The way we have always done it is for any inkind donation, whether for individuals or businesses is to issue them a receipt that states their gift is tax deductible.  The current law as I have come to understand it is that the non-profit itself is not legally allowed to assign a monetary value to the inkind gift - we simply list what they gave.  Like you said, some businesses care about the deduction and some don't but the main difference that we have come across is that if a business IS interested in writing off the gift, they will need your Tax ID number.   As for incentives, we offer promotion of their shop by thanking them publicly through our facebook page and listing them as a supporter on our website.  They'd have to decide if they really want to go to the trouble to write off the donation.  Another way it would differ from individuals would be the need for your tax-id number.  To save the headache, we include our tax id number at the bottom of a thank you letter with acknowledgement of their gift - and we include a a line that states that it is their receipt.  I'd suggest just making a word document standard thank you letter for donations with a note at the bottom where you can list out the inkind items and include your ID number.  Sometimes businesses will ask you to fill out a W-9 but we only do this per their request. Another incentive, although not monetary, is that we send people to their shops if we cannot meet their needs.  We find the more we thank them the more the favor is returned.