What are giving statements?

Giving Statements are PDFs generated by GivingFire for your donors' general information or year-end tax reporting. This option allows admins to download a date range's worth of data - donor and donation history alike - in one single report, with the option for GivingFire to distribute by mail or email, as well as making that report available for download in the donors' dashboard. Individual donors can also view their own history from their dashboard.

Do I have to send out statements?

Yes. This is an IRS tax regulation: non-profits must actively distribute statements to their donors. GivingFire encourages physical mail for this, as it’s the preferred option for most donors. However, emailing giving statements is also permitted by the IRS. You can also make statements available for download on the GivingFire site, but this must be made available in conjunction with either a physical mail or email copy of the giving statement, as this is not an acceptable method to distribute statements by itself.

How can I deliver giving statements?

GivingFire’s system for year-end tax statement generation and delivery is flexible, and there is very little we can’t do. Whether you want GivingFire to take care of the statement process entirely from generation to delivery, or you want to mail the statements out yourself, or something in between, there’s an option for you.

How can I make my giving statements look the way I want?

GivingFire allows for several different ways of customizing giving statements. You can include a completely custom thank-you letter by uploading your own 8.5x11 PDF to be delivered along with the generated statement. You can use the generated statement as a stand-alone document, but customize the standard paragraph we include. You can use the generated statement, but print them out and create custom mail merge cover letters and envelopes outside of GivingFire. Or, you can just use the year-end CSV to create completely custom statements with GivingFire data only.

What do I do when there is more than one account for a single donor?

Contact your Account Manager. We are more than happy to help you clean up those records!

Why don’t I see my offline donations included in the statements?

The most likely reason is that existing offline batches have not been submitted or marked as deposited. If you don’t enter the deposit time, GivingFire assumes that you haven’t deposited those donations and they are still pending, therefore they do not get included in tax statements. All you have to do is go back and enter in proper depositing times!

Can I combine statements or make household statements?

No. In the eyes of the IRS, families don’t donate. Individuals donate. Individuals may and often do choose to report that gift under joint marriage filing, but ultimately that’s their decision. Only the individual knows what the tax structure is or will be for their family, which is why we issue individual statements.

What else do I need to know about giving statements?

  • Giving statements are legitimate legal documents. They are also a wonderful opportunity to thank your donors for their support, but they are still legal documents, and this is what informs some of the rules built into the system.
  • Once a statement is published, IT CAN NOT BE RECALLED. Because of this, you must review the statements and approve them for distribution before they go out.