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Record an In-Kind Donation

Goal: Log a non-cash gift — goods, services, vehicles, materials — through Ayuna's in-kind lifecycle so it shows up correctly on books, in reports, and on year-end donor acknowledgments.

When to use the in-kind flow​

Use this flow for:

  • Building materials donated to a project
  • Tools, appliances, furniture donated to the ReStore
  • Vehicles donated for resale
  • Professional services donated (architecture, legal, accounting)
  • Land donations (with appropriate appraisal)

Do not use for:

  • Cash, check, ACH — use Record a One-Time Gift
  • Stock — use Stock as a payment method on the standard donation flow

The four-stage lifecycle​

In-kind donations move through four statuses:

  1. Received — recorded in Ayuna with description and donor identified
  2. Appraised — fair market value (FMV) recorded for accounting purposes
  3. Recorded — journal entry posted to the GL
  4. Disposed — final disposition captured (kept for use, sold, donated to another org, discarded)

Recording the donation​

Under Fundraising → In-Kind Donations, click Record In-Kind Donation. Capture:

  • Donor — individual or organization
  • Donation date — when the affiliate received the item
  • Category — drives Schedule M classification (vehicles, household goods, art, etc.)
  • Description — clear enough that staff can identify the item later
  • Vehicle info (when applicable) — make/model/year/VIN/condition for vehicle donations

Save. The donation is now in Received status.

Appraising​

Once you have a fair market value:

  • Internal estimate for routine goods (your judgment based on comparable items)
  • Qualified appraiser report for items above $5,000 (donor's responsibility — you reference it)

Update the in-kind donation with the FMV. Status moves to Appraised.

Generating the journal entry​

Generate a journal entry from the in-kind donation. This:

  • Posts to the appropriate fund and account in the GL
  • Moves the status to Recorded

Confirm with your accountant which expense / asset accounts the entry should hit. Most affiliates use a "Contributed Goods/Services Received" income account paired with an asset or expense account based on whether the item is held or used.

Disposition​

When the item leaves your possession, record disposition:

  • Kept for use — used in operations or a build (no proceeds)
  • Sold — usually at the ReStore; capture sale proceeds
  • Donated to other — passed to another nonprofit
  • Discarded — damaged or unusable

Status moves to Disposed.

Donor acknowledgment​

Send the donor an in-kind acknowledgment that:

  • Identifies the affiliate as a 501(c)(3)
  • Describes the item received
  • Does not state a dollar value (per IRS Pub 1771; valuation is the donor's responsibility)
  • Notes that no goods or services were provided in return

For donations valued by the donor at $500+, the donor needs Form 8283 Part A. For $5,000+, Part B with a qualified appraisal. They'll typically ask you to sign the form acknowledging receipt — sign only the donee section, never anything that asserts a value.

Vehicle donations specifically​

Vehicles have additional IRS requirements. The acknowledgment must be Form 1098-C compatible — describe the vehicle (year, make, model, VIN), date received, and either:

  • Statement that the vehicle was sold and the gross proceeds, OR
  • Statement of significant intervening use (e.g., the affiliate drove it for 12 months for materials transport)

Known gaps​

The in-kind flow covers the basic four-stage lifecycle, but there are workflows that aren't fully built yet:

  • Acceptance review — there's no "pending acceptance" status before "received" for items the affiliate may decline
  • Structured acknowledgment letter generation — no built-in template for the in-kind acknowledgment letter (see Handle In-Kind Acknowledgments for the current manual workaround)
  • Appraisal document upload — no place to store the donor's qualified appraisal PDF
  • Partial / split disposition — one in-kind record gets one disposition method; for bulk donations with mixed disposition, split into multiple records up-front
  • Schedule M aggregation — annual Schedule M numbers must be assembled manually from the category breakdown

Reporting​

The in-kind donations summary surfaces totals by category and by status. Year-end Schedule M numbers come from filtering by category and date range.