To mail a year-end giving statement to a donor you can't email, save that donor's statement as its own PDF and mail it as a letter. Or merge a one-page letter with each donor's total from a spreadsheet. Most statements go by email; IRS Publication 1771 (opens in new tab) allows a paper copy or an email. The paper ones are for donors with no email address on file, or who asked for a printed copy.
Your giving software usually prints them as one file holding every donor. Below: what the statement lists, how to turn that file into one letter per donor and mail it, the January dates, a template and what to keep. This covers the mailing job, not tax advice; Pub 1771 and your accountant cover the rest.
What goes on a year-end giving statement#
Pub 1771 says a donor needs a written acknowledgment from the charity to deduct any single gift of $250 or more. It lists what that acknowledgment contains; the last row comes from its separate recordkeeping rule for gifts of money:
What IRS Publication 1771 lists for a giving statement
What Pub 1771 lists | Where it comes from | Where it usually goes on a statement |
|---|---|---|
Your organization's name | Pub 1771, item 1 | The letterhead or the top of the statement |
The amount of any gift of money | Pub 1771, item 2 | The gift list or a total line |
A description of any non-cash gift, with no dollar value | Pub 1771, item 3 | Its own line, below the money gifts |
One statement about anything given in return: none; a description and good-faith estimate of its fair market value; or only intangible religious benefits | Pub 1771, items 4 to 6 (whichever applies) | Directly under the totals |
The date of each gift | Pub 1771's recordkeeping rule for gifts of money, which lists the date along with the organization's name and the amount | Beside each amount in the gift list |
Whatever your giving software prints, read one statement against these rows before you mail the batch.
Where the official guidance lives: IRS Publication 1771 (opens in new tab) — what a written acknowledgment for a gift of $250 or more contains, and that paper or email both work (checked October 14, 2026).
How to mail the statements that can't be emailed#
Check the file, get one PDF per donor, then mail each one.
Step 1: Check what your print button makes#
Open the file your software makes for the paper batch before you mail anything. A letter goes to one address, so a file holding every donor can't go out as it is. Five of these seven tools make one file or one print job for the batch; Planning Center's and QuickBooks Online's help pages don't say, so check yours.
What your giving software's print button makes
Software | Print the paper batch | What you get | One donor's PDF |
|---|---|---|---|
Planning Center Giving | Giving › Manage › Statements tab › Print; choose who gets paper; Generate statements | A download with two folders, one for donors with a mailing address and one for donors without. Check whether it holds one file per donor | Giving › People › the donor › Donations tab › date range › Statement PDF… › Download |
Tithe.ly | Giving › Tax Statements › your batch › Print all | One browser print job for the batch. Tithe.ly's page stops at the print window; choosing Save as PDF there should give you one file, so check | The print icon beside the donor's name, then Save as PDF in the print window |
Breeze | Giving › Statements › Print; set Print For to Donors without Email Addresses; Print Statements | One print job. Breeze's tip is to choose Save as PDF in Chrome, which gives you one file | The person's profile › Giving › the arrow beside Download as Excel › Print Statement |
Aplos | Donations by Contact report › Extra Actions › print | A single PDF with one statement for each donor | Contact List › the donor › Actions › download a PDF copy |
QuickBooks Online (nonprofit) | + Create › Statement › Apply; tick the donors › Print or Preview | A preview of the ticked statements. Intuit's page doesn't say whether that's one file or several, so check | The same screen: tick one donor › Print or Preview › the download icon |
Bloomerang | Communications › Letters › the arrow beside your year-end tax letter › Preview › Run › Download Letters | One PDF of all the letters in the batch | The constituent's profile › download their giving statement |
Little Green Light | Fundraising › Acknowledgments › Annual Statements › Generate annual statement › Download all | One document holding every letter in the Printed statement segment. By default that's everyone with a mailing address; put the email segment first to print only the rest | Not in that help article; split the batch file (step 2) |
Sources, read October 14, 2026: Planning Center's help on donor statements (opens in new tab) and individual statements (opens in new tab); Bloomerang's on batch letters (opens in new tab), year-end tax receipt letters (opens in new tab) and giving statements (opens in new tab); Little Green Light's on annual gift statements (opens in new tab); and the Tithe.ly, Breeze, Aplos and QuickBooks Online help centers.
Step 2: Get one PDF per donor#
Postmarkr mails every page of the PDF you upload to the one donor you choose; it doesn't split a file into separate letters. Pick one route:
- Download each donor's statement from their record, as in the last column of the table. This suits a dozen or two paper donors.
- Split the batch file for free. Open it, choose Print, enter one donor's page range and save it as a PDF (on a Mac, the PDF menu, then Save as PDF; on Windows, the Microsoft Print to PDF printer). Name each file after the donor. Our 1099 guide uses the same method to turn one download into one PDF per contractor.
- Skip the files and merge a letter. Use the template further down with Bulk Send for a one-page letter with each donor's total.
Save each file without a password, at US Letter size.
Step 3: Mail each statement#
- Upload one donor's PDF.
- Choose the donor. Pick them from your address book or type the address. It's checked against USPS address data before you pay.
- Check the preview. An address page comes first, then every page of the statement as your software made it. Make sure no other donor's pages slipped in.
- More donors? Choose Add to Cart and repeat steps 1 to 3 for each one. You pay for up to 10 statements together, and you can fill as many Carts as you need.
- Pay by card. Printed the next business day. USPS estimates 1–5 days for First-Class delivery from there; see how long First-Class Mail takes.
Pay within six days of uploading, or you'll need to upload the file again.
For the merge letter, use Bulk Send instead: one template plus a CSV with each donor's name, address and one column per field, up to 100 donors per batch. You approve a proof of one letter before the batch goes out.
Where your software placed the address doesn't matter. Every letter gets an added address page in front, printed with the donor's address and your return address, which shows through a #10 double-window envelope. Your statement prints behind it exactly as you made it. Our print partner adds a small code strip in the bottom-left margin of every page, and black-and-white letters print in grayscale.
A one-page statement in black and white is $2.05, with printing, the address page, First-Class postage and the processing fee included. If a cover letter makes it two pages, it's $2.26. The price per letter is the same whether you send 1 or 100. More on mailing statements and letters with Postmarkr.
When to mail them: the January calendar#
Pub 1771 (opens in new tab) says the donor needs to have the acknowledgment by the day they file their tax return for the year, or by the return's due date (with extensions) if that comes first (checked October 14, 2026). It also notes that charities typically send them no later than January 31 of the year after the gift. That's a description of common practice, not a second rule.
An order that works (our suggestion, not a rule):
- Early to mid January: email the batch to every donor with an email address.
- A week or two later: check who hasn't downloaded theirs. Planning Center suggests this order, so you don't print statements nobody needs.
- By Monday, January 25, 2027: upload the paper ones.
A week before January 31 is the same cushion our 1099 mail-by calendar uses: room to fix a file that won't preview or an address that won't verify before the letters print and travel. Monday, January 18, 2027 is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday, so allow for it if you mail that week. If you also send 1099s or W-2s, the same week works; see the dates for tax year 2026 W-2s.
Year-end giving statement template#
Use this for a one-page letter with each donor's total, merged from a spreadsheet and mailed with Bulk Send. It carries the year's total, not a gift-by-gift list, because merge templates have no repeating rows. If you want each gift and its date on the page, mail the statement your software makes instead.
{{double_braces}} are merge fields: one CSV column each, and every row needs a value. [Square brackets] are wording you write once. Lines are broken to fit a phone screen; join each paragraph after you paste.
[Organization name]
[Street, city, state ZIP]
{{statement_date}}
Dear {{salutation_name}},
Thank you for your gifts to [organization name] in
{{tax_year}}. This statement covers contributions we
received from {{donor_name}} from January 1 through
December 31, {{tax_year}}.
Total cash contributions received: {{total_gifts}}
No goods or services were provided in exchange for
your contribution.
Please keep this statement with your tax records.
Questions? Call [phone] or email [email address].
With thanks,
[Name]
[Title, such as Treasurer]The "No goods or services" sentence is the sample wording Pub 1771 (opens in new tab) prints. If you provided goods or services in return, or only intangible religious benefits, replace it with the statement Pub 1771 lists for that case. Pub 1771's list includes a description of any non-cash gift, which this merge can't carry, so mail that donor their own statement from your software instead.
Your CSV needs the donor's name and mailing address columns plus five more: statement_date, salutation_name, donor_name, tax_year and total_gifts. Type the dollar sign into total_gifts, such as $1,250.00. Bulk Send offers a sample CSV to fill in, and how templates and mail merge work covers the setup.
What to keep after they're mailed#
- Your software's statement archive. Planning Center suggests downloading a copy of all statements, so you can answer a donor who asks for a replacement.
- The record of each letter you mailed through Postmarkr: the PDF of exactly what was printed, and its status page, which lists processing updates and USPS scans when available.
- Your list of who got paper, and why: no email address on file, or a request for a printed copy.
That record has limits. It isn't a USPS Certificate of Mailing, it doesn't show a signature, and it doesn't give you a USPS-confirmed mailing date. Postal scans can be delayed or missing, and they don't prove delivery. Postmarkr emails you when each letter is submitted for printing, and again when USPS reports it delivered or returned.
The donor keeps their own copy: Pub 1771 (opens in new tab) says they don't attach it to their tax return but keep it to substantiate the gift.
More than 100 donors who need paper#
Bulk Send takes up to 100 donors per batch, so 300 paper donors means three batches of the same template, at the same price per letter: 100 one-page letters come to $205. With 100 donors in a batch, the $1,000 batch limit only comes into play above $10 a letter, far more than a one- or two-page statement costs.
Itemized statements, one PDF per donor, go through the Cart, 10 per checkout, as many checkouts as you need.
If thousands of donors need paper, a mail house that sorts for bulk postage rates suits the job better.
Questions about mailing giving statements#
Can I email the statement instead of mailing it?#
Yes. Pub 1771 (opens in new tab) allows a paper copy or an electronic one, such as an email addressed to the donor. Mail only the donors who need paper.
Do I need one statement per gift, or one for the year?#
Pub 1771 (opens in new tab) allows either: a separate acknowledgment for each gift of $250 or more, or one acknowledgment, such as an annual summary, covering several.
Does the statement need the donor's Social Security number?#
No. Pub 1771 (opens in new tab) says it isn't necessary to include the donor's Social Security number or taxpayer identification number, so leave it off the paper copy.
What about donors who moved?#
Update the address in your records before you upload. Postmarkr checks every address against USPS data before you pay and flags the ones that can't be delivered. Mail returned as undeliverable because of an incorrect or incomplete address is not eligible for a refund or free resend. If USPS confirms a letter was lost, we'll resend it for free.
Can a statement be more than one page?#
Yes. Each extra black-and-white page adds $0.20 before the processing fee, and you can upload up to 49 pages. A letter of seven or more sheets, counting the address page, travels flat in a large envelope for $2.50 more before the fee.