What a giving statement says, and why

A statement looks like a letter from the church: its legal name, address and EIN if you set one, the giver's name and address, the dates, the pastor's note, the gifts, and the signer's typed name. The amounts come only from your gift records, worked out by PraisePad, never by AI.

Deductible gifts

"Your deductible gifts" lists the giver's own gifts with their dates. A gift repeated through the year, like a monthly bank gift, is one line on page 1 ("Bank, monthly (12)"), and page 2 lists every gift with its date, because the IRS asks for the date of each gift under $250. The total says they're all cash gifts (checks, cards and bank), which is what matters for the deduction people who don't itemize can take from 2026.

Also received, not deductible by you

Grants from a donor-advised fund, IRA distributions, employers' matching gifts, and payments for something given back (a camp place, from a fund marked Not a gift) are listed for the giver's records but never added to what they can deduct. When something was given in return for a gift, its value is shown and taken off.

Gifts of property

Stock and other property are described, never valued: the value is for the giver to determine.

The sentences

Every statement says that no goods or services were given in exchange for the deductible gifts, other than intangible religious benefits, and adds a sentence for each of the cases above when they apply. Households set to Español get the whole statement in Spanish, with a fixed wording a person has checked. This isn't tax advice: ask your accountant about your church's situation.