Church Money, Donations & Financial Controls

Non-Cash Donations: Cars, Stock and Property

Published 2026-09-02 · Church Money, Donations & Financial Controls

Short answer: for a non-cash donation, church receipts should describe what was received: the item, the date, the condition. They should never state a dollar value. Valuing the gift is the donor's responsibility, and above certain thresholds it needs a qualified appraisal (IRS Publication 561, Determining the Value of Donated Property). Some non-cash gifts, particularly vehicles and real estate, carry their own filing rules for the church, and some are worth politely declining.

A member offers the church a boat. Somebody says yes in the car park. Three months later it is still in the parking lot, it has a battery that will not hold charge, the donor is asking for a receipt with a number on it, and nobody remembers who accepted it.

Non-cash gifts are usually generous and occasionally expensive. The difference is whether the church decided in advance what it would accept and who could say yes. The receipting rules that govern cash gifts still apply here. Non-cash just adds a layer on top of them.

The rule that governs all of it: describe, do not value

Whatever the item, the church's acknowledgment should contain:

• the church's legal name
• the donor's name
• the date the church received the property
• a description of the property: make, model, year, quantity, condition
• the goods-or-services statement, as covered in the magic words every contribution statement needs

And it shouldn't contain a dollar figure the church invented. Not on the letter, not in the annual statement, not in an email to the donor.

There are two reasons, and the second one matters more. The technical reason is that establishing value is the donor's job. The practical reason is that once the church writes a number down, the church owns that number, and the person who wrote it is the volunteer bookkeeper who guessed from a used-car website.

Describe it precisely instead. "One 2014 Honda Odyssey, VIN ending 4471, received 12 March, running, 148,000 miles" is a far better document than any figure.

The thresholds that change what happens

The donor's paperwork burden steps up as the claimed value rises, and at one of those steps the church gets pulled in (IRS Publication 1771, Charitable Contributions).

Two things about that last row.

Signing Section B is not agreeing to the value. The signature acknowledges that the church received the described property. It isn't an endorsement of the appraisal, and the form says as much. Have one named officer authorized to sign, so it's not whoever is at the desk.

Publicly traded securities are the main exception to the appraisal requirement, because their value is quoted. Most other property over the threshold, including cryptocurrency, is not.

There is also a subsequent-disposition rule: if the church sells or otherwise disposes of appraised property within a set period after receiving it, it generally has to file an information return reporting the sale and give the donor a copy. The period and the filing deadline are specific, and both the timing and the exceptions are worth confirming against the current form instructions before you rely on them. The practical takeaway for a treasurer: when you sell donated property, check whether a filing is triggered before you spend the proceeds, and keep a note of the sale date in the gift file.

The timing rules for the acknowledgment itself are the same ones that apply to cash. See the $250 rule and why timing matters.

Cars, boats and planes have their own regime

Vehicle donations are the most rule-heavy non-cash gift a church is likely to receive, and the rules exist because the area was abused for years.

The general position for a vehicle the donor claims above $500: the donor's deduction is tied to what the church actually gets for it. If the church sells the vehicle, the deduction is generally limited to the gross proceeds of that sale (IRS Publication 526, Charitable Contributions). Not the guide-book value. Not what the donor paid, and not what it might have fetched.

There are exceptions where the deduction isn't capped at sale proceeds, and they turn on what the church does with the vehicle:

• Significant intervening use: the church genuinely uses it in its ministry, not a token trip or two.
• Material improvement: real repairs that increase value, not cleaning and a tank of fuel.
• Transfer to a needy individual at below market value, in direct furtherance of the church's charitable purpose.

The church must give the donor a specific acknowledgment, the standard vehicle-donation form, with content and deadlines that depend on which path applies, generally counted in days from the sale or from the donation. The donor attaches their copy to the return, and without it the deduction fails. Get the current form instructions before your first vehicle gift. This isn't an area to reconstruct from memory.

What that means in practice:

1. Decide before accepting: will you use it, improve it, give it away, or sell it? The answer changes the paperwork.
2. Record the odometer, VIN and condition on the day it arrives, with photographs.
3. Transfer the title properly and promptly. A donated vehicle still registered to the donor is a liability problem waiting for a phone call. If it's driven, parked badly, or towed, the name on the registration is the one that gets contacted.
4. Insure it or get it off the property. A vehicle sitting on church land is the church's problem.
5. Send the required acknowledgment inside the deadline. Late is the same as never for the donor.

If the church doesn't want a vehicle, saying so kindly on day one is far better stewardship than accepting it and letting it depreciate in the parking lot.

Stock and securities

The easiest large non-cash gift to receive well, and the one most churches handle slowly.

The gift date is when the shares arrive, not when the donor calls their broker. For an electronic transfer that is generally the date the shares land in the church's brokerage account; for a physical certificate, generally when it is properly delivered or transferred. Donors who start a transfer on 29 December frequently make a January gift. Tell them in early December.

Have a brokerage account open before you need one. Opening one takes longer than the donor's patience, and a church without an account has to send the donor away or receive the gift late.

Acknowledge the shares, not the money. "Received 200 shares of [company] common stock on 14 November." Not the sale proceeds, not the closing price, not a dollar total. The donor's advisor calculates the value from the transfer date.

Sell promptly unless the board decides otherwise. Most gift acceptance policies say the church converts marketable securities to cash immediately. That removes market risk and removes the question of whether the church is investing. If your policy says otherwise, that should be a board decision recorded in the minutes, not a default.

Publicly traded stock generally does not need an appraisal, whatever the amount (IRC §170, Charitable contributions), which is one reason shares are a good way for donors to give. Closely held stock in a family business is a different animal entirely. That one needs an appraisal, and it needs advice before you accept it.

Real property: the gift that can cost you

Land and buildings are where a generous offer can become a five-figure problem.

Before the church accepts a deed to anything, someone has to answer:

• Is there a mortgage or lien on it? Accepting encumbered property can create tax consequences for both sides, and the church may inherit an obligation.
• What is the environmental history? A former gas station, a workshop, farmland with buried tanks. Environmental liability attaches to owners, and it doesn't care that you received the land as a gift.
• What does it cost to hold? Property taxes, insurance, security, maintenance, mowing. Property held for a non-exempt purpose may not qualify for exemption from local property tax.
• Can it be sold? Restrictions, access, zoning, title defects, an unmarketable parcel nobody wants.
• Are there conditions attached? A donor who wants the land used a particular way forever has given you a restricted asset, not a free one.

The right sequence is: express gratitude, explain that the board reviews property gifts, then do the diligence. Get a lawyer involved before accepting real estate. This is one of the few places where the cost of advice is obviously smaller than the cost of skipping it, and a title review plus an environmental question is a modest bill against a parcel you cannot sell.

What is not deductible at all

Worth knowing so you don't put it on a statement (IRS Publication 526, Charitable Contributions):

• The value of donated services. A contractor who reroofs the building has made a wonderful gift and not a deductible contribution. Their unreimbursed out-of-pocket costs may be deductible; their labor is not.
• The value of volunteer time, on the same principle.
• The use of property. A week at a donor's cabin for the auction, free use of an office, a loaned vehicle. Giving a right to use property is generally not a deductible gift.
• Rent forgiven by a landlord who lets the church use space free.

None of these are less generous. They just don't go on a contribution statement, and telling people kindly in advance avoids an awkward January.

Why the policy has to exist before the offer

Almost every bad non-cash gift story starts the same way: someone with no authority said yes.

A workable gift acceptance policy covers:

1. What the church accepts routinely: cash, marketable securities, standard goods it will use.
2. What requires board approval: vehicles, real property, closely held business interests, anything with conditions attached, anything the church can't easily sell.
3. What the church declines: timeshares, encumbered property, live animals, items requiring specialist storage, anything with an environmental question. Name them, so refusing is policy rather than a personal judgment about someone's generosity.
4. Who may accept a gift, by role, in writing.
5. The right to sell. State plainly that the church may sell donated property at its discretion unless the board has agreed otherwise in writing.
6. The receipting standard: describe, never value.
7. How to decline graciously. Have the sentence ready: *"We're grateful, and our board policy is that we can't take on property we aren't able to use or sell. May we help you find a home for it?"*

The policy is worth more than any single gift it governs, because it turns an uncomfortable personal conversation into a procedural one.

How churches get this wrong

The receipt states a value. The most common error, usually done to be helpful.

Somebody accepted it in the car park. No authority, no diligence, no way back.

The vehicle title is never transferred, so the church has an asset it cannot sell and a registration exposure it did not intend.

Stock sits unsold for months because nobody decided, and the church is now running an investment position it never chose.

Real estate is accepted without a title or environmental look. The cost shows up later and it is rarely small.

The disposition is never checked against the filing rules when appraised property is sold inside the reporting window.

Nothing is documented. No photographs, no condition note, no record of who authorized acceptance. The file is the only version of events that survives, and it is empty.

Common questions

Can we tell a donor what we think their gift is worth?

Don't. Describe what you received and let their advisor or appraiser value it. If you sell the item and the donor asks what it fetched, telling them the sale price is a factual statement about the church's transaction, which is different from valuing their gift. For vehicles it's generally required anyway.

A donor wants us to sign Form 8283. Should we?

An authorized officer signs the receipt acknowledgment portion when the form requires it. Read what you are signing, confirm the description matches what actually arrived, keep a copy, and understand that you are confirming receipt rather than agreeing with the appraised value. If the description does not match what you received, do not sign it.

What if we sell the donated item quickly?

Fine, and often the right call. Note the sale date and proceeds in the gift file, check whether a disposition filing is triggered, and for vehicles remember the sale price generally drives the donor's acknowledgment.

Someone wants to donate cryptocurrency.

Treated as property rather than currency, which means the appraisal threshold applies to it and the publicly-traded-securities exception generally does not. Decide in advance whether you will accept it, how you will convert it, and who holds the keys. If the answer to any of those is unclear, decline for now.

Can we accept a gift with strings attached?

You can accept a restriction, and once you do, you're bound by it, sometimes permanently. Restrictions that conflict with the church's purpose, or that require the church to do something it may not want to do in twenty years, should go to the board and often to counsel before anyone says yes.

When to stop and get advice

Get a lawyer, before you accept, when the gift is real property; when it is an interest in a business; when there is a mortgage, lien or environmental question; when the donor wants a permanent restriction; when the gift involves a trust, an annuity or an estate; or when the donor is a board member, a staff member or a close relative of one.

Templates are the right tool for a gift acceptance policy and a receipt. They aren't the right tool for a deed, an appraisal question or an encumbered parcel. Knowing which situation you're in is the skill worth having. For the wider set of financial controls, start with the church money essentials, and if a donor attaches conditions to what they give, read designated and restricted gifts next.

---

Decide what you accept before someone offers you a boat. The Donation Receipt & Gift Acceptance Kit is the donor acknowledgment letters and the gift-acceptance policy, written to the substantiation rules: what the church takes, what goes to the board, and how to describe a non-cash gift without valuing it. $49, instant download.

*Faith Docs provides self-help document templates, not legal advice. We are not a law firm. For representation, consult a licensed attorney.*