A woman hands the church secretary a box of tools after her husband’s funeral and says, “he’d want the youth group to have these.” A family drops off a truckload of folding chairs from a business that closed. Someone signs over three shares of stock they inherited and never wanted. None of these gifts arrive with a price tag, and the person handing them over is going to ask, sooner or later, for something in writing.
The good news is that the wording is simpler than it sounds, and it is simpler precisely because the church’s job is smaller than most people assume. You are not appraising the gift. You are describing it, dating it, and saying thank you in a way that holds up if the donor’s tax preparer ever asks a question. This guide gives you the actual sentences.
The one rule that makes everything else easier
The IRS puts the burden of valuing a non-cash gift on the donor, not the organization that received it. That is not a loophole the church is exploiting — it is how the rule is written, because the church usually has no way to know what a stranger paid for a used table saw eleven years ago, and shouldn't be guessing. Your receipt describes the item. The donor, or their tax preparer, assigns the value.
Once that divide is clear in your head, every awkward conversation gets shorter. When someone asks, “what should I put down for this?” you can say, honestly, “that part’s up to you and your tax person — I can describe exactly what you gave us, as specifically as you’d like.”
What the receipt should say
A written acknowledgment for a non-cash gift needs four things, and nothing more:
- The church’s name and the date the gift was received.
- A description of the item — specific enough that someone reading it cold would know what it was, but without a dollar figure attached.
- A statement of whether the donor received anything of value in return (almost always, for these gifts, the answer is no).
- A line making clear the church did not assign a value to the gift.
Here is sample wording that covers all four:
“Thank you for your gift of one Craftsman table saw with stand, received on November 14, 2025. No goods or services were provided in exchange for this gift. Grace Fellowship Church does not assign a value to non-cash contributions; please consult your tax advisor regarding the deductibility and valuation of this gift.”
Swap in whatever was actually given — a description specific enough to be useful, never a price. “Assorted kitchen items” is fine for a box of mismatched mugs. “One 2016 Honda Civic, VIN ending 4471” is what a vehicle donation actually needs.
Describing the item without valuing it
The line between description and valuation is easy to walk once you see it. Describe quantity, condition in general terms, and what the thing is. Do not describe brand-new-ness, market comparables, or anything that reads like an estimate.
- Fine: “One upright piano, Yamaha, used condition.”
- Not the church’s job: “One upright piano, Yamaha, appraised value $1,800.”
- Fine: “Approximately forty children’s books and twelve board games, gently used.”
- Not the church’s job: “Books and games, estimated resale value $200.”
If a donor hands you an appraisal they had done themselves, you can note that one exists in your own files — but the number on it is theirs, not something the receipt should repeat as if the church verified it.
When the gift is larger than a box of tools
Vehicles, real estate, and stock each carry their own paperwork, and it is worth knowing the shape of it even if you are not the one filling out the forms. A donated vehicle the church intends to sell generally requires telling the donor what it actually sold for, since that figure — not a guessed value — is often what they can claim. Property gifts over $5,000 typically require the donor to obtain a qualified appraisal on their own, with the church confirming only that the gift was received, not what it was worth.
None of this needs to live in your head permanently. The useful habit is noticing when a gift is bigger than routine — a car, a parcel of land, a block of shares — and saying so early: “this is generous, and it’s also the kind of gift where you’ll want to talk to a tax preparer before anything’s finalized.” That one sentence, said at the right moment, prevents most of the confusion that shows up in April.
Keeping the record straight, separate from the receipt
The receipt you hand the donor is one document. What the church does with the gift afterward — keeps it, sells it, gives it to a family — is a separate note worth keeping in your own files, even if it never reaches the donor. If a donated item is sold within three years, the sale price can matter for what the donor was allowed to deduct, and having your own dated note of what happened to it saves a scramble later.
This is also where a place to log the gift at all starts to matter. SundayBridge records a contribution as a line against a person’s giving history the same way a check would be, so a non-cash gift has a date, a description, and a place it lives — not just a paper receipt in a folder that might not survive a change in treasurers.
A short, working script
Most of the awkwardness around non-cash gifts comes from not having language ready in the moment. A few lines, memorized loosely, cover almost every situation:
- When someone hands over an item: “Thank you — I’ll write you a receipt describing what you gave us. The value for tax purposes is something you’ll want to work out with your own tax preparer.”
- When they push for a number: “I want to make sure I don’t give you a figure that causes a problem later — that part really does need to come from you or your accountant.”
- When the gift is unusually large: “This is generous. Gifts this size usually need an appraisal on your end before it’s finalized — worth a call to your tax preparer first.”
None of these sentences require the church to know tax law. They just require knowing where the line sits, and being willing to say so kindly, every time.
Putting it with the rest of your giving records
A non-cash gift does not need to live differently than any other contribution once the receipt is written. It belongs in the same giving history, shows up on the same year-end statement the donor already expects, and gets treated with the same care as any other gift a person trusted you with. The paperwork is a little different. The respect it deserves is not.
If your church is still tracking gifts across a spreadsheet, a shoebox of receipts, and someone’s memory, it might be worth reading about what it actually takes to move off spreadsheets before the next non-cash gift arrives and nobody remembers where last year’s went.