Cash and check contributions are straightforward to record. Gifts of property, vehicles, stock, or other in-kind items are not — and they come with their own documentation rules that are easy to get wrong.
The church's role: acknowledge, don't appraise
When someone donates a non-cash gift, the church's job is to provide a written acknowledgment describing the item — not to assign it a dollar value. Valuing the gift for tax-deduction purposes is the donor's responsibility, often with the help of a qualified appraisal for larger gifts. The acknowledgment letter should describe what was given, the date, and confirm whether any goods or services were provided in exchange.
Recording it in your books
Non-cash gifts still need to show up in your financial records, typically recorded at fair market value on the date of the gift. Depending on what the item is and what the church does with it, that usually means recording both the contribution revenue and a corresponding asset — or an immediate expense if the item is used or sold right away.
A few special cases worth knowing
- Vehicles have their own IRS reporting rules, including a specific form when the church later sells the donated vehicle.
- Publicly traded stock is generally valued using the average of the high and low trading price on the date of the gift.
- Real estate or other property often warrants extra documentation given the size and complexity of the gift.
Why it's worth doing carefully
Getting non-cash gift handling right protects your donor's ability to claim their deduction, and protects your church's books from a growing category of gifts that's easy to under-document. It's also one of the more common questions we hear from finance committees putting together a gift acceptance policy for the first time.