How to Create a Tax-Compliant Receipt for Donors of a 501(c)(3) Organization

When donations are made to a registered 501(c)(3) organization, donors can claim them as tax-deductible expenses from the IRS. For them to do this, they need to submit copies of any receipts received from the organization to the IRS. These receipts act as proof that such a donation was made to a qualifying organization. Therefore, the receipt will need to contain certain pertinent details about the donation and the organization.

With Donorbox, customized receipts get sent to donors automatically when a donation is made. You can edit the receipt's template to include any information needed to make that receipt compliant with any IRS requirements. To create a tax-compliant receipt, simply follow these instructions:

Step 1

Log into your Donorbox dashboard. Find the campaign for the receipts template that you want to update and click the edit icon.

Step 2

Head over to your Receipt Email to edit your receipt template. Make whatever edits you need to, as shown below.

Tax receipts need specific info to make them compliant with IRS regulations. Please click here for an updated list from the IRS of what information is mandatory. 

The {donation_details} variable will help you meet these requirements. This variable is an object that will unpack full details of the donation when the email receipt is sent.

By simply including {donation_details} in your receipt, these are some of the fields that will show up:

• Organization
• Campaign
• Donor Name
• Amount
• Donation Interval
• Period
• Receipt Number
• Donated At (Time and Date)
• Payment Method

There are other fields that will automatically show but this is dependent on other selected options when making the donation (eg. donation matching, comments, etc.).

Step 3

Once you've made your changes, click the update button and you're done!

You can also click here for more information and some helpful samples.

NOTE: Nonprofits usually also send consolidated year-end receipts to donors. This is a single receipt sent around January containing a list of all the donations that a donor has made. This is really helpful when you're doing your taxes.