August 24, 2026 | Read Time: 6 minutes
Your biggest prospective donors may own assets that they don’t consider donating because they are not liquid or easily converted to cash. The wealthier donors are, the more likely their wealth is tied up in a business, a building, a stake in a partnership, etc.
If your nonprofit isn’t set up to accept assets like these, and if you’re not talking to your donors about their giving in the context of their broader estate planning, you may be limiting what’s possible.
Accepting complex assets can unlock large gifts from wealthy donors. Plus, helping donors avoid capital gains taxes by donating an asset before it’s sold creates a win-win: potentially lower taxes for the donor and a larger contribution to the nonprofit.
Yes, the complexity can be daunting — especially with illiquid assets like limited-partnership interests or units in a hedge fund. But you don’t have to become an expert in converting these assets. You just need a partner who is.
Know where your donors’ wealth lives.
Consider who these donors are. As Bryan Clontz and Russell James have each shown, high-net-worth households hold far more of their wealth in privately held businesses, real estate, partnerships, and other illiquid assets than in cash or publicly traded securities.
UBS’s 2026 Global Family Office Report found that U.S. family offices now park roughly 52 percent of their portfolios in alternatives — private equity, real estate, infrastructure, private debt, hedge funds — and more than three-quarters of the families surveyed still own an operating business.
Donors are already giving away these assets, but mostly through intermediaries. National Philanthropic Trust, one of the largest independent donor-advised fund sponsors, reports that more than 60 percent of its annual contributions arrive as noncash assets.
Operating charities see almost none of it: In research featured in the Chronicle, accounting professor Brian Mittendorf and co-author Helen Flannery examined IRS filings from 2020 through 2022 and found noncash gifts made up just 3.4 percent of what operating charities brought in.
For the largest DAF sponsors, it was 46.6 percent.
Show donors what their assets can do.
The payoff isn’t abstract. A donor reduces a tax bill; a nonprofit receives a gift that might never have arrived as cash. Two stories from my own work show how it plays out.
When philanthropists Georgette Bennett and Leonard Polonsky wanted to support the New York Public Library, a significant portion of their wealth earmarked for charity wasn’t sitting in a checking account. It was tied up in a vacation home in Aspen, Colo. Had the couple sold the property themselves, the proceeds would have been reduced by capital gains tax.
Instead, the family donated the home to FJC — A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds, where I serve as CEO. FJC prepared the property for sale, which meant far more than signing legal documents: maintaining it, paying expenses, coordinating with brokers, even making sure the driveway was plowed after snowstorms. The sale generated $7 million for the family’s donor-advised fund — the largest share of their $12 million gift to the library, which created the Polonsky Exhibition of the New York Public Library’s Treasures.
Once donors realize they aren’t limited to giving cash or publicly traded stock, they begin thinking differently about philanthropy.
Once donors realize they aren’t limited to giving cash or publicly traded stock, they begin thinking differently about philanthropy. Assets that once seemed inseparable from an estate plan — a vacation home, a family business, a limited-partnership interest, cryptocurrency — suddenly become a philanthropic resource.
When Richard and Amy Wallman began thinking about retirement, they also began thinking about philanthropy. As Richard told me, “Our goal is to give away as much as we can. We give away everything we make, and we will give away everything we have.”
But some of the family’s wealth was tied up in shares of private companies, including Quala, a tank trailer cleaning and maintenance company where Richard served on the board. With a possible merger on the horizon, the Wallmans wanted to contribute shares well before any capital event occurred.
Few nonprofits had the expertise or governance processes to review hard-to-sell shares on a year-end deadline. FJC completed the analysis, obtained board approval, and accepted the gift. Four months later, when the merger closed, the shares generated $2.8 million for the family’s charitable giving — without triggering capital gains tax.
Do the diligence before you say yes.
Behind every successful gift of a complex asset is a rigorous due-diligence process meant to protect both the organization and the donor.
Before FJC accepts a complex asset, we confirm the donor owns it and can transfer it, look for legal and tax complications, estimate what the asset will cost to hold, and ask whether and when it can realistically be sold.
We also guard against donors who pursue these gifts in bad faith — someone looking to claim a tax deduction while offloading an underperforming asset that may never convert to cash, for example. Our goal is to steward these resources so they can help nonprofits achieve their missions, not to hold them indefinitely; so we reject contributions where liquidity is too remote.
Start with appreciated securities.
Appreciated publicly traded securities are the place to start. They’re easy to value, easy to sell, and the tax benefit to the donor is the same as with more complex assets.
For a nonprofit to receive stock requires little more than a brokerage account and a simple written policy — approved by the board — that says what the organization accepts, what requires review, and what it declines. Selling donated securities promptly keeps staff from having to make investment decisions.
Test harder assets — then call in help.
The harder question is how to treat assets that aren’t publicly traded. A useful test for any proposed gift: Can we determine its value? Can we reasonably convert it to cash? What financial, legal, or operational responsibilities would ownership create? An asset that fails any of those tests — one that needs specialized valuation, carries ongoing expenses, or requires serious legal review — is a signal to bring in help rather than go it alone.
Organizations that only occasionally encounter complex-asset gifts can develop relationships with experts such as attorneys, CPAs, gift-planning professionals, valuation firms, and other specialists who can evaluate risks, structure transfers, satisfy regulatory requirements, and execute a sale.
Donor-advised fund sponsors have emerged as valuable collaborators because many have developed specialized capabilities for accepting and liquidating a broad range of complex assets. For donors like the Polonsky and Wallman families, DAF sponsors serve a particular niche: relieving donors and their grantees of administrative and operational complexity.
Ask intermediaries the hard questions.
In choosing an intermediary to partner with, ask a few questions. Does the intermediary have the in-house technical expertise and a track record of managing complex donations? What is its business model, and how are fees assessed? An intermediary that survives on transaction fees may approach the work differently from one looking to build long-term donor relationships. Does the intermediary have a mission to serve nonprofits and a commitment to the sector?
Too often, we think philanthropy begins when a nonprofit receives a check. Increasingly, the real work begins much earlier, with turning today’s complex forms of wealth into resources nonprofits can actually use. Nonprofits that figure out how to convert complex assets will reap the rewards in revenue and by becoming trusted partners in their donors’ estate and legacy planning.
