In organic solar cells, a major source of energy loss is attributed to nonradiative recombination from the interfacial charge transfer states to the ground state. By taking pentacene–C60 complexes as model donor–acceptor systems, a comprehensive theoretical understanding of how molecular packing and charge delocalization impact these nonradiative recombination rates at donor–acceptor interfaces is provided. As a service to our authors and readers, this journal provides supporting information supplied by the authors. Such materials are peer reviewed and may be re-organized for online delivery, but are not copy-edited or typeset. Technical support issues arising from supporting information (other than missing files) should be addressed to the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.