Nonprofit donation receipt template
A receipt acknowledges one gift at the moment it's given — a single cash or non-cash contribution. That's different from a year-end letter, which sums up a donor's whole year of giving. If you need the annual summary instead, use the church donation letter template. This receipt covers the single-gift case, including the goods-or-services wording the IRS requires.
Plain text — paste into your word processor or mail-merge tool.
Preview
[ORGANIZATION NAME]
[Street Address] · [City, State ZIP]
[EIN: XX-XXXXXXX]
DONATION RECEIPT
Date received: [Date]
Received with thanks from: [Donor Name]
(A) CASH GIFT
Amount received: $[X]
(B) NON-CASH GIFT (in-kind)
Description of item(s): [describe the item — do NOT state a value;
the donor determines the value of a non-cash gift themselves.]
No goods or services were provided in exchange for this contribution,
other than intangible religious benefits.
[Organization Name] is a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3).
Please keep this receipt with your tax records — the IRS requires a
contemporaneous written acknowledgment for any single contribution of
$250 or more in order to claim a charitable deduction.
Acknowledged by:
[Name], [Title] What the IRS requires
For a donor to deduct a single gift of $250 or more, the written acknowledgment has to include all of these:
- The organization's name.
- The date and the amount of a cash gift — or, for a non-cash gift, a description of the item (not a dollar value; the donor determines that themselves).
- A statement of whether the donor received any goods or services in return — and if so, a description plus a good-faith estimate of their value, or a statement that only intangible religious benefits were provided.
A receipt is contemporaneous: the donor needs it before they file, so give it at or near the time of the gift. The full rules — thresholds, quid-pro-quo gifts, and what counts — are in the guide to church contribution statement requirements, the donor's side is covered in whether church donations are tax deductible, and the source is IRS Publication 1771.
This template is a starting point, not legal or tax advice. Want receipts and year-end statements generated automatically from your giving records? Start free in Vestrybooks.