How to Create a Fundraising Campaign Accepting Stock Donations

For more than a decade, Stock Donator has worked with community-based nonprofits by giving them the tools they need to accept stock donations. You can accept stock donations using Stock Donator without opening a brokerage account. But our support goes beyond a website plugin.  We want to bring you strategic ideas and resources that will maximize your stock donations.

We have created the non-profit playbook for creating a campaign to successfully accept stock donations. We have provided this ultimate guide to accepting stock donations to our member organizations for free.  The first step is to open an account with Stock Donator.   Stock Donator is the most trusted website for accepting stock donations and also provides the lowest fees per transaction.

Why Ask for Stock Donations Online

Online fundraising is increasingly important to nonprofits across the board. As a nonprofit, developing online fundraising strategies will help you increase your revenue.

How to Ask for Donations with Stock Donator

While your charity might be accustomed to physical items and cash donations, many benefits from stock donations will resonate with your donors, resulting in more donations.

With our tools and resources, your organization will get ready to accept stocks to receive more money in donations. All you need is to create a free account and we will walk you through the process of accepting stock donations.

 

Summary of key steps

  1. Open a free account with stock donator to accept stock donations
  2. Contact us with you name and email address through our contact button below
  3. Ask us for access to a free webinar that will teach you how to get more donations by accepting stock donations.
  4. Use the tools and resources from the webinar to start accepting stock donations.
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I. Use Stock Donator's free email templates to inform your donors about the benefits of donating stock.

  1. Open a free account using Stock Donator to make sure you can accept stock donations online.
  2. Customize the downloaded template by adding text in the recommended sections.
  3. Email the letter to your donors.
  4. Track your acceptance of stock donations through your organizational dashboard.
  5. Follow up with donors occasionally to see whether they have additional gains they want to donate.

II. Create Instructional Videos to Solicit Stock Donations

  1. Open a free account using Stock Donator to make sure you can accept stock donations online.
  2. Find animators to create a video explaining the benefits of accepting stock donations and the benefits of giving stock donations.
  3. Create a script for the video for your animators and include your free “accept stock donations” widget in the video link.
  4. Email the video to your donors or place it on twitter, facebook or linkedin.
  5. Promote your video and watch it go viral.
  6. Follow up with donors occasionally to see whether they have additional gains they want to donate.
  7. Email the video to family and friends so that they will understand the benefits of donating stock to charity.

Example: Leigh HS Performing Arts Parents Association distributes video to promote stock donations and increase giving.

Watch the "Give Us Your Gains" Campaign

Click here to find animators who can help create a video for you...

III. Use a Donation Widget or Button

Promote your campaign on your website. We provide our member organizations a widget / custom link for their website so they can accept stock donations easily straight from their websites. The cross branded website is custom made for your organization and allows a donor to make a stock donation to your organization directly. See The American Classical Orchestra Stock Donation Link for a live example of how to incorporate a stock donation link right into your website.

Advantages of Using Stock Donator to Accept Stock Donations

Stock Donator is the number way to accept stock donations. We are trusted by thousands of non-profits. No other processor of stock donations comes even close to our experience or trust.
#1 Online Processor of Stock Donations
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"Organizations that ask for stock donations receive more generous and more frequent donations."

Click here for free templates to help you solicit Stock Donations

Dramatically increase your contributions by up to 55%

* Average increase in contributions by accepting stock donations.

Dr. Russell James J.D., Ph.D., CFP®, professor in the Department of Personal Financial Planning at Texas Tech University completed a study reporting on data from 1 million NPO tax returns from 2010 – 2017. This included IRS-released data from e-filed returns of more than 200,000 nonprofit organizations.  His study compared non profits that accepted stock donations to those that did not. He compared stock donation gifts to gifts of cash to see whether nonprofit organizations that accept stock donations do any better in fundraising than nonprofits that do not accept stock donations.  Some charities accepted stock donations online while others use the traditional method using DTC transfers to accept stock donations.  In either case, the study showed that those non profits that accepted stock donations online did better than those that only accepted cash.

The study noted a 55% difference in growth between accepting just cash and accepting securities.

Per the research, People are more likely to spend irregular, unearned gains (e.g., capital gains on appreciated assets) on luxury goods (O’Curry 1999) and philanthropy in particular (Reinstein & Reiner, 2012; Konow, 2010) than they are regular, earned income.  Framing a donation as an exceptional event removes it from comparison with regular disposable income budget items and increases giving (Sussman, Sharma & Alter, 2015). What that means is that by asking for stock donations and letting donors know you accept stock donations, you can increase revenue.  Donors are more likely to part with non-cash items like stocks, cars, and valuable assets than they are to part with cash.  If you are not soliciting stock donations online, you are losing a valuable resource. 

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STUDY.

The following are the conclusions from his study:

  • Non Profits that received only cash gifts  had only 11% growth. 
  • Non Profits that constantly received non-cash gift had closer to 50% growth. 
  • Non Profits that received stocks and securities had closer to 66% growth.
Accept Stock Donations Today Using Stock Donator. Open a Free Account Now

Some Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

What are some examples of how to ask for donations

What are some examples of how to ask for donations

One easy example of a script for asking for stock donation is:

Some donors are interested to learn that by donating stock to our charity, they can avoid the capital gains tax they would have to pay on any increase in value of stock since being purchased.  This is a good option for some, since they may have stock that’s appreciated in value over time, they aren’t using it for day-to-day expenses, and they are hesitant to redeem it because of a big tax bill.  We appreciate the generous cash donation you make to us every year because it helps us INSERT AN EXAMPLE OF HOW YOU ARE REACHING YOUR MISSION.  By adding stock to your donation, you can help us further our mission while avoiding some taxes.  Many donors like that they’re able to kill two birds with one stone.

How do I ask for donations online?

How do I ask for donations online?

It is very easy.  You simply go to Stock Donator.com and click on “Donate Now”.  Once there, you’ll see that you can select “Donate Stock” and select an organization.  The website walks you through the donation process, so it isn’t hard. 

By donating this way, you quickly get a receipt you can use for your taxes.  Should you decide to donate stock again, your information is saved so you only must fill out the information once.

How big of a donation should I ask for?

How big of a donation should I ask for?

For cash donations, donors may deduct up to 60% of their adjusted gross income (AGI). With stock donations, however, you are limited to 30% of AGI, meaning you may need to carry deductions into future tax years if your contribution exceeds this threshold.(Remember: this carryforward is only good for five years.)  You can ask for bigger donations when asking for stock donations because there are tax benefits to the donor, but make sure they don’t donate more than 30% of AGI. For more information on rules for donors click here.

Can I use the same prompt to ask for donations?

Can I use the same prompt to ask for donations?

No. It’s better to use our free tools that you will get when you sign up for an account to solicit stock donations.  Stock donations are not the same as cash donations and you will get more money if you ask specifically for stock donations using our examples and our tool kit.