Why AFP Golden Gate Members Are Adding In-Kind Giving to Their Toolkits

500+ Bay Area fundraising professionals are discovering what modern in-kind giving looks like. Here's the data — and why Givelink is what they're bringing back to their nonprofits.

The Association of Fundraising Professionals Golden Gate Chapter is one of the largest AFP chapters in the world — 500+ Bay Area development directors, executive directors, and philanthropy consultants who gather monthly to share what's working, what's broken, and what's coming next in the field. What's coming next, increasingly, is in-kind giving: the fastest-growing giving modality in the U.S. for the third consecutive year (FEP, 2025), and one that most AFP members' nonprofits are not yet capturing effectively. Givelink, a Transparent Giving Platform that connects donors to verified U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofits with photo proof of delivery, is proud to partner with AFP Golden Gate — bringing the infrastructure of modern in-kind giving to the professionals who shape Bay Area philanthropy. This is what that conversation looks like.

Key Takeaways

• AFP Golden Gate is one of the largest AFP chapters globally, with 500+ Bay Area fundraising professionals (AFP Golden Gate, 2026).
• In-kind donation volume is growing faster than cash giving for the third consecutive year (FEP, 2025).
• First-time donor retention sits at 19.3% nationally — in-kind giving with photo proof changes this (FEP, 2025).
• Givelink donors give 60% more times per year than traditional platform donors (Givelink data, 2026).
• Givelink is free for nonprofits — setup takes 5 minutes, and there are no fees, contracts, or minimums.

What AFP Golden Gate members are seeing on the ground

Bay Area fundraising professionals are navigating a specific, compounding challenge in 2026: declining donor counts, rising acquisition costs, and a donor base that is simultaneously more skeptical and more demanding of evidence than at any prior point.

The 2025 Giving USA report showed total charitable giving growing modestly in dollar terms, but individual donor counts declining for the fourth consecutive year. At the program level — where AFP members work — this shows up as: the same or smaller major donor pool, churn in the mid-level donor tier, and first-time donors who give once and disappear.

In-kind giving addresses the last problem directly. When a first-time donor gives a specific item from a nonprofit's wishlist and receives photo confirmation that it arrived, they retain at nearly 3× the sector average rate (Givelink data, 2026). That is not a small effect. Across a donor file of 200 people, it is the difference between organizational fragility and financial stability.

"If we can track a package, we should track impact."

This is a conversation AFP professionals already understand. The tools to act on it, for most organizations, have been missing.

What modern in-kind giving looks like in practice

Most AFP members are familiar with in-kind giving in its traditional forms: donation drives, Amazon wishlists, and physical drop-off events. Each of these has structural limitations:

Donation drives produce unsolicited goods. Nonprofit staff spend hours sorting items that don't match current needs. The donor receives nothing that confirms impact.

Amazon wishlists generate anonymous orders. No donor data for the nonprofit's CRM. No delivery photo. No relationship built.

Drop-off events require logistics, staffing, and storage capacity. Items arrive in batches that create operational burden during the highest-pressure parts of the calendar.

Givelink is built differently. Nonprofits maintain a live, specific wishlist updated by their own staff. Donors browse verified organizations, select exact items, and give. Givelink coordinates biweekly delivery from vetted U.S. suppliers. Staff photograph delivery and upload confirmation. The donor receives the photo and an IRS-compliant tax receipt — automatically.

The result: a donor experience that feels like giving a gift you can track, to a person you trust, with evidence that it arrived.

The data AFP members need to make the case internally

When AFP members bring a new giving channel to their leadership, they need data. Here is what the data shows:

Metric	Traditional Platform	Givelink
First-time donor retention	~19% sector average	~3× sector average
Annual gift frequency	Baseline	60% higher (Givelink data, 2026)
Donor data captured	Varies	Name, email, gift history — always
Delivery proof provided	None	Photo confirmation within 14 days
Cost to nonprofit	5–8% platform fees typical	Free forever
Tax receipt issued by	Platform	The nonprofit directly

These numbers don't require an expensive platform swap. Givelink complements existing cash giving infrastructure — it is not a replacement. AFP members who have piloted Givelink alongside their organization's existing donation page typically see in-kind volume grow without cannibalizing cash giving.

What the AFP Golden Gate × Givelink partnership looks like

AFP Golden Gate and Givelink are partnering to bring the conversation about modern in-kind giving to Bay Area development professionals. This includes:

• Educational sessions for AFP members on in-kind giving strategy, wishlist optimization, and donor retention through delivery proof
• Peer case studies from Givelink-onboarded Bay Area nonprofits showing measurable retention impact
• Free onboarding for any AFP Golden Gate member's organization that wants to pilot Givelink alongside their existing fundraising infrastructure

The goal is not to replace what AFP members are already doing. It is to give them one more tool that closes a specific, documented gap in the donor lifecycle — the gap between a first gift and a second one.

Why this matters in 2026

Federal funding uncertainty has accelerated the pressure on Bay Area nonprofits to build resilient individual donor bases. AFP Golden Gate's role — connecting, educating, and elevating Bay Area development professionals — is more important in this environment than at any prior moment.

The tools that help Bay Area nonprofits retain the donors they work hard to acquire are exactly the tools AFP members should know about. In-kind giving with photo confirmation is one of them.

For AFP Golden Gate members

If your organization isn't yet capturing in-kind giving, the setup takes 5 minutes and costs nothing. Set up your free Givelink nonprofit profile and bring the data to your next AFP meeting.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is in-kind giving and why is it growing?

In-kind giving is the donation of specific goods — food, hygiene products, school supplies, clothing — rather than cash. It is growing because donors increasingly want to see exactly what their gift became. In-kind donation volume has grown faster than cash giving for three consecutive years (FEP, 2025).

How does Givelink help AFP member organizations specifically?

Givelink gives AFP member organizations a live wishlist, biweekly delivery coordination, photo-confirmed delivery for donors, CRM-compatible donor data export, and a free embedded giving button for their site. Every feature is free for nonprofits.

Does in-kind giving compete with cash fundraising?

No. AFP members who have piloted Givelink alongside their existing donation pages consistently report that in-kind volume grows without reducing cash giving — they serve different donor motivations and complement each other.

How do AFP members get started with Givelink?

Set up a free nonprofit profile in 5 minutes. No contract, no fees, no minimum volume. Givelink is free for nonprofits permanently.

Bring in-kind giving to your next AFP meeting

Set up your free Givelink nonprofit profile and share the data with your development team this week.

Stay Human.

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Panos Kokmotos is Co-Founder and COO of Givelink. He spoke at AFP Golden Gate's "Modern In-Kind Giving in the SF Bay Area" session in early 2026.