Until now, Giving has focused exclusively on supporting monetary donations through cash, checks, credit cards, and bank transfers. In line with our commitment to provide a unified system and enhance your donation management capabilities, we are delighted to reveal our latest feature: support for in-kind donations!
With this feature, you can receive non-cash gifts, express gratitude to donors with personalized thank-you notes, and ensure their inclusion in annual statements.
From physical items like furniture, artwork, and vehicles to services such as construction efforts and even extending to financial instruments such as shares of stock, this is another step towards ensuring you can embrace the full scope of your donors' generosity.
Entering In-Kind Donations
Giving Admins and Bookkeepers can create in-kind donations in Giving. To get started, head over to the Donations tab of a donor profile. A new side navigation menu lets you switch between Monetary and In-Kind Donations. Here, you will find the option to enter a new in-kind donation.
As you enter a new in-kind donation, you'll be prompted to provide the information important for tracking donation history, as well as inclusion in acknowledgments and statements.
1️⃣ The most important thing to capture for an in-kind donation is the description of what was donated.
2️⃣ You will have the option to enter valuation details as well, though it is not required. Guidelines vary by country on whether valuations can be included on tax documents. We will guide you down the right path as you enter your in-kind donation.
3️⃣ You are able to indicate whether you’ve provided goods or services in exchange for the donation to ensure proper reflection on acknowledgments and statements when applicable.
Sending Acknowledgments
In the final step of entering an in-kind donation, you can send an acknowledgment letter to your donor with a single click! This letter can serve as a thank you note and a receipt for tax purposes. For those interested, there's the flexibility to customize this letter before it's emailed. If you choose not to send it right away, you have the option to send (or resend) the acknowledgment from the donation page at a more suitable time.
Viewing In-Kind Donations
Admins and Bookkeepers
Once you’ve added in-kind donations, they will be visible on the donor profile, as previously mentioned, and in a new report view. The report can be found in the In-Kind tab under Reports.
📍Note: In-kind donations have not been integrated into other reports within Giving at this time (Dashboard, By Donation, and By Donor). Due to the differences between in-kind and monetary donations, we've decided to manage them separately. Additionally, the functionality to export in-kind donations or access them via our API has not been implemented yet. Our initial launch has been strategically focused on addressing the primary needs highlighted by our churches: entering in-kind donations and facilitating the delivery of receipts and statements to donors.
Donors
Your donors will now have a more comprehensive overview of their donation history. Beyond the optional acknowledgment letters you can send, donors will have the ability to view their in-kind donations directly in Church Center, accessible both on the web and via the mobile app:
📍Note: In-Kind-Donations will be visible in the mobile app on Monday, April 29th.
Additionally, for donors who have contributed in-kind donations, these donations will be reflected in their donor statements, ensuring a full account of their generosity:
📍Note: If a donor has not made any in-kind donations, their experience in Church Center and on their annual statements will remain unchanged. The information visible to these donors will not be altered. Additionally, the fair market value of an in-kind donation will only be visible in Church Center and on statements for countries where churches are permitted to determine the valuation.
We hope this will streamline your process for handling in-kind donations and improve the experience for both you and your donors!
💛 Team Giving