Print year-end donor statements

A contribution statement is a year-end letter listing each gift a donor made. Donors need a written acknowledgment for any single gift of $250 or more to claim a tax deduction, so most churches send one to every donor by January 31.

Before you start

• Each gift must be a deposit filed under an income category and linked to a donor. With Zelle memos on, Zelle givers are added and linked from the Zelle alerts. Otherwise add donors on Contacts, with their mailing address and the bank names their gifts show under (like "Zelle from J Smith"). See Add customers, vendors and donors.

Steps

1. Go to Tax and donor reports. It's under Reports in the menu. Click Donor statements.
2. Pick the Tax year. It starts on last year.
3. Enter your mailing address. Type it in Church mailing address (or Organization mailing address). It prints under your name at the top of every letter.
4. Add who signs. Type a name and title in Signed by (optional), like Pastor John Smith.
5. Choose the donors. Everyone is checked. Uncheck anyone you don't want a letter for. A No address tag means that donor's contact has no mailing address yet.
6. Click Preview letters to read them before printing.
7. Click Print statements. Each letter prints on its own page.

Use your own wording

Owners can write the letter in their own words. Open Letter wording on the Donor statements tab, then fill in the Greeting (like Greetings in Christ!), the Letter text and the Closing (like Blessings in Christ,), and click Save letter.

• Type {year} where the tax year goes, {name} for the donor's name and {church} for your church's name. Balancivo fills them in for each letter, so the same wording works every year.
• Leave a blank line between paragraphs.
• Every letter still lists the gifts and the total, includes the IRS acknowledgment line, and ends with the name in Signed by.
• Web links can't go in the letter. Leave a box empty to use the standard wording.
• Printed and emailed statements both use your wording. Click Preview letters to check it first.

Email the statements instead

Owners can email each donor their letter instead of (or as well as) printing it. Emailing is part of the paid plans; during the free trial you can email 5 statements a day to try it.

1. Add donors' email addresses on Contacts. A donor with no email on their contact is skipped.
2. Set your sending address (once). In Name donors see, type the name your statements should come from, like Grace Church Giving. In Replies go to, type the address donor replies should reach, like giving@yourchurch.org. Click Save sending address. The line under it shows exactly what donors will see.
3. Follow steps 1 to 5 above.
4. Click Email statements and confirm. Each checked donor with an email gets their own letter, with the same gifts, total and wording as the printed one.
5. Check who got one. An Emailed tag with the date shows next to each donor once it's sent. Email failed means the address didn't work: hover over it for the reason, fix the address on Contacts, and email again.

Add your logo

Owners can put the church's logo at the top of every statement, printed and emailed. On the Donor statements tab, under Logo on statements, click Upload logo and pick a PNG, JPG or WebP picture up to 1 MB. A wide logo on a white or clear background looks best. Click Change logo to use a different one, or Remove logo to go back to just your name.

Only donations count

A gift shows on a statement when it's income filed under a category that counts as a donation, and linked to the donor. Tithes, offerings, missions, building fund and similar giving count on their own. Hall rentals, sales, fees and other income don't, even when a donor paid them. To change a category, open it on Chart of accounts and tick or untick Counts as a donation on donor statements; giving categories show a Donation tag.

When a donor received something in return

If a donor got something for a gift, like a dinner at a gala, an event ticket or a book, only the amount above its value is tax-deductible, and for payments over $75 the IRS requires the statement to say so. Click the number of gifts next to the donor, type the value of what they received and what it was, and click Save. Their statement then lists it, shows the tax-deductible amount, and uses the IRS wording for it. Gifts with nothing received need nothing.

Add gifts from other sources

Gifts that didn't come through your linked bank account one by one can be imported from a spreadsheet, like offering envelopes, checks, or an export from a giving platform. Owners can do this.

1. Open Import contributions on the Donor statements tab and click Download template. Fill in one gift per row: Date, Donor, Email (optional, but it matches the right person), Amount, Fund or offering (the name of one of your income categories, like Tithes or Building fund) and Memo (optional; it prints on the statement). Save it as a CSV file.
2. Click Choose a CSV file and pick it. Balancivo shows the gifts it found, and any lines it can't read and why.
3. Choose where the gifts go.
   • On donor statements only when the money is already in your books, for example in a Sunday deposit from your bank or a giving platform's payout. This way it isn't counted twice.
   • Into the books too when the money isn't in Balancivo yet, like a cash box. Pick the account, and each gift is added as income there.
4. Pick a fund or offering for gifts that have none, if any rows left it empty.
5. Click Import. Donors are matched by email, then by name. Anyone new is added to Contacts.

Importing the same file again doesn't add the gifts twice. If a gift looks like one already on the donor's statement (a deposit linked to them, or a gift from another file, for the same amount within 3 days), it's left out and listed; click They're different gifts: import them too if they really are. Two optional columns, Goods or services value and Goods or services, record anything the donor received in return. If an import went wrong, click Remove next to it under Recent imports: its gifts come off the statements, and any transactions it added to the books are taken out.

Good to know

• Each letter lists the date, the fund or offering (or category), and the amount of every gift, with the year's total.
• Church letters include the standard line: "No goods or services were provided in exchange for these contributions other than intangible religious benefits."
• The mailing address is remembered on this device only. On another computer, type it again.
• Gifts count when the deposit is linked to a contact, or when they were imported from a spreadsheet. If a donor is missing, add their bank name on Contacts (gifts already in your books link right away), or pick them in the From picker under the deposit's category on Review (choose All to see reviewed deposits). Then come back.
• Emailed statements show your sending name followed by "via Balancivo". Without a sending address set, they use your organization's name, and replies come to the owner who sent them.
• To avoid sending twice by accident, a donor gets the same year's statement at most once every ten minutes. You can email up to 1,000 statements a day on a paid plan (5 a day during the trial).
• These statements come straight from how your transactions are categorized. Have your tax preparer confirm them before you send.