How to accept crypto donations as a nonprofit

Can you donate bitcoin to charity?

Yes. The IRS says virtual currency “is treated as property,” and its virtual currency FAQ says a donor who gives it to a charitable organization described in Section 170(c) “will not recognize income, gain, or loss from the donation.” The same FAQ explains the deduction: if the donor held the crypto for more than a year, it’s generally the fair market value at the time of the gift; if a year or less, it’s the lower of the donor’s cost basis or fair market value.

One caveat: the IRS notes those FAQs generally apply to digital asset transactions completed before Jan. 1, 2025. Check the IRS digital assets page and a tax professional for current-year rules.

What a nonprofit has to do when it accepts crypto donations

Most of the work is paperwork. These duties come from the IRS FAQ (questions 36 and 37) and the Chief Counsel memo.

How to accept crypto donations: three common setups

1. A third-party giving processor. A service receives the crypto and usually converts it to dollars for you. It’s the simplest option for a small team. Compare fees, which coins they accept, and what donor receipts they send.
2. An exchange account in the nonprofit’s name. You hold the coins on an exchange and decide when to convert. This takes more setup, including the exchange’s own verification process.
3. A wallet you control. This gives you the most control and puts the most responsibility on you. India’s Covid-Crypto Relief Fund, for example, received donations into a multisignature wallet with a publicly disclosed address, then converted through a custody and exchange service, according to TechCircle.

Whichever you pick, name who can move funds, how quickly gifts get converted, and who checks the records.

Crypto donations and transparency: Bitcoin vs. Zcash

Donors and watchdogs often ask how public a crypto gift really is. The answer depends on the network.

• Bitcoin and other transparent ledgers: the sender address, receiver address and amount are visible to anyone. Zcash’s documentation says its transparent addresses “work similarly to Bitcoin addresses and do not offer privacy” (Zcash docs).
• Zcash shielded addresses: a fully shielded transaction “encrypts the sender and receiver addresses and transaction amount,” though the fact that a transaction happened and its fee are still public (Zcash basics).
• Viewing keys: a shielded address owner can share read-only access with an auditor without giving spend authority. Zcash calls this “selective disclosure.”

For a nonprofit, that’s a real choice. A public address makes every gift auditable by anyone. A shielded address protects donor privacy but means your published reports and auditor access carry the trust. Decide which you want and say so on your donate page.

A lesson from one of the largest crypto gifts

In May 2021, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin sent 500 ETH and more than 50 trillion SHIB, worth about $1.14 billion at the time of the transfer, to India’s Covid-Crypto Relief Fund, TechCrunch reported. SHIB’s price dropped more than 35% that day, and the fund said it would convert the gift “slowly over a period of time.” The lesson for smaller groups is simple: a crypto gift’s headline value isn’t what you can spend. Write down in advance whether you convert immediately, which tokens you accept, and how you’ll handle a gift too large to sell at once.

Your crypto gift acceptance checklist

• Which coins you accept, and which you decline.
• Whether you convert to dollars right away (most small groups should).
• Who holds keys or account access, and whether two people must approve moves.
• Your receipt template for gifts of $250 or more, and who signs Form 8283.
• Whether your addresses are public or shielded, and how you report totals.

Why this matters for AI-era funding

Big new funds are forming. Anthropic, for example, says its Public Benefit Fund “might explore large donations to traditional nonprofits” (Anthropic). It has published no application process yet; our guide to the Anthropic Public Benefit Fund tracks what’s known. Whatever form future gifts take, organizations with clear policies and clean reporting are easier for any funder to say yes to.

C∞A∞I∞O doesn’t accept crypto today. We build donation pages and machine-readable impact summaries for mission-driven groups, and we’re planning projects in housing and relief, including microhom.us. See each one and its real status on our Fund the Impact work page.

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