Appreciated securities, accelerated impact: 5 tips to boost stock gifting

Donating appreciated securities such as stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and mutual funds were once the domain of the wealthiest donors. Broadly referred to as stock gifting, this option is now accessible to everyday investors, thanks to new tools and growing awareness. Here’s what nonprofits need to know to exponentially grow stock gifting.

Stock gifting represents $90 billion in untapped funding

Among the 100 million Americans who own securities outside of retirement accounts, the wealthiest 5% (five million) have portfolios averaging $10 million. If the top 5% alone gifted just $20,000 in securities (well below their giving capacity), $100 billion would flow to nonprofits each year. The remaining 90% are worth billions more in funding, and with the continued growth in retail investing, the opportunity for nonprofits is expanding.

Yet, stock gifting is still vastly underutilized. Our own analysis of 2024 990 tax returns for the largest 100,000 nonprofits shows only $12 billion in securities were donated directly to nonprofits (excluding DAF contributions). This suggests an opportunity gap of more than $90 billion annually.

Benefits of stock gifting for nonprofits

When donors give appreciated securities, they’re deepening their relationship with your organization, which translates into larger gifts and higher retention. As Russell James reported, nonprofits that solicit non-cash gifts grew funding five times faster than those that rely only on cash.

Based on data from 7,000 stock gifts processed by GivingIQ, there are three reasons for this:

1. Gifts of securities are much larger than cash gifts, averaging $9,000 in 2025 and more than $10,000 year-to-date in 2026.
2. Stock donors have higher retention rates, averaging almost 40% across all nonprofits. Some nonprofits see even higher retention.
3. Stock donors give even more over time—in 2025 the average retained donor gave 55% more than in 2024. As their portfolios grow, so do their gifts. This is why more than half of 2025 stock gifting proceeds were from retained donors from 2024.

Stock gifting challenges

Despite the benefits, stock gifting faced numerous headwinds for decades:

• Donors’ limited awareness of tax benefits: Relatively few investors are aware they can avoid capital gains tax and deduct the current market value of gifted stock held for more than a year.
• Fundraisers’ limited expertise: Relatively few development teams are experts on the benefits, process, and keys to successfully growing stock gifting.
• Poor donor experience: Historically, donors had to research the process, request transfer instructions, complete paperwork, and manually submit instructions to their brokerage. For most donors, it’s simply not worth the hassle. The process for advisors is also time-consuming, which deters them from recommending it to clients.
• Manual reconciliation and acknowledgment process: Each stock gift involves multiple people (development, gift processing, donor relations, finance), making it costly in terms of labor hours and impossible to scale.
• Lack of transparency: As the donor’s identity doesn’t accompany gifted stock, it’s difficult to reconcile and thank donors in a timely manner. Compounding the problem, many donors fail to inform the nonprofit, making it almost impossible to thank the unknown donor. This adversely impacts the donor experience and impedes future gifts.

5 tips for growing stock gifting

The good news is that stock gifting has evolved dramatically in recent years and is now poised for explosive growth. New fintech solutions remove the manual work, making it easy for donors and advisors to initiate gifts of securities. They also enable fundraisers to streamline and scale the processing and acknowledgement of stock gifts.

Here are five tips for growing gifts of appreciated securities (and other non-cash gifts):

1. Make the stock gifting experience easy for donors, financial advisors, and your team. Replace the manual process with an easy digital experience, and more donors will share their gains with you. With new tools to expedite reconciliation and acknowledgement, you can be better stewards, increase retention, and create a pipeline of larger, re-occurring gifts.
2. Educate your team: Educate your development, gift processing, donor relations, marketing, and finance teams about the importance of stock gifting and the need to grow stock gifts by streamlining the donor and advisor experience.
3. Optimize “Ways to Give” on your website: Make “Ways to Give” easy to find by adding a link to the page on your top-level navigation menu (next to “Donate”) and at the top of your Donate page. On your Ways to Give page, list each method (including stock gifting) above the fold, with icons for easy identification and the benefits of each method clearly explained.
4. Identify and engage major and mid-level donors: Start by adding a checkbox on donation forms “Do you have an investment portfolio?” Then meet with major and/or planned-giving donors (who likely have investments) to explain the benefits of stock gifting and invite them to make a tax-advantaged gift.
5. Incorporate “Ways to Give” in all communications. Whether it’s your newsletter, personal outreach, direct mail, social media, collateral, or in-person meetings, educate donors on the benefits and ease of donating stock and other assets. When you include “donate now” as a call to action, link to your “Ways to Give” page.

By becoming proficient in stock gifting, nonprofits can achieve numerous strategic goals including growth, diversification, and deeper donor relationships.

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