The State of In-Kind Giving in America: 2025 Report

Charitable giving in the United States totaled over $557 billion in 2023 — but hidden within that number is a fast-growing, underreported category that's reshaping how nonprofits operate and how donors engage.

In-kind giving — donations of goods, services, and property rather than cash — is becoming the preferred form of giving for a new generation of donors. This report compiles the latest data, trends, and insights on where in-kind giving stands in 2025 and where it's headed.

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Key Statistics

• $78 billion+ in non-cash contributions reported to the IRS annually
• 60% higher donor retention for in-kind donors vs. one-time cash donors
• 28% of total online donations now come from mobile devices, accelerating demand for frictionless giving
• 74% of nonprofits report difficulty recruiting and retaining staff — increasing reliance on in-kind operational support
• 52% of nonprofit website visits come from mobile users, requiring mobile-optimized giving flows

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Trend 1: Donors Are Moving From Passive to Participatory Giving

The era of the passive donor — someone who writes a check and walks away — is ending. Younger donors (Millennials and Gen Z) want to see, feel, and track their impact.

In-kind giving satisfies this need by design. When you donate a sleeping bag to a homeless shelter, you know exactly what your gift did. There's no abstraction, no committee, no overhead question.

"Younger donors don't just want to donate — they want to be part of the movement." — Daxko 2025 Nonprofit Trends Report

Platforms that offer tangible, trackable, photographable impact are growing fastest. This is why in-kind platforms are outperforming general fundraising platforms in donor engagement metrics.

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Trend 2: Corporations Are Increasing In-Kind Giving Programs

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) budgets are shifting. Instead of writing checks to general funds, companies are building in-kind donation programs that align their products and services with community needs.

Examples in 2025:

• Tech companies donating refurbished laptops to schools
• Retail companies routing surplus inventory to food banks
• SaaS companies providing free software licenses to nonprofits

This trend benefits platforms that can manage corporate-volume in-kind giving with proper documentation and reporting — a gap that most traditional nonprofit platforms don't fill.

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Trend 3: AI Is Enabling Real-Time Impact Tracking

The biggest historical weakness of in-kind giving was the lack of data. Cash donations are trackable. A box of canned soup is not — or wasn't.

AI-powered platforms are changing this. Tools like Givelink's IRIS use machine learning to:

• Match donor giving patterns with nonprofit needs in real time
• Generate impact reports from delivery confirmations and nonprofit feedback
• Predict which nonprofits will have high-urgency needs before they post them

This makes in-kind giving as data-rich as any other form of charitable contribution — and opens the door for institutional donors who previously required detailed reporting.

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Trend 4: Food Insecurity Is Driving Surge in Product Donations

Food insecurity in the United States has reached levels not seen since the COVID-19 pandemic:

• 47 million Americans experienced food insecurity in 2023
• Bay Area food banks report 30–40% increases in demand since 2022
• Federal food assistance program cuts in 2025 are accelerating the shift to private donation

Food banks are the largest and most active segment of in-kind donation recipients. The need for non-perishable food, hygiene products, and baby supplies is at an all-time high — and cash-based platforms aren't fast enough to respond.

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Trend 5: Local Giving Is Outperforming National Campaigns

After years of mega-campaigns (Giving Tuesday, Red Cross appeals), donor fatigue with national giving is setting in. Donors increasingly want to support their community — organizations they can visit, trust, and verify.

This is driving growth in local and hyper-local giving platforms. Givelink's Bay Area catalog, for example, connects SF donors directly with Bay Area nonprofits — not a national fund.

Search data supports this: Queries like "nonprofits near me," "donate locally San Francisco," and "Bay Area food bank donations" have grown 40%+ year-over-year.

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What Nonprofits Need Most in 2025

Based on Givelink's partner nonprofit data, the most-requested in-kind items in the US in 2025 are:

Category	Most Needed Items
Food & Nutrition	Non-perishables, baby formula, cooking essentials
Hygiene	Toiletries, feminine products, dental kits
Clothing	Socks, underwear, weather-appropriate outerwear
Education	Backpacks, school supplies, books
Technology	Laptops, tablets, phone chargers
Home	Bedding, towels, kitchen basics

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The Givelink Data Point

Givelink's platform data from early 2025 shows:

• Average delivery time from donation to nonprofit door: 2.4 days
• Donor retention rate (repeat donations within 90 days): 61%
• Nonprofit satisfaction score: 4.8/5
• Top donor motivation: "I wanted to know exactly what I gave"

These numbers reflect a broader shift: donors are demanding accountability, and in-kind giving — when powered by the right infrastructure — delivers it.

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Conclusion: In-Kind Giving Is No Longer Optional

For nonprofits, in-kind is no longer a "nice to have." It's a strategic giving channel that attracts higher-retention donors, faster impact delivery, and corporate partnerships that cash fundraising can't replicate.

For platforms, the opportunity is clear: build infrastructure that makes in-kind as easy as cash — and donors will come.

Explore Givelink's verified nonprofit catalog →

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Methodology

This report draws on data from the IRS Statistics of Income Division, Giving USA 2024, Daxko's 2025 Nonprofit Trends Report, Givelink platform analytics, and publicly available nonprofit sector research. All Givelink-specific data points are derived from platform usage January–March 2025.