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The DONATION programs uses the word "receipt" for the official documents you send to the donors for their tax deductions. In the U.S.A., what the program calls "receipts" are also frequently called "contribution statements". We reserve the word "statement" for a report or letter that is not meant to be used for tax purposes, only for the donors' information.
Some users want to be able to let their donors know how much they have given at various points during the year (for example quarterly) and also want to let them know their totals at the end of the year.
You can't do this by using only the official receipts generated by the Receipt menu options, which are used for your donor's tax deductions, because once a donation has been included in one receipt, it will not appear on any future receipts generated for the same donor. If that restriction was not in place, you could be double reporting the same donations, and users would be claiming too large a deduction on their taxes!
How to Create Statements
The solution to this is to use one of the following options as non-tax-receipt statements to show your donors how much they have given:
1.Use the Letters ⇒ Mass Mailing menu option, selecting the "Total Donations Information" option in Section 1. That allows you to specify a range of dates (for example one quarter of the year), and to include a detailed donations section and/or a category totals section, and also allows you to add your own wording. To do this for just one donor, do the same thing with the Letters ⇒ One Letter menu option.
2.Send individual thank-you letters for each donation, selecting the "Individual Donation Information" option in Section 1 of the Letters ⇒ Mass Mailing menu option, or if you are doing them one donor at a time, the "Current Donation Information" option in Section 1 of Letters ⇒ One Letter.
3.Use either Reports ⇒ Donation ⇒ Details, One Page per Donor or Reports ⇒ Donation ⇒ Category Totals, One Page per Donor. These reports can also be selected for a range of dates. However, unlike the letters you cannot add any wording to them. To do this for just one donor, after generating the desired report, use a Filter to restrict it to that donor.
If you are trying to send statements to your donors who have made pledges, with pledge information included, select the "Pledge Information" option in Section 1 of Letters ⇒ Mass Mailing. That reports on donors' pledges, and what they have paid on those pledges. However, unless you are only recording donations against pledges in DONATION, and never recording any unpledged donations, these letters cannot be viewed as a complete statement to the donors.
How to Use both Statements and Receipts at Different Times of the Year
There are actually two possible approaches to using these reports or mail merges in conjunction with official receipts:
1.Send out the statements letters or reports to your donors periodically during the year, and only generate and send out receipts using the Receipt menu options at year-end, which will thus include all of the year's donations.
2.Generate and send out official receipts to your donors periodically during the year, and along with a final receipt for the last part of the year, also generate a statement letter or report for the entire year to send out with it.
It is entirely up to you which of these options you wish to use, though most users seem to prefer the first option, as having only one official receipt simplifies things for the donors. And of course, many users do not feel a need to send periodic statements at all, and just stick with either year-end receipts, or receipts for individual donations sent out soon after the donations are received.
Other Helpful Information
All statement reports and mail merges, and both the built-in and mail-merge version of the receipts, can be sent by email to donors with email addresses. See Emailing Receipts and Statements for details.
All statement reports and mail merges also include the donor's Title, if you have entered it and you have checked the "Include Title in Names in Letters and Receipts" checkbox in the Maintenance ⇒ Main Window Options window. Middle Initials are not included in any statement reports, and are only included in mail merge letters used for statements if you edit their templates and explicitly replace the merge field «Name» with the merge field «NameWithMiddle».