In-kind donations are donations of goods, professional services, staff expertise or time to a nonprofit. Though they can be low-cost for your organization, they can offer meaningful support to the receiving organization.

To ensure that the donation will truly help, it’s best to first contact the nonprofit about the donation.

Types of donations

Consider also donating used or new equipment, space, inventory, or supplies that are no longer needed. With creative thinking, you may find other ways to meet community needs, such as these:

  • parking or facilities for community events
  • ongoing office space for a nonprofit
  • meeting space for community and nonprofit meetings
  • space for CSA (Community-Supported-Agriculture) pick-ups
  • space for food shelf donation drop-offs
  • providing one-time services, such as financial management or HR consultations
  • providing ongoing services, such as bookkeeping or plowing or loaning an employee for a long period of time
  • including nonprofit employees in your in-house professional development
  • host community events or fundraisers
  • donate excess inventory to be sold for fundraising
  • use your marketing (website, packaging, ads, labels, etc.) to give visibility to a specific nonprofit or activism.
  • To target your community activities and help limit the number of donation requests, you can adopt a single nonprofit or issue each year as the recipient/s for all your donations of cash, volunteerism, donated technical assistance, space, etc.
  • Also see the Volunteering ideas and tips.

 

Tax deductions

To be tax deductible, the donation must…

Your organization, not the nonprofit, determines the fair market value of the donation. To use a tax deduction, you need written confirmation from the nonprofit, including:

    • a description of the donation,
    • date the donation was received, and
    • whether you received any goods or services in exchange for the donation

 

Also see the Advocacy and Financial Donations sections.