Year-end statements without the January scramble

Build from clean records

Statements cover the calendar year, January 1 to December 31, even if your fiscal year ends in June. Grantkeeper groups gifts by legal giver, lists each date and amount, and adds benefit wording for gifts that came with a ticket or dinner. Before drafting, it reconciles refunds, voided and failed payments, duplicate imports and soft credits.

It doesn't merge two donors only because they share an address, and it lists gifts through donor-advised funds or giving platforms separately for your treasurer to check. Each statement stays a private draft until the whole set is reviewed.

A short monthly pass during the year makes December easier. Ask Grantkeeper for the month's exceptions, fix them in your donor tool while the details are fresh, and the year-end run has less to untangle.

Timing and sending

The IRS instructions say an acknowledgment counts as contemporaneous when the donor has it by the earlier of the date they file their return or the return's due date, including extensions. The rule is about when the donor has it, not a fixed date in January.

Grantkeeper prepares the statements and a cover note, in Spanish too if you need it. Send them through your donor tool's mail merge or your email once your treasurer has signed off on the totals.

Fictional example: a donor gave monthly gifts of $25 and paid $100 for a gala seat with a dinner valued at $40. The statement lists each monthly gift with its date and amount, and shows the gala payment with the dinner's value and the $60 charitable part, the same way the IRS's own $100 and $40 example works.

Run a first pass in early December to catch exceptions while there's still time to fix them. The weekly thank-you recipe keeps the records clean through the year.