Why these exist
The IRS doesn't require a specific receipt format, but a written acknowledgment for a contribution has to say certain things to be usable for the donor's tax deduction — your organization's name, the donor's name, the amount and date of the gift, and a statement of whether the donor received any goods or services in exchange. US organizations get four built-in, IRS-aligned acknowledgment templates so every organization has a compliant layout without designing one from scratch.
The four variants
The set mirrors the same two-axis split as the Canada templates — cash vs. non-cash (in-kind), and whether the donor received anything back — but uses IRS terminology (quid pro quo) rather than "advantage":
- Cash, no goods or services — a cash contribution acknowledgment for when nothing was given in exchange.
- Cash, with goods or services — a cash contribution where the donor received something of value in return. This is the quid pro quo case, and it's required whenever a contribution over $75 comes with a benefit, per IRS Publication 1771.
- Non-cash, no goods or services — an acknowledgment for a gift of property where the charity describes the property but leaves valuation to the donor (who determines fair market value themselves, filing Form 8283 if the gift exceeds $500).
- Non-cash, with goods or services — a gift of property where the donor also received goods or services in return. Here the charity describes both the property and what the donor received, but deliberately does not state the property's value.
IRS acknowledgment wording
The wording differs by variant to match what the IRS acknowledgment rules require:
- The two "no goods or services" variants (cash and non-cash) print a plain statement that no goods or services were provided in exchange for the contribution.
- The two "with goods or services" variants print a goods-or-services section describing what the donor received in exchange, since that's the information a donor needs to work out their deductible amount.
Organization data
Like the Canada templates, the US templates pull organization details in automatically — your organization's name, address, and EIN (in place of a CRA registration number) — along with the receipt number, dates, donor name and address, and an authorized signatory, so you're filling in donation-specific data rather than re-typing organization details on every receipt.
Related
- Canada CRA-Ready Receipt Templates — the equivalent built-in template set for Canadian organizations
- PDF Templates — designing your own template or uploading a fillable PDF instead