Church giving statement template

From the gift log to a statement

The workbook has three working tabs, and gifts only go in one of them. The Gift Log holds every gift of the year, one row each. The Donors tab lists each donor once and totals their year from the log. Pick a donor on the Statement tab and you get what the IRS asks of a statement that covers many gifts. It "lists each contribution and the date of each contribution and shows your total contributions." Print it or save it as a PDF, then pick the next donor.

Before you print, the Donors tab runs three checks. The statements plus the gifts with no donor should equal the gift log. The gift log should equal the year's giving in your books. And every name on the log should be on the Donors list. When the second check says Off by, look for a gift that's in one and not the other. It's often a late December gift, or one typed with the wrong year.

More of your donors can use a 2026 statement

Starting with tax year 2026, people who don't itemize may deduct up to $1,000 of cash contributions ($2,000 for married couples filing jointly). Gifts of property don't count toward it. Until now, a statement mattered mostly to donors who itemize. For 2026 gifts, it can matter to the rest of your congregation too, so send one to every donor, not only the large givers. What any one donor can deduct is between them and their tax preparer.

One name per household

A household can easily end up as two donors in the log. In the sample, the Mensahs give $250 a month online under Grace's name, and Samuel writes a $300 check to missions. Log the gifts under each name and the household gets two statements, one for $3,000 and one for $300. Log both under "Grace and Samuel Mensah" and they get one statement for $3,300.

The Donors tab helps you catch it. Two donors with the same mailing address get a "Same address as another donor" flag, as David and Esther Cho do in the sample. A gift whose name isn't on the Donors list, like "Bob Smith" when the list says "Robert Smith", shows up in the last check. Fix the name on the Gift Log, and the statement updates.

Gifts with no name

Loose cash from the plate has no donor, so it goes on nobody's statement. Log it anyway, with the donor left blank. The Donors tab shows it on its own line, so the log still adds up to your books. In the sample, that's $1,457.75 from Easter and Christmas Eve. Cash in a named envelope is different: it's that donor's gift, so log it under their name. The offering count sheet records each envelope with its donor and fund.

Close December first

In Grain's anonymized data, December brings in 12% of a church's annual giving. Print in early December and you'll miss about an eighth of the year. So wait until the last December deposits and online payouts are in the log, run the checks, and then print. You have the time: charities usually send statements by January 31.

What the donor got back

Each statement ends with a sentence about what the church gave in return. Choose it once on the Statement tab: "No goods or services were provided" fits most churches. When a donor paid for something, like a dinner ticket, enter what they got and its good-faith value on that gift's row. Their statement then lists it and gives the value instead of the usual sentence. For a payment over $75, the written notice is due when the church asks for the payment or takes it. The donation receipt template covers those rules and prints a receipt for a single gift, and our guide to church giving statements has the rest of what the IRS asks of a statement.

In Grain

Grain builds giving statements from the same ledger as your books. Gifts from Planning Center and Pushpay sync in with their funds, so there's no second gift log to keep in step and nothing to tie out by hand in January. Giving statements are on every plan, including the free Starter plan for churches with up to $20,000 in monthly expenses. See giving statements in Grain.