Send your donors than-you notes. They’ll thank you come tax season.

By Kathleen Stephenson and Lisa Petkun

Multiple contributions
A series of contributions of $250 or more to the same charity in a single year can be substantiated with separate acknowledgments from the organization for each contribution or a single acknowledgement for all.

For example, if a donor makes three separate contributions of $600, $450 and $1,000 to a charity in the same year, the substantiation requirements apply to each contribution because it is more than $250. The donor can obtain a separate contemporaneous written acknowledgment for each contribution or only one on which all three contributions are reported.