I am trying to find guidelines for issuing a gift receipt for an in-kind donation. I know that IRS requires appraisals from the donor for gifts valued more than $5,000. But what is the responsibility to the charity in issuing a gift receipt? Do we simply describe the item, and not include a dollar amount? And is a dollar amount entered in gift entry or is it entered as zero? Thanks so much.

Francie Guiles
Palomar Pomerado Health Foundation
Escondido, CA
[Email Removed]

Its our policy to describe the item in the acknowledgement letter with no reference to value. We do get an estimate of the value and enter it in RE to ensure that we capture it when running donor lists for the annual report, etc. Michael Bankert VP, Finance & Administration California State Parks Foundation

Michael, what do you do to record the value amount if you have no clue what the value might be? Francie

We always get an estimated value for the in-kind gifts from the donor or an independent source, but we don't put the value into the acknowledgement letter. Michael Bankert VP, Finance & Administration California State Parks Foundation