Donating Artwork vs Donating Money: The Honest FAQ

Both can be deductible under the same rule. The difference is what each one costs you in effort, and what it's worth on paper.

Are they treated the same under the law?

Yes, as far as section 15(2)(w) of the Income Tax Act and the 2024 Charitable Organisations and Donations Exemption Rules are concerned — Rule 26(4) explicitly allows a donation to be cash or in kind. Neither form gets preferential tax treatment; both need a current KRA exemption certificate on the recipient's side and a Rule 26(2) receipt on yours.

So why would the value differ in practice?

Cash has one number: what you transferred. Artwork doesn't — its deductible value depends on a valuation nothing in the Rules formulaically supplies. If you donate KES 50,000 by M-Pesa, that figure isn't in dispute. If you donate a painting you believe is worth KES 50,000, that number is only as solid as whoever backs it — your own opinion is the weakest version, an independent valuer's is the strongest, and the gap between those two is where art donations get scrutinised more than cash ones do.

Which is easier for the recipient organisation?

Cash, almost always. A charity can spend a cash gift on whatever its programme actually needs that month — paint, a stipend, rent on a workshop space. A donated artwork has to be stored, insured, and either kept, exhibited, or sold before it becomes anything the organisation can use, and not every charitable organisation is set up to do that well. Before donating a specific piece rather than its cash equivalent, it's worth asking the recipient directly whether they'd rather have the artwork or what it would fetch — plenty would honestly prefer the latter.

Which is easier for you, the donor?

Cash, for the same reason it's easier for the recipient — no valuation conversation, no separate transfer document, no question about who insures the piece between your home and the recipient's wall. Donating the artwork itself makes sense when the piece has real value to the specific organisation's mission — an arts-education charity that can actually exhibit it, for instance — not simply because it's sitting unused.

Does giving the artwork itself ever get you a bigger deduction than selling it and giving the cash?

Not automatically, and this guide won't manufacture a number to suggest otherwise. Whether donating a work directly comes out ahead of selling it and donating the proceeds depends on the piece's valuation, your own tax position, and costs you'd incur either way — this is a genuine ask-a-tax-agent-with-your-specific-numbers question, not one with a rule-of-thumb answer.

The honest bottom line

If you want the simplest deductible gift, give cash to an organisation with a current KRA exemption certificate and keep the receipt. If you want to give a specific piece because it belongs with a specific programme, do that — just budget the extra step of an independent valuation and a transfer document, and confirm the recipient actually wants the piece before you assume the gift is straightforward.

This isn't tax advice for your specific situation. For anything beyond a small gift, talk to a KRA-registered tax agent before you decide which form to give in.

— Otieno Odhiambo