Church giving statements

Open a spreadsheet of the year's gifts and get a contribution statement for every giver, with the wording IRS Publication 1771 asks for, then print them all or save one PDF. It all runs in your browser, so the spreadsheet never leaves your computer.

The gifts

A spreadsheet of the year's gifts: Excel, or CSV, the plain format most spreadsheet programs can save

Choose a spreadsheet

The spreadsheet stays on this computer. This page reads it in your browser and keeps it in this browser's storage. It never uploads it, and Church Posting never sees your giving records.

Put one gift on each row, with the giver's name, address, the date, the amount and the fund. The first row holds the column names. A gift that was not money, such as shares of stock, goes in a column of its own with a description, such as 20 shares of Example Corp. stock, and an empty amount.

The church

Legal name of the church

Mailing address

EIN, the church's federal tax ID number (optional)

The statement

Tax year

Date issued

Name printed under the signature line

Title

A line at the top (optional)

Show a total for each fund

What the church gave in return

Choose the sentence printed on every statement “No goods or services were provided in return for these contributions other than intangible religious benefits.” “No goods or services were provided in return for these contributions.” Publication 1771 asks a church to say so when the only thing it gave in return was an intangible religious benefit, such as worship. Neither sentence can be changed here, which keeps every statement in the same words. A gift that bought something, such as a dinner ticket, needs two more columns: what the giver received, such as Dinner for two, and its value, such as 40.00. The statement then lists them under that gift, and its sentence begins “Other than the goods or services listed above.”

Covenant OS records each gift as it comes in and sends the statements in January. The beta opens Tuesday, December 1, 2026, and beta churches use it free.

The weekly email

One email a week with new articles, new free tools and new job postings.

What the IRS asks a statement to say

IRS Publication 1771 says a giver cannot deduct any single gift of $250 or more without a written acknowledgment from the church, and that one annual summary can cover all of a year's gifts. The acknowledgment names the church, gives the amount of each gift of money, and describes any gift of property without putting a value on it. It also says either that the church gave nothing in return, or that what it gave was only intangible religious benefits.

When a payment bought something, such as a dinner ticket, the statement describes what the giver received and gives a good faith estimate of its value. For a payment over $75, Publication 1771 asks the church to say that only the amount above that value is deductible. When a row fills in the two goods-or-services columns, the statement prints the description, the value and that sentence.

Beginning with tax year 2026, people who do not itemize their deductions can deduct up to $1,000 of cash gifts to eligible charities, or $2,000 on a joint return, according to the IRS summary of the 2025 tax law. That deduction covers money only, so these statements list gifts of money and gifts of property apart.

Publication 1771 says charities typically send these acknowledgments by January 31 of the following year. This page gives general information and is no substitute for advice from a tax professional.

Printing and mailing

Press Print or save as PDF. Every statement prints on letter paper, each starting on a new page, in the order the givers first appear in your spreadsheet. Fold each page in thirds with the address facing out, and it fits a standard #10 window envelope. A giver with many gifts gets more than one page; staple them together.

To email one giver a statement, open the print window, find that giver's pages in its preview, enter their numbers under Pages, choose Save as PDF, and attach the file to your email.

Your spreadsheet

If your gifts are in giving software or an online giving service, export the year's gifts from it as a CSV or Excel file. The page guesses which column is which and shows its guesses so you can correct them. It counts each giver once for each name and address, so two people with the same name at different addresses get two statements. Spell a giver's name and address the same way on every row; a giver who moved during the year gets a statement for each address until the rows match. Rows dated outside the tax year are left off, and rows it cannot read are listed so you can fix them.

Where your work is saved

The gifts and the church details are saved in this browser on this device. Remove the gifts with the button under the columns when you finish, especially on a shared computer.