Do you acknoweledge the check date, or the date received? I see plenty of other non-profits don't use a date field at all (other than the date at the top of the letter) but this seems problematic to me from an IRS point of view when you recieve multiple gifts from the same donor in a short timeframe.

IRS publication 1771 has a list of required things on a gift acknowledgement and date is not on the list at all.  It is 100% up to the donor to substantiate the date of gift.  Suggesting a date of gift might seem like an aid to a donor but I feel like it crosses into giving tax advice.  What the professionals on the Fund Services listserv www.fundsvcs.org suggest is that IF you include a date at all it be simply a processed date. 

I do not include a date on the receipt but our letter is dated for the date it is created which is usually within 72 hours of receiving the gift.

Thanks as always for your good advice, Melissa. So the date processed date would be the date recieved at the development office?

We use the date the stock was received into our account at the brokerage, ie the date the stock transfered. In the letter we "thank you for the # shares of Corporation common stock transfered to The CIA on date:"

It is completely up to each organization to define what date processed means. It could be the date you received it and "started" the process or it could be the date you enter it, or it could be the date you acknowledge it and "complete" the process. 

So long as you set a definition and stick to it (and can answer the question when a donor asks!) you should be fine.

As Nina suggested for stock gifts your definition may need to define your use of "processed" date based on different gift types (cash, stock, GIK) if you think they may need to be done differently. 

As I said I do not use a "processed date" on Acknowledgements but we do have internal policies on what RE calls the Gift date and GL post date which differ based on gift type.

In the gift record, Gift Date is the date I received the Gift.  Under pay method I put the date of the check.  In the acknowledgement letter, I date the letter the date I printed the letter (I send within 72 hrs).  In the body of the letter I put "thank you for your gift of $_____(amount) on ______ (date of check)".  The donor does not care when you received the gift but does care about the date on the check.  This is more apparent at the end of the year.  If a donor sends a check on December 20th and you don't receive it until January 2nd the date you put on the letter could become an issue for the donor's tax records.  Therefore, putting the gift amount and date of the gift (which is the date they wrote the check) in the body of the letter covers the donor.  I care more about when I received the gift so by putting the date I received the gift as the Gift Date covers me in my reports, as I report the donations as I receive them (in this scenerio the donation would show on my January report).

The example of the end of the year gifts should be based on the postmark date on the envelope. We get people that date their checks for December 31st but then don't actually mail it until a week or two later. That is the only time we use the postmark on the envelope though. Well and fiscal year end if they're paying on a pledge we use the postmark date as well.

Caryn,

Have you ever written the wrong date on a check?  Wrong year?  Forgotten to enter date?  I admit I have.  Using the date on the check does not necessarily mean the check was written on that date.  To me the way your letter is worded it implies the date on the check is the "gift" date which may or may not be the case.  (Especially year end-have received check late in Jan with Dec date.)

My understanding has been what tax year the donor claims their deduction is their decision for a receipt I mail on Jan 2.  The issue is it can not be claimed in both years.  I know there are others with more expertise in this area.

For us the 'gift date' is the date we receive the gift.  The letter says "thank you for your gift of $xxxx.  In the payment details I merge a receipt #, gift amount, and gift date.  We have included the payment method/check # but are re-evaluating if this could cause any problems.  If you want to include check date, to include check date with the other payment details is much cleaner.

I would never use a check date in an acknowledgement letter but If I did I would clearly state that it was the check date.  I have more than once in my fundraising career gotten checks in early April dated 12/31 of the previous year which was clearly mailed (postmarked) in the current year.  The IRS does not care about the date on the check but rather the date it was mailed.  Therefore I do not even state a date in the body of the letter at all.  The letter has a date that I created/mailed it but does not represent any real date.  IRS publication 1771 does not require ANY date and because (as we've seen from all of these examples) the dates can vary so vastly - I recommend avoiding it and sticking only to the required elements from the IRS in pub. 1771.