Generating Giving Statements and Tax Receipts

Giving statements are one of the most important outputs of your contributions system. They serve as official records for donors to claim tax deductions and as trust-building documentation that shows members exactly how their gifts were allocated. Wired Church makes it straightforward to generate statements for individual donors or in bulk, deliver them by email or print, and customize the content to meet your church's needs.

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Navigate to Statements

1. Open the admin sidebar and click Contributions.
2. Click Statements in the sub-navigation.
3. You will see the Statements dashboard with options for individual statement generation, batch generation, and annual statements.

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Generating an Individual Statement

When a single member requests a copy of their giving history — whether mid-year for personal records or because they lost their annual statement — use the individual statement tool.

Steps

1. On the Statements dashboard, click Individual Statement.
2. Select Member — Search for the donor by name. The autocomplete searches across first name, last name, and family name.
3. Date Range — Set the start and end dates for the statement period. Common ranges include:
   • Year-to-date (January 1 through today)
   • A specific quarter (e.g., April 1 through June 30)
   • A custom range the donor requests
4. Click Preview Statement to see a rendered version before generating the final document.

What the Statement Includes

The generated statement contains the following sections:

Header

• Church name, address, phone number, and EIN (Employer Identification Number)
• Statement title (e.g., "Contribution Statement")
• Statement date range

Donor Information

• Donor's full name
• Donor's mailing address (pulled from their member record)

Itemized Gift List

Split gifts appear as separate line items under the same date, showing each fund allocation individually.

Totals Section

• Total by fund — A summary showing the aggregate amount given to each fund during the period.
• Grand total — The sum of all contributions.

Tax-Deductibility Notice

• A standard IRS disclaimer statement, such as: "No goods or services were provided in exchange for your contributions unless otherwise noted. This statement is provided for your tax records. Please consult your tax advisor regarding deductibility."
• Non-tax-deductible contributions, if any, are listed in a separate section with a note that they are not deductible.

Footer

• A thank-you message (customizable — see the Customization section below).
• Church contact information for questions.

Download or Send

After previewing, you have two options:

5. Download PDF — Click Download to save the statement as a PDF file to your computer. Use this when you need to print and mail the statement.
6. Email to Donor — Click Email Statement to send the PDF directly to the member's email address on file. The email is sent via MailerSend and includes a brief message with the PDF attached.

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Batch Statement Generation

At year-end or any time you need to generate statements for multiple donors at once, use the batch generation tool.

Steps

1. On the Statements dashboard, click Batch Statements.
2. Date Range — Set the period for the statements. For year-end, this is typically January 1 through December 31 of the previous year.
3. Minimum Amount (optional) — Set a minimum total giving threshold. For example, entering $250 will only generate statements for donors whose total giving during the period meets or exceeds $250. This is useful because IRS substantiation requirements apply to individual gifts of $250 or more.
4. Fund Filter (optional) — Limit statements to specific funds, or leave blank to include all funds.
5. Click Generate Statements.

The system processes all qualifying donors and generates a statement for each one. This may take a moment depending on the number of donors. A progress bar shows the generation status.

Reviewing the Batch

6. Once generation completes, you see a list of all generated statements with:
   • Donor name
   • Total giving amount
   • Number of contributions
   • Statement status (Generated, Emailed, Downloaded)

7. You can click any individual statement to preview it before sending.

Delivering Batch Statements

From the batch results screen, you have two delivery options:

Email All 8. Click Email All Statements to send every generated statement to each donor's email address. 9. A confirmation dialog shows how many statements will be emailed and how many donors do not have an email address on file (those will be skipped). 10. Click Confirm & Send. 11. Statements are queued and sent via MailerSend. The status column updates as each email is dispatched.

Download All as PDF 12. Click Download All to generate a single combined PDF containing every statement, with page breaks between each donor's statement. 13. This combined PDF is designed for printing and mailing. Each statement starts on a new page and can be folded to fit a standard window envelope, with the donor's address positioned for the window.

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Customizing Statement Content

You can customize several elements of the giving statement to match your church's preferences.

Accessing Statement Settings

1. Navigate to Contributions > Settings (or click the gear icon on the Statements dashboard).
2. Find the Statement Customization section.

Customizable Fields

3. Edit any fields as needed and click Save Settings.

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IRS Requirements for Contribution Statements

While Wired Church is not a tax advisor, the statement system is designed to help your church meet the common IRS requirements for charitable contribution substantiation. Here is a summary of what the IRS generally requires:

Written Acknowledgment for Gifts of $250 or More

For any single contribution of $250 or more, the IRS requires the donor to have a written acknowledgment from the charity. The acknowledgment must include:

1. The name of the organization.
2. The amount of the cash contribution.
3. A statement that no goods or services were provided in return for the contribution — or a description and good-faith estimate of the value of any goods or services that were provided.
4. For non-cash contributions, a description of the property donated (Wired Church tracks cash contributions; non-cash gifts may need manual documentation).

Annual Statements

Churches are not required by law to provide annual giving statements, but it is standard practice and a service donors expect. Wired Church's annual statement fulfills the written acknowledgment requirement for all contributions during the year.

What Wired Church Includes Automatically

• Church name, address, and EIN
• Donor name and address
• Itemized list of all contributions with dates and amounts
• Total by fund
• Grand total
• Tax-deductibility notice with appropriate language for deductible and non-deductible gifts

What You May Need to Add Manually

• Non-cash gift documentation (vehicles, property, stock) — these require separate IRS forms.
• Quid pro quo disclosure — if the church provided goods or services in exchange for a contribution exceeding $75, the statement must describe what was provided and estimate its fair market value. Use the non-tax-deductible fund flag for this.

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Troubleshooting

"No contributions found for this period"

• Verify the date range includes the dates when contributions were recorded. Remember that batch dates (not entry dates) are used.
• Check that the member has contributions in finalized batches. Contributions in open (unfinalized) batches may be excluded from statements depending on your settings.

Donor address is missing on the statement

• Open the member's profile and update their mailing address. Then regenerate the statement.

Email delivery failed

• Check the member's email address for typos.
• Verify your MailerSend integration is configured and active in Settings > Integrations.
• Check the MailerSend dashboard for bounced or rejected emails.

Statement totals do not match donor's records

• Compare the date range on the statement with what the donor expects.
• Check for contributions in batches that were not yet finalized at the time of generation.
• Verify that online giving through Stripe was properly batched and attributed to the correct member.

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Related Articles

• Recording Donations Manually
• Understanding Contribution Funds
• Donor Management
• Annual Giving Statements