[brianpan]

I'm not sure if the organization has the option to keep or sell the stock (I think they can do either). For the donor, there are tax benefits- besides the usual lowering of adjusted gross income, you don't have to pay capital gains on stock you donate.

Let's say Mark plans on donating $500M to an organization and this month he also wants to buy $300M of Christmas presents. He only has about $600M lying around, but he has a lot of FB stock. He can donate $500M cash, then sell stock to have enough money to buy the presents but he'll pay capital gains. Or he can donate the stock, avoid taxes, and use his cash for the presents instead.