For the last few years, when the subject of cryptocurrency donations arose, I invoked the standard advice: convert to dollars, ASAP, the standard practice that charities should follow in handling gifts of stocks, bonds, boats, real estate or any other in-kind gifts, etc. But inside my head, I could never shake that mackerel-in-the-moonlight feeling: about crypto: nice shine, terrible smell.
Exponential cryptocurrency growth, more or less paralleling the two plus years of the Covid "crash," marked by sharp speculative highs and lows, didn't seem to curb the interest of development officers and consultants in chasing crypto gifts - mainly from younger new-to-giving donors -- who bought in at low prices and were suddenly sitting on serious money. Several start-ups sprang up to serve nonprofits as fee-paid brokers in converting crypto gifts to dollars.
At its peak, one bitcoin ( the crypto leader by far) sold at over $60,000.This morning, Friday the 13th (read into that whatever you will) the price was roughly $30,000. And, this morning's New York Times front page reported on the $300 billion collapse of the crypto market in just four days.
Bottom line: Anyone who wants to gift cryptocurrency to your charity should do the conversion to dollars first. Period. Full stop.
