the game. Many donors simply don't know QCDs are an option. Jordan recommends three seasonal pushes:
- January–February: announce the new QCD limit while planners are ready to give.
- March–April: tax season, when donors are thinking about tax-smart giving for the year ahead.
- October–November: the busiest QCD season. Start early, since IRA custodians can take weeks to process around the holidays.
One example Jordan shared is from a Virginia-based nonprofit thatran all three campaigns across email, targeted postcards to donors 65+, newsletters, a robust planned giving page, a webinar and personal outreach. Since 2021, it has seen a 356% increase in QCD gifts per year and 236% QCD revenue growth.
Put every way to give on your website
The nonprofits that do best make every option visible and easy to act on. Pasadena Humane, a shared Infinite Giving and LifeLegacy client, lists each way to give on one page. Each button explains the option and links to a tool: donor-advised funds open the Infinite Giving widget, IRA gifts open LifeLegacy's QCD tool. Many donors would rather give online, on their own time, than call your office.
When gifts come in, thank donors personally and promptly, ideally within 24 to 48 hours. You don't need to give tax advice. Your job is to make donors aware of their options and point them to the right resources.
Your nonprofit's asset giving checklist
- Open a brokerage account to accept stock donations
- Set up a crypto wallet with automatic conversion
- Add a DAF pledge form so you know when grants are coming
- Publish your legal name, EIN and mailing address for QCDs
- Build a "ways to give" page with a tool behind every option
- Plan QCD and planned giving campaigns for 2027
- Put a gift acceptance policy in place
Your donors are ready to give more than cash. With the right setup and partners behind the scenes, your team can say yes without taking on a ton of extra work. Year-end is the busiest season for stock gifts and QCDs, so now is the time to get ready.
Ready to accept stock, crypto and DAF gifts? Talk with Infinite Giving about your setup, or watch the full webinar recording.
