Donation Thank-You Letters: 10 Examples for Every Kind of Gift
Send a donation thank-you letter within 48 hours, from a named person, saying what the gift will do and asking for nothing. For any single gift of $250 or more, include the amount and whether goods or services were given in return. Ten complete examples below, all in the Word download.
A good donation thank-you letter is sent within 48 hours, comes from a named person, says specifically what the gift will do, asks for nothing, and, for any single gift of $250 or more, includes the amount and a statement of whether the donor received anything in return. Below are ten complete examples for the situations nonprofits actually face, from a first $50 gift to a year-end gift, a gala ticket and a memorial gift, each with the IRS wording it needs. All ten are in the Word download. The thank-you and the tax receipt can be the same letter; the IRS wording for receipts on its own is covered in our donation letter and acknowledgement templates.
What every thank-you letter needs
- Speed. Within 48 hours for a first gift, a week at most for anything else. The thank-you is the first test a new donor runs on you, and first-year donors are the group that leaves: only 18.9% of first-time donors gave again in 2025, against 59.3% of repeat donors, as set out in the donor retention guide.
- A person. Signed by someone with a name and title, ideally with a way to reply to them.
- The gift, specifically. The amount, and what it pays for in concrete terms: a month of books, a night of shelter, a session with a counsellor.
- No second ask. No reply envelope, no “please give again”. A thank-you with an ask in it is an appeal.
- A next step that is not money. A promise to report back, an invitation to visit, a way to ask a question.
- The receipt wording, where required. See the table further down.
Ten thank-you letter examples
Each example uses a fictional literacy charity; replace the specifics with your own. The detail is the point. A letter that says “your gift makes a difference” could come from anyone.
1. First-time donor
When: Within 48 hours of a first gift of any size.
Dear Maria,
Thank you for your gift of $50 to Riverside Reading Partners. It is your first, and I wanted you to hear from a person rather than a system.
Your gift pays for a month of books for one child in our after-school programme. This term that is 140 children in four schools, most of whom had no books at home when they joined.
In a few weeks I will write once more, not to ask for anything, but to tell you how this term ends. If you ever want to see a session, reply to this email and I will arrange it.
With thanks,
Jo Alvarez, Executive Director
Receipt note: Under $250: no IRS wording is needed, but a dated record helps the donor.
2. Repeat annual donor
When: After the renewal gift, within a week.
Dear Mr and Mrs Chen,
This is the fourth year you have supported Riverside Reading Partners, and your gift of $300 arrived this week. Thank you.
When you first gave, we worked in one school. We are now in four, and last year 81% of the children in the programme moved up at least one reading level. You have been part of that from almost the start.
Your continued support lets us plan a year ahead, which is how we kept two reading tutors on staff through the summer.
No goods or services were provided in exchange for this contribution.
Gratefully yours,
Jo Alvarez, Executive Director
Receipt note: $250 or more in one gift: include the amount, the date and the goods-or-services statement.
3. New monthly donor
When: After the first monthly payment.
Dear Sam,
Welcome, and thank you for becoming a monthly supporter at $20 a month.
Monthly gifts are the steadiest money we receive. They are how we can promise a school that the programme will still be there in March, not only in the month an appeal goes out.
You will receive one summary of your gifts each January for your tax records. You can change or pause your gift at any time by replying to this email or calling Priya on 555 0142.
Thank you for staying with us,
Jo Alvarez, Executive Director
Receipt note: Monthly gifts under $250 each: an annual summary is a courtesy, and the right place for the goods-or-services statement.
4. Major gift
When: Phone call within 24 hours, then this letter.
Dear Elena,
Thank you for your gift of $10,000, and for the time you spent with us last month. I meant what I said on the phone: this changes what next year looks like.
As we discussed, your gift will open the programme in Eastside Elementary in January, serving about 35 children. I will send you the first term’s results in April, and Ms Okafor, the school’s principal, has asked whether she may write to you herself.
If there is anything you would like to know along the way, I am the person to ask.
No goods or services were provided in exchange for this contribution.
With real gratitude,
Jo Alvarez, Executive Director
Receipt note: Over $250: amount, date and the goods-or-services statement. Report back on exactly what you said the gift would do.
5. Year-end gift
When: Within a week of a December gift.
Dear David,
Thank you for your gift of $250 on December 29. It reached us in time to count toward the year, for us and, I hope, for you.
This year your support helped 140 children read more, and more confidently, than they did in September. In January I will send a short report on what the year achieved, and what 2027 looks like.
For your records: Riverside Reading Partners is a 501(c)(3) organization, EIN 00-0000000. No goods or services were provided in exchange for this contribution.
Happy New Year, and thank you,
Jo Alvarez, Executive Director
Receipt note: $250 or more: amount, date of the gift and the goods-or-services statement. The donor needs it by the time they file.
6. Event ticket or gala
When: Within a week of the event.
Dear Ms Patel,
Thank you for joining us at the Spring Reading Gala, and for your payment of $200 for two tickets.
The evening raised $46,000, enough to run the programme in one school for a full year. The poem the children read at the end was written in the programme this term.
For your tax records: your payment of $200 included dinner with an estimated fair market value of $90. The amount of your contribution that is deductible for federal income tax purposes is limited to the excess of your payment over that value, $110.
Thank you for a wonderful evening,
Jo Alvarez, Executive Director
Receipt note: Quid pro quo: for a payment over $75 that is partly a gift, state the good-faith value of what the donor received and that only the excess is deductible.
7. In-kind gift
When: Within a week of receiving the goods.
Dear Mr Owens,
Thank you for donating twelve boxes of new children’s books to Riverside Reading Partners on March 4.
They went into our lending library the same week, and the first children borrowed them the following Monday.
For your records, we received: 12 boxes of new children’s books, approximately 360 titles. No goods or services were provided in exchange for this contribution. Under IRS rules, the donor determines the value of donated goods; we do not assign one.
With thanks,
Jo Alvarez, Executive Director
Receipt note: Describe the items, never value them. The donor values non-cash gifts.
8. Memorial or tribute gift
When: Within 48 hours; notify the family separately.
Dear Ms Brooks,
Thank you for your gift of $100 in memory of Robert Lane. We have let his family know of your gift, without the amount, as you asked.
Robert volunteered as a reader with us for six years. The children knew him as the man who did all the voices, and your gift will buy books for the corner of the library that now carries his name.
With sympathy and thanks,
Jo Alvarez, Executive Director
Receipt note: Send two letters: this one to the donor, and a separate note to the family naming the donor but not the amount, unless the donor agrees.
9. Lapsed donor who has come back
When: Within 48 hours.
Dear Aisha,
Thank you for your gift of $75. It has been three years since we last heard from you, and it was a genuine pleasure to see your name again.
A lot has happened since 2023. We are now in four schools instead of two, and this year 140 children are in the programme.
If anything put you off along the way, I would honestly like to know. And if you would like to visit, the door is open.
Welcome back,
Jo Alvarez, Executive Director
Receipt note: Treat a returning donor like a first-time donor: personal, quick, and with a second contact planned.
10. Online gift, email version
When: Immediately, then a personal note within a week.
Subject: Thank you, Chris. Here is what your $40 does
Hi Chris,
Your gift of $40 just reached us. Thank you.
That pays for a set of levelled readers for one child this term. Here is a 30 second video of what that looks like: [link]
Your receipt is attached. You will hear from me again in a month with how the term is going.
Jo, Riverside Reading Partners
Receipt note: The automatic receipt is not the thank-you. Follow it with a personal note from a named person.
The IRS wording, and when it is needed
| Situation | What the letter must say | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Single gift of $250 or more | The amount (or a description for non-cash gifts), and whether any goods or services were provided in return, with a good-faith estimate of their value if so | IRS Publication 1771 |
| Payment over $75 that is partly a gift, such as a gala ticket | That only the amount above the value of what the donor received is deductible, and a good-faith estimate of that value | IRS Publication 1771 |
| Non-cash gift | A description of the items. Not a value; the donor determines it | IRS Publication 1771 |
| Under $250, no benefit | Nothing required by the IRS. A dated record still helps the donor | IRS Publication 1771 |
The $250 threshold applies to each single gift, not the annual total, and the donor needs the acknowledgement by the time they file their return. Most organizations include the wording in every letter for gifts of $250 or more and in the January summary for monthly donors. Event tickets are where errors happen: a gala ticket priced at $200 that includes a $90 dinner is a $110 contribution, and the letter must say so.
Timing and who signs
| Gift | Thank within | From whom | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| First gift, any size | 48 hours | A named staff member | Email or letter, personal |
| Renewal | One week | Executive director | Letter or email |
| Monthly, first payment | 48 hours | Executive director | Email, then annual summary |
| Mid-level | 48 hours | The person who stewards them | Call or handwritten note, then letter |
| Major | 24 hours | The relationship holder, plus a board member | Call, then letter |
| Year-end | One week, before the donor files | Executive director | Letter with receipt wording |
A phone call within a day of a major gift does more than any letter, and a short handwritten note on a printed letter is the cheapest upgrade available. For first-time donors, plan a second contact at 30 to 90 days that reports what the gift did; the donor stewardship guide and stewardship plan template set out the full first-year track.
Year-end thank-you letters
December brings the most gifts and the most rushed thank-yous. Three things make year-end letters work. Send them in days, not after the holidays, because donors who gave on December 31 need the acknowledgement before they file. Date the gift correctly: a gift is generally dated when it was mailed, if mailed, or when it was charged, not when you processed it. And send a short January note that reports what the year achieved, which is the second touch that turns a year-end donor into a repeat donor.
Mistakes that undo a thank-you
- Getting the name wrong. Check household names, titles and spelling against the gift record, not the mailing list.
- Thanking for the wrong amount or fund. A donor who gave to the scholarship fund and is thanked for “general support” notices.
- Valuing an in-kind gift. The donor values non-cash gifts, not you.
- Omitting the goods-or-services line on a gift of $250 or more, which leaves the donor without a valid acknowledgement.
- Letting the automatic receipt stand in for a thank-you. It is a transaction record. Follow it with a personal note.
- Thanking a lapsed donor like a stranger. Acknowledge the history; the lapsed donors guide covers what to send next.
Personalising thank-yous at scale
The examples above take a few minutes each to personalise. That is easy at ten gifts a week and impossible at two hundred in the last week of December, which is when standards slip and thank-yous go out late and generic. Three ways to keep them personal at volume: segment, with one letter per situation above rather than one for everyone; batch, with a fixed hour each day for thank-yous rather than a weekly catch-up; and draft automatically, with a person still approving and sending.
Gratefully, an AI donor intelligence and stewardship platform built for nonprofits, does the third. Its thank-you Play is on by default: each night its assistant, Grace, drafts a personal thank-you after every first gift, in your organization’s voice, which it learns from your website, and grounded in what that donor gave to and their history with you. The drafts wait in a Ready to Send queue; a person reviews and edits each one, and approved emails go out from their own Gmail, Google Workspace or Outlook mailbox with their signature. Drafts respect do-not-contact and channel opt-outs. It reads Salesforce for Nonprofits, Raiser’s Edge NXT, Bloomerang, Little Green Light and HubSpot, is free for one person, and is $79 a month billed annually for Essential. It is wrong for handwritten notes, which no software replaces and which still matter most for major donors; for adding the IRS receipt wording, which belongs in your CRM’s receipting and should be checked there; for organizations without donor history in a connected system; and for anyone who needs an issued SOC 2 Type II report, which the company expects in the fourth quarter of 2026. Its Ready to Send page describes the feature.
How this page was put together
The letters are our own, written for a fictional organization; every figure in them is illustrative. The receipt rules are from IRS Publication 1771, Charitable Contributions: Substantiation and Disclosure Requirements, and the retention figures from the Fundraising Effectiveness Project’s 2025 report. Gratefully is a company we cover closely; its thank-you feature is described from its own site, read on 13 October 2026. This page explains general rules and is not tax advice.
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Questions people ask
What should a donation thank-you letter say?
Thank the donor by name, state the amount and what it will specifically do, ask for nothing, promise to report back, and for a single gift of $250 or more include whether any goods or services were provided in return.
How soon should you send a donor thank-you letter?
Within 48 hours for a first gift and within a week for others. For major gifts, call within 24 hours and follow with a letter.
Does a thank-you letter need to include the IRS wording?
For any single gift of $250 or more, yes: the amount or a description of non-cash gifts, and a statement of whether goods or services were provided, with a good-faith value if so. Under $250 it is not required.
Is a donation receipt the same as a thank-you letter?
They can be one letter, but an automatic receipt is not a thank-you. Send a personal note as well, or build the receipt wording into a personal letter.
How do you thank a donor for a gala ticket?
Thank them for attending, report what the event raised, and state the good-faith value of what they received and that only the amount above it is deductible, required for payments over $75.
Should you put a value on an in-kind donation in the thank-you letter?
No. Describe the items received. The donor determines the value of non-cash gifts for their own tax return.
Who should sign a donor thank-you letter?
A named person: usually the executive director, or the staff member who manages the relationship. For major gifts, add a call or note from a board member.
What do you write in a memorial gift thank-you letter?
Thank the donor, name the person honored, and say how the gift will be used. Notify the family separately, naming the donor but not the amount unless the donor agrees.
Can AI write donor thank-you letters?
It can draft them, which helps at year end. Keep a person reviewing every letter for names, amounts and tone, and keep IRS receipt wording in your CRM's receipting, checked there.
This is reference information, not legal or tax advice. Rules vary by state and change over time. For a decision that carries real consequences, check the current text at irs.gov or your state registry, and talk to a nonprofit attorney or CPA.