Gifts-in-kind, or non-cash gifts, are unique. Most are appreciated assets that offer donors the ability to give an asset, receive a tax deduction for the value, and, depending on the donor, avoid capital gains tax. Yet, there are many gifts-in-kind that aren’t so easy to accept. This may be due to unverifiable value, such as with art collections, gifts of used equipment that may prove to be hard to place or to find a means to value, illiquid privately-held securities, or non-fungible tokens that pose issues in determining both ownership and value, as examples. Donors need to be responsible for providing bona fide appraisals and bearing those costs; but the institution also needs to be able to validate the value as well as many other aspects of a non-cash gift prior to acceptance. Whatever the non-cash gift, the viability of the value and its benefit to the institution must be analyzed before accepting.

To better answer the question of whether a gift-in-kind has the value the donor claims, you must have a thorough review process in place and access to the right experts who can verify both the value and its benefit. Either way, gifts-in-kind must be analyzed on a case-by-case basis on whether they will be worth the institutional time and effort it will take to accept and manage them.