A Collector’s Guide to Non-Monetary Museum Contributions

Last year, the Toledo Museum of Art acquired several works on paper by Pop artist Marisol, a series of black and white photographs by Brett Weston, two sculptures by Roxy Paine, a painting by Richard Diebenkorn, four sculptures by Martin Puryear and a linoleum-cut print by Kara Walker, among other works of art. Most of the donations to the museum, of course, came in cash—like a gift from one local family that funded free visitor parking for 10 years—but not all. Other gifts included shares of start-up businesses (pharmaceutical and technology companies among them), real estate and cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Solana, and others.

“There is a lot of flexibility in the types of donations we will accept,” Adam Levine, the museum’s director, told the Observer. The museum’s board determines the types of gifts the center will accept, and it is the development department’s job to determine what to do with donations that are not works of art or cash. “We don’t have people on staff who have experience with real estate and crypto companies and startups,” he said, adding that the museum “can accept a variety of things, they usually get rid of them quickly.”

An estate, for example, was given to sellers who sold a house and property for $800,000, while crypto was deposited into the account of The Giving Block, a Pennsylvania-based platform that helps nonprofits turn cryptocurrency donations into usable cash. The Toledo Museum of Art began accepting crypto in 2023, with donations exceeding $100,000 by 2025, “and that amount has been growing every year,” Levine said.

A growing percentage of gifts to museums come in the form of “real estate, pension plans, life insurance payouts, boats, cars, crypto—you name it,” said Ken Cerini, managing partner of Cerini & Associates, which helps nonprofit groups identify and leverage non-monetary donations. “I tell people who want to donate crypto to a nonprofit to reach out to the organization to see if they will take it. Most organizations will find a way to make that happen, especially if it’s going to be a large donation.”

Among the high-profile museums that accept non-cash donations are the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which accepts crypto currency; the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, which accepts valued securities; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which accepts real estate. All three, along with others such as Guggenheim, accept stock donations.

The High Museum of Art in Atlanta, according to a spokesperson, accepts stock (“several times each month”) and real estate (“that’s rare”), as well as wine donations from winemakers at its annual wine auction. “But we don’t currently accept Bitcoin,” the spokesperson said. As one might expect, the online-only Crypto Art Museum does.

Accepting a crypto or other non-monetary offering requires more than simply deciding to accept it. Giving Block, a crypto fundraising platform, works with close to 30 museums and cultural institutions across the US, including the Smithsonian Institution and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. More than $1.2 million in crypto was donated to museums and cultural institutions in 2025—an increase of nearly 50 percent from 2024. “When a crypto donation is received, we immediately convert the crypto to US dollars to capture the full value of the donation and send the US dollars directly to the organization’s bank account,” a spokesperson told the Observer. Surprisingly, crypto donors tend to be “younger than traditional big donors”—millennials and younger Gen X—”but they also tend to be more affluent than the average Internet donor.”

Making non-monetary gifts provides tax benefits to donors, Cerini said, noting that “with the development of the stock market and private money receiving large profits, there is real value in donating these assets, as donors benefit from the charitable donation at the fair market value of the asset” without selling it and receiving capital gains tax.

Chris Haydon, founder of Crypto Appraisal Pro, which provides IRS-compliant appraisals of cryptocurrency donations, said that more than 70 percent of the top charities in the US, as counted by Forbes, accept cryptocurrency donations. “That’s up from 12 percent in 2020.” Crypto donations have more than tripled in the past year, driven by the fact that cryptocurrencies have “created enormous wealth. Bitcoin alone has gone from under $1,000 in 2017 to over $90,000 today. He added that “five years ago, crypto adoption was a novelty. Today, in charities, universities and hospitals, it has become a common practice.”

As with any other non-monetary donation—such as art or antiques—donors may receive a tax deduction (usually 30 percent of the item’s fair market value) if the asset is held for more than one year, with the value assessed at the time of the gift. According to IRS rules, if the charitable contribution deduction claimed exceeds $5,000, a qualified appraisal is required.

Finding a crypto-savvy appraiser qualified to submit an IRS-compliant appraisal is not easy. None of the members of the two major appraiser associations—the Appraisers Association of America and the American Society of Appraisers—list crypto as a specialty. While some non-profit employees may raise the bar, most follow Adam Levine’s policy: “We don’t endorse art analysts or crypto or anything. That’s something donors should take care of… we don’t want to be associated with the IRS.”

Linda Selvin, executive director of the Appraisers Association of America, recommends looking for people identified as “business appraisers” to conduct qualified crypto appraisals. Other companies that offer non-financial asset appraisal services include Charitable Solutions, Havenwood Holdings, AppraiseItNow.com and Sickler, Tarpey & Associates. Platforms that enable crypto donations—such as The Giving Block, Dechomai and Fidelity—can also provide recommendations. Probate fees vary by gift value: Randy Tarpey, CPA and partner at Sickler, Tarpey & Associates, charges $120 for donations in the $5,000 range and $995 for donations over $500,000. Joe Kattan, owner of AppraiseItNow.com, said his fees range from $400 to $2,000.

Perhaps one of the defining characteristics of crypto is its volatility, rapid rise and fall in value as – unlike the US dollar – it is not denominated in other currencies or backed by a central bank. Nevertheless, Haydon argued, “crypto is easier to measure than art or collectibles. With a Picasso or a rare antique, you make thoughtful decisions about the condition, origin and sale of the same that may differ for years. With Bitcoin or Ethereum, you have transparent, real-time price market data on many exchanges, 24 hours publicly available. CNBC provides daily data on the prices of Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies; no one can tell you what that Picasso is worth today versus tomorrow.

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