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by Esma Calis · Last updated: 2026-10-05A donation receipt is a written acknowledgment that confirms a gift to your 501(c)(3). The IRS expects your organization name, the date, the amount of a cash gift or a description of donated property, and a statement about whether the donor received anything in return. Donors need this in writing to deduct gifts of $250 or more.
Below you get the full IRS elements checklist, three samples you can copy into your own letterhead for cash, in-kind, and recurring gifts, the mistakes that quietly make a receipt useless at tax time, and a way to send a personalized receipt to every donor without typing them one by one.
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Key Takeaways
A valid donation receipt must name your organization, show the date of the gift, state the cash amount or describe any non-cash property, and tell the donor whether they received goods or services in return. These elements come from IRS Publication 1771 on charitable contributions and the IRS written-acknowledgment guidance, not from a template someone shared online.
Two thresholds matter. A donor needs a contemporaneous written acknowledgment to claim a deduction for a single gift of $250 or more. Separately, when a donor pays more than $75 and receives goods or services in exchange, that quid pro quo contribution requires a disclosure statement. The checklist below maps the elements the IRS describes in its written acknowledgments for charitable contributions page.
| IRS element | What to put on the receipt |
|---|---|
| Organization name | The legal name of your 501(c)(3) |
| Date of contribution | The date the gift was received |
| Cash amount | The dollar amount of a cash gift |
| Non-cash description | A description of donated property, with no dollar value stated |
| Goods or services statement | Whether the donor received anything in return for the gift |
| Good faith estimate | If goods or services were provided, a description and estimated value |
| Intangible religious benefit | A statement if the only benefit was an intangible religious benefit |
One caution before you adapt any wording here: tax rules change and individual situations differ. Donors and organizations should confirm their specific circumstances with a tax professional rather than treat this guide as legal advice.
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Here are three samples you can paste onto your letterhead and adjust: a cash gift, an in-kind gift, and a recurring gift. Replace the bracketed fields with your details. Each one contains the elements the IRS expects, and each keeps the goods or services statement explicit so the donor can rely on it.
Dear [Donor Name],
Thank you for your generous gift to [Organization Legal Name], a tax-exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. This letter serves as your official receipt.
Gift amount: $[Amount]
Date received: [Date]No goods or services were provided in exchange for this contribution.
Please keep this acknowledgment for your tax records. With gratitude, [Signer Name], [Title], [Organization Legal Name].
For donated property, describe the item but do not assign a dollar value. The IRS places the responsibility for valuing non-cash property on the donor, so your receipt confirms what was given, not what it was worth.
Dear [Donor Name],
Thank you for your in-kind donation to [Organization Legal Name], a tax-exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Description of donated property: [Describe the item, for example “one commercial-grade laptop” or “forty hardcover children’s books”]
Date received: [Date]No goods or services were provided in exchange for this contribution. In accordance with IRS guidance, this acknowledgment does not state a value for the donated property. Determining the value for tax purposes is the responsibility of the donor.
With gratitude, [Signer Name], [Title], [Organization Legal Name].
Recurring donors can receive an acknowledgment per transaction or a periodic summary. Either way, each $250 or larger gift needs its own written acknowledgment, so a monthly summary should itemize the dates and amounts rather than collapse them into a single lump sum.
Dear [Donor Name],
Thank you for your ongoing support of [Organization Legal Name], a tax-exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. This statement acknowledges your recurring contributions.
[Date 1]: $[Amount]
[Date 2]: $[Amount]
[Date 3]: $[Amount]No goods or services were provided in exchange for these contributions.
Please retain this acknowledgment for your tax records. With appreciation, [Signer Name], [Title], [Organization Legal Name].
If you also send an annual year-end summary, keep it consistent with these individual receipts so the amounts reconcile. A tidy paper trail is what makes a donor comfortable giving again next year.
The most common mistake is leaving out the goods or services statement. Without a line that says whether the donor received anything in return, the donor cannot support the deduction, and a well-meaning receipt becomes a dead end at tax time. The fixes below take minutes once they are built into your template.
Build these into one reusable template and the errors stop happening. The goal is a receipt a donor can hand to their preparer without a single follow-up question.
You send them with mail merge. Instead of writing one receipt at a time, you keep your donor information in a list or a spreadsheet, map the fields into a single master template, and let the system produce one personalized document per donor. That is exactly the workflow Mailsoftly is built for, and it is a core part of how we approach email marketing for nonprofits.
With Mailsoftly you mail merge from your donor list or straight from an Excel file, generate a personalized PDF receipt for each donor, and send it from your own organization mailbox or from our servers. The donor name, gift amount, date, and goods or services statement each slot in automatically, so one upload covers a whole batch of acknowledgments with no copy and paste. Nonprofits also qualify for a 20% discount, applied as described in our pricing reference, with no separate government or startup discount. Pricing starts free with 500 contacts and 2,000 emails per month (as of 2026-09-07), and paid plans begin at $15 per month on annual billing, so a small development team can run acknowledgments without stretching the budget. When your year-end donor tax receipt letter goes out, the same merge keeps every statement consistent with the individual receipts you sent across the year.
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For the broader picture on this topic, see our complete Email Marketing for Nonprofits guide, which covers strategy, fundamentals, and advanced playbooks.
The IRS requires a donor to have a written acknowledgment to claim a deduction for any single contribution of $250 or more. Many nonprofits choose to acknowledge every gift as good stewardship, but the formal written acknowledgment obligation is tied to that $250 threshold. Confirm your own situation with a tax professional.
A 501(c)(3) donation receipt must include your organization name, the date of the gift, the cash amount or a description of non-cash property, and a statement of whether the donor received goods or services in return. If goods or services were provided, add a description and a good faith estimate of their value, as IRS Publication 1771 describes.
Yes. The IRS does not require paper. A written acknowledgment can be a letter, a postcard, or an electronic message such as an email, as long as it contains the required elements. That is why emailing a personalized PDF receipt to each donor is a fully valid approach.
Your organization does not value an in-kind donation on the receipt. You describe the donated property and leave the valuation to the donor, because the IRS assigns responsibility for determining fair market value to the person claiming the deduction. State the description and the date, and note that no value is assigned by your organization.
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