Beyond Cash and Stock: Helping Clients Give Unusual Assets to Charity

For many advisors, charitable giving conversations tend to start — and stop — with cash or appreciated stock. That makes sense: appreciated stock is a strong option for funding a donor-advised fund or other charitable fund at the Community Foundation, since it can help clients sidestep capital gains tax while still qualifying for a deduction at fair market value.

But for certain clients, particularly business owners, collectors, and affluent retirees, real wealth often lives somewhere less obvious. Boats, airplanes, classic cars, RVs, and other tangible property carry a distinctive mix of traits: substantial value, ongoing upkeep, and real emotional attachment. Put together, that combination can open the door to a meaningful charitable giving opportunity. This isn't a rare scenario, either. Classic cars alone are estimated to number more than 43 million in the U.S., representing roughly $1 trillion in insurable value.

Here are four ways to think about these assets with your charitably minded clients.

Loop in the Community Foundation early and often. Whenever a charitably inclined client is in the picture, it's worth reaching out to explore what's possible. Clients are often surprised to learn that a public charity like the Community Foundation can accept a broad range of noncash assets, as long as those assets can be appraised, transferred, and ultimately converted into support for the causes the client cares about locally.

Go beyond the standard balance sheet questions. Clients preparing for a planning meeting tend to focus on investment accounts and real estate, and easily overlook classic cars, boats, planes, and RVs sitting in a garage or storage unit. This is especially worth raising now, since many affluent households hold significant value outside traditional portfolios. Recreational assets bought years ago may have quietly appreciated while racking up storage costs and succession-planning headaches. Clients simplifying their finances heading into retirement may especially welcome the idea of turning an underused asset into something that benefits their community.

Structure the gift before the sale, not after. If you spot an unusual, appreciated asset on a charitable client's balance sheet, timing matters. A client planning to sell a classic car or boat outright could face a significant capital gains tax bill. Contributing the asset to a fund at the Community Foundation ahead of the sale may reduce or eliminate that tax exposure while generating meaningful support for the causes and community priorities the client cares about most.

Mind the details. Noncash gifts require more coordination than a stock transfer. Expect additional steps around title transfers, appraisals, insurance, outstanding debt, marketability, and - for real estate - environmental review. The IRS also has specific substantiation and reporting requirements for noncash charitable deductions, so careful documentation matters.

The Community Foundation is glad to work alongside you and a client's other attorneys, CPAs, valuation experts, and financial planners to figure out whether a proposed gift makes sense and how best to structure it. In many cases, we can accept the asset directly and manage the sale.

Ultimately, for many clients, giving a beloved car collection, boat, or other passion asset to support local causes is far more appealing than watching it sit in storage indefinitely, racking up expenses with no plan in place. You can add real value by helping clients think through whether a specialized collection is better suited to charitable giving than to an estate, particularly when heirs have little interest in maintaining it. Whether it's a rare bicycle collection, an antique toy collection, or a private record library, these conversations can help clients simplify their estates, support what matters to them, and spare the next generation an unwanted inheritance of upkeep and logistics.

Please reach out anytime!