Non-Cash Assets: What Fundraisers Need to Know

By Amanda L. Cole

For many nonprofits, the fundraising playbook still starts and ends with cash. While familiar, a cash-only approach is also a real constraint, Jeremy Wells, CFRE, senior vice president of philanthropic services at St. Paul & Minnesota Foundation, said. With modest giving growth, shifting federal funding, and donors who feel stretched, being cash only may be the biggest limitation to growth an organization doesn’t realize it is imposing on itself.

“We have the ability to help donors think differently and more expansively about their philanthropy,” Wells said in his session, “Unlocking the Power of Non-Cash Assets” at AFP ICON 2026. “We can help them move from giving out of income, which most people do, to giving out of assets, which most people don't think of doing.”

How Non-Cash Assets Fit in Your Development Plan

Non-cash assets are gifts other than cash — typically assets that have appreciated over time. While stocks and bonds are the most common type, the category is broader than most fundraisers realize:

Stocks and bonds, such as shares of any publicly listed company.
Real estate, including family lake cabins, rental properties, and commercial buildings.
Agricultural assets, such as high-value farmland, commodities like grain or soybeans, or fully depreciated farm equipment.
Mineral rights and natural resources.
Cryptocurrency and digital assets.
Intellectual property, including book royalties, patents, and research rights.
Privately held business interests.

Wells pointed to research from Russell James III, Ph.D., a professor of charitable financial planning at Texas Tech University, that found less than 5% of wealth in the United States is held in cash — yet cash accounts for roughly 85% of all charitable gifts made. That gap, Wells argued, is the opportunity.

James’ study analyzed roughly 1 million IRS Form 990s (opens as a pdf)), and found that nonprofits receiving only cash gifts saw five-year fundraising growth of 11%, while organizations receiving any non-cash asset during the same period saw five-year growth of 50%. The data also showed that when the share of an organization’s securities grew by 10%, total contributions grew by 18% in the same year. When real estate gifts grew by 10%, contributions grew by 26%.

And the biggest relative gains showed up among smaller nonprofits.

“The smaller your organization, the more exponential of an increase I think you were likely to receive if you can figure out ways to incorporate these types of gifts,” Wells said.

The Donor Psychology Piece

The case for non-cash gifts isn't just about diversifying revenue streams. It changes what's possible in a donor conversation.

“It's not that donors are unwilling to give these gifts,” Wells said. “It's that most donors have never been asked for them, and they don't inherently think of using these different types of things as gifts themselves for nonprofit organizations.”

A big part of that is the “cost” of the gift. A donor who hesitates to write a $10,000 check may feel very differently about giving $10,000 in appreciated stock that originally cost $2,000 to acquire. By giving the stock directly, that donor avoids capital gains tax on $8,000 in growth — and the gift costs far less than $10,000 in cash. Wells suggested fundraisers can even recommend that the donor make their portfolio whole again while increasing their cost basis.

“Take the check you were going to write me and buy $10,000 more worth of stock,” Wells said he often suggests to donors who are hesitant to sell or give stock. “You have the same amount of stock, and your basis actually increases, which is good for you. Like, this is a win-win for everyone, and they just never think of that.”

The same shift can unlock much larger gifts from everyday stuff. At a food service organization, a fundraiser asked a longtime donor giving about $5,000 a year if he had anything of value he might consider giving. Turns out the donor had a collection of 2,500 American Eagle silver coins he had acquired in 1987 and was willing to donate. After liquidation, the gift became a $250,000 check to the nonprofit.

“This donor was thrilled, and he told me while we were all standing in the coin shop waiting for this to happen, ‘Why don't more people do this? Why don’t more people think about this? Everyone’s got stuff. … My wife and I never thought we'd be able to make a gift for this organization of a quarter of a million dollars. … And it didn't really cost me anything. This was just stuff that I had,’” Wells said.

How to Get Started With Non-Cash Assets

Though it can take an investment to get started, don’t overlook support from your major donors. Back in 2019, Wells shared the benefits of non-cash assets with a current donor and asked for a $1 million gift to build out a strategy. The restricted gift funded a consultant, as well as the creation of internal processes and procedures.

“So as soon as we have a donor that wants to make this gift, we send them this process summary letter that says, ‘Here are the next steps. Here's what you pay for, here's what we will pay for, and here's what your gift would ultimately pay for when that gift settles,’” he said.

Since then, that initial investment has allowed the foundation to process $300 million in non-cash assets.

Most organizations will start smaller, but the basic sequence is the same.

1. Pick One Asset Type First

Wells suggested publicly traded stocks and bonds as the most natural starting point for most organizations, given how often donors hold them and how straightforward they are to accept.

2. Update Your Gift Acceptance Policy

Ensure your gift acceptance policy covers non-cash assets. At Wells’ foundation, policies are divided into “readily accepted assets” — those that can automatically be accepted if they meet preset criteria — and “negotiated assets” — those that require a more thoughtful gift acceptance committee review.

3. Secure Internal Buy-In, Especially From Finance

The entire organization — and finance in particular — needs to understand the strategy. Wells contrasted a former chief financial officer who was reluctant to try new things with his current head of finance, who is more of a partner.

“We're co-creating these things together,” he said. “He's at the table. He's involved in so many of these conversations because he sees the benefit of it as well. And so that finance buy-in is huge.”

4. Line Up Outside Partners

Depending on the asset, nonprofits will need relationships with financial institutions, vetted realtors and title companies, business valuation experts, and other partners to liquify each asset. Community foundations can often help organizations not yet ready to handle complex gifts in-house.

“Don't just get to ‘no.’ See if you can find a way to get to ‘yes.’” he said, referring to being able to accept your donors’ non-cash assets.

5. Shift the Donor Conversation

Once the infrastructure is in place, the ask itself changes. When donors finally are asked about non-cash assets, and the experience is seamless, the impact can be significant — for the donor, the organization, and the relationship.

“Non-cash assets are probably the greatest key to unlock that amplified approach to charitable giving — to really take what is then incremental growth for us to exponential growth because of just the sheer amount of wealth out there,” he said. “And I would argue it becomes more of a joyful giving experience for the donors because they're able to give more and feel it less.”