FundSvcs Community

Hello,

We recently had several donors express frustration about our stock receipting process.  Usually when we sent out a receipt for a stock gift, we follow IRS guidelines so we only include the date we had received the stock, the stock received, and the number of shares.  Our policy is that unless the donor reaches out to request it, we would not report out the estimated stock amount (and we include a disclaimer that we are only providing an estimate and they would have to get the precise market value from the financial/tax advisor).  One donor received the first receipt, then reached out to request the estimated amount.  Once we sent them the receipt with the estimate, they insisted that we send them more information because they "could not determine the value of the stock".  We then sent them the high, low, and mean pricing per share that our Finance department sends to us whenever we receive a stock gift.  This satisfied our donor, but we're wondering if we need to rethink our receipt guidelines with stock gifts. We also had another donor claim that their tax accountant said that it is our job to supply the stock gift amount in a receipt.  Have IRS guidelines about receipting stocks changed?  Have general nonprofit best practices shifted at all?  Are more nonprofits providing the stock gift amount estimates and high/low/mean share pricing on receipts?  Thanks!

Regards,

Shelli

Hello,

We recently had several donors express frustration about our stock receipting process.  Usually when we sent out a receipt for a stock gift, we follow IRS guidelines so we only include the date we had received the stock, the stock received, and the number of shares.  Our policy is that unless the donor reaches out to request it, we would not report out the estimated stock amount (and we include a disclaimer that we are only providing an estimate and they would have to get the precise market value from the financial/tax advisor).  One donor received the first receipt, then reached out to request the estimated amount.  Once we sent them the receipt with the estimate, they insisted that we send them more information because they "could not determine the value of the stock".  We then sent them the high, low, and mean pricing per share that our Finance department sends to us whenever we receive a stock gift.  This satisfied our donor, but we're wondering if we need to rethink our receipt guidelines with stock gifts. We also had another donor claim that their tax accountant said that it is our job to supply the stock gift amount in a receipt.  Have IRS guidelines about receipting stocks changed?  Have general nonprofit best practices shifted at all?  Are more nonprofits providing the stock gift amount estimates and high/low/mean share pricing on receipts?  Thanks!

Regards,

Shelli