Best Of

Pay a visit to the RE NXT Idea Bank and make sure this is represented. If there's nothing listed please add a new idea.

My advice is that each piece of communication should have it's own purpose. Clients I work with are also looking to streamline and have followed that guideline.

What that means is that for online donations, they receive the email confirmation only and it includes the necessary tax information. That is all. These are US clients so separate receipting is not necessary. They also do not receive a mailed letter. I have worked with some organizations that did the email confirmation, a receipt AND a mailed acknowledgement letter, all with basically the same information. So much extra work and probably a little eye-rolling for the donor.

If you choose to send acknowledgement letters or emails for donors of a certain amount, or those who are assigned to a fundraiser, etc. than that is an additional step that does not apply to everyone. You can investigate the AI acknowledgements for this step but it seems they are a little clunky and may not work easily for all organizations.

We utilize the initial confirmation as the receipt and acknowledgment, including the relevant tax language.

This approach is taken because we do not maintain separate records for couples, and we want to minimize the risk of the gift being made by one spouse but the receipt being issued to the other, which could lead to insult.

We typically follow up with additional communication—such as a phone call or incorporating the acknowledgment into our other records—only if the donation exceeds a certain threshold or if the gift is directed to a fund different from the one indicated on the provided form. These details are usually noted in the comments.

Thank you so much, this is very helpful!

Since it sounds like you're uncomfortable with this request, ask them to tell you the exact permissions they need the account to have. They should be accommodating of your request - if they're not, then that's a red flag.