Technically, donors don't need the substantiation until sometime before they file their personal tax returns for the year the gift was made. There are other ways to acknowledge a gift in addition to a written gift acknowledgment that is sent to the donor, whether via email or regular mail.
A donation acknowledgment letter (sometimes called a donation receipt or thank-you letter) is an email or paper that recognizes a charitable contribution. At a bare minimum, it's a confirmation receipt to your donors acknowledging you've received their donation.
Key Components of a Donor Acknowledgment Letter Organization's Full Name: Clearly state the name of your organization. Donor's Name: Use the donor's name as it was given for the donation. Date of Donation: Mention the exact date the donation was made. Donation Details: Include a description of the donation.
Once a donation of stock has been received, a thank you letter should be sent to the donor. This letter should acknowledge the gift of stock, such as the name and number of shares. It should not list the value of the stock received since the organization is not in the business of valuing stock.
To process stock donations, a nonprofit would have to work with each donor individually to send the donation form, track and record the gift, send an acknowledgment letter, ensure paperwork was correct, liquidate and reinvest funds, and avoid forgery and fraud—all by hand!
Providing Receipts As soon as the donation is in your brokerage account, send the donor a nonprofit stock acknowledgment letter that includes a tax receipt for it.
The receipt can take a variety of written forms – letters, formal receipts, postcards, computer-generated forms, etc. It's important to remember that without a written acknowledgment, the donor cannot claim the tax deduction.
If a charity receives a gift of publicly traded stock, the charity should send the donor an acknowledgement letter that describes the stock (i.e., “Thank you for your donation of 100 shares of XYZ Corporation”) but does not place a monetary value on the shares.