It’s that time of year again – time to issue those year-end tax receipts. Join us as we go over some best practices and some useful tips and tricks in The Raiser’s Edge, while making sure that your tax receipts are compliant with the Canada Revenue Agency guidelines. Speaker: Kirk Schmidt, Director of Professional Services with Method Works Consulting

1. CRA and RE Receipting

2. Introduction

3. WHO AM I?
 Joined non-profit world in 2007.
 Database analyst for a database of 1M constituents
and several million gifts.
 Joined Method Works in 2010.
 Personally worked with 50 clients in RE, EE, FE,
BBNC, OCC, Luminate, and/or Sphere.
 Speaker at Blackbaud Conference for Non-Profits
 2011, 2012, and 2013
 Blackbaud Certified in The Raiser’s Edge.
 One of the first 5 “civilians” certified at the
Professional Level.
 Involved in discovery process for Blackbaud’s
“Bluebird.”

4. WHAT IS METHOD WORKS?
 Fundraising systems consultants
 Specialize in Blackbaud suite of products.
 HQ is Calgary. Consultants in Vancouver and
Toronto as well.
 70 years of combined experience in The Raiser’s
Edge.
 Total geeks.

5. OUTLINE
CRA Policy
 What should be on your
receipt?
 What should you know about
electronic receipting?
 What can be included on a
consolidated receipt?
Receipting in RE
 Differences between OneTime Receipts and
Consolidated Receipts.
 Setting up records for
consolidated receipting.
 Reissuing and reprinting, in
compliance with CRA.

6. CRA POLICY IS FUN!
When you're in Raiser's Edge training but would
rather be dancing
Source: FundraiserGrrl

7. CRA Policy

8. DISCLAIMER
I am not a lawyer.
Anything presented herein is based on my work in
the charitable industry, discussing issues with CRA,
and discussions with lawyers, and believed to be
correct and complete within that framework.
If you are unsure, ALWAYS ask CRA first.

9. OFFICIAL REGULATION
Income Tax Regulations,
CRC, c 945
Part XXXV: Gifts
http://canlii.ca/t/524tc

10. ENSURE THAT YOU KNOW
 There is a lot of content involved in tax receipting.
We are only covering what we need to know for
RE.
 What is a gift? Who is a qualified donee? What
are the recommendations for appraisals?
Receipting for non-qualified investments. Etc. etc.
etc.

11. FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANTLY
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO ISSUE A TAX RECEIPT
Does a registered charity have to issue official donation receipts for gifts it receives?
No. Receipting carries with it a certain administrative burden, and receipted donations increase
a registered charity's spending obligation. Therefore, registered charities may choose to issue
receipts according to certain criteria, or they may choose not to issue receipts at all.
Some registered charities set minimum donation thresholds for receipting. Others do not provide
receipts during certain fundraising events.
Remember that donors cannot claim a charitable tax credit or deduction unless they are issued
an official donation receipt. Therefore, registered charities are strongly advised to make potential
donors aware of any circumstances in which a receipt will not be issued.
Source: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/chrts-gvng/chrts/prtng/rcpts/rqss-eng.html

12. WHEN SHOULD I RECEIPT?
 You want to receipt so that your donors can claim
the amount on their taxes.
 CRA recommends by February 28 of the following
year.

13. WHAT NEEDS TO BE ON A RECEIPT
 Name and address
(Canada) of organization
 Charity registration #
 Place where receipt was
issued
 Date receipt was issued
 Name and website of CRA
 “Official Donation Receipt
For Income Tax Purposes”
 Receipt Number
 Full name of donor,
including middle initial*
 Address of donor
 Amount of gift*
 Date when gift was
received*
 Description and amount of
advantage
 Amount eligible for receipt
 Signature of authorized
person

14. *ASTERISK
 Date when gift was received
 MAIL vs. ONLINE
 Full name of donor, including middle initial
 Legislation says middle initial
 Amount of gift
 Gifts in kind

15. CONSOLIDATED RECEIPTING
Gift 2
Gift 1
Gift 3
Receipt

16. GIFTS IN KIND
 CANNOT be consolidated. You must give ONE
receipt PER item.




Date received (not simply year)
Description of the property
Name and address of appraiser (if appraised)
Fair market value*

17. GIFTS… WITH BENEFITS
 Raiser’s Edge calls them Benefits. In CRA-land,
we call it “advantage amount.”
 Raiser’s Edge DOES NOT consolidate these well.
 Any time the donor receives something of value
 Fair market value must be determined on the
advantage
 Meals, Green Fees, Complimentary Items

18. CONTROLS
 Serial receipts
 Raiser’s Edge does this with receipt stacks.
 Important accounting control
 Signatures
 A receipt cannot be issued without an authorized
signature
 Can be electronic. Recommend another control.

19. ELECTRONIC RECEIPTING
 You can receipt electronically and email a receipt.
 Protect the receipt as best as possible
 Using a secure system such as The Raiser’s Edge to
generate
 Copies retained, stored on non-erasable media
 Encrypted and signed with a digital signature*
 CPS-014

20. SPECIAL RULE: QUEBEC
 If you are issuing to a resident in Quebec, issue a
second receipt with the same serial number.
Numéro
Un
Numéro
Deux

21. RE-ISSUING A RECEIPT
 Must still have all required information
 Include serial number of original (or, previous)
receipt
 Statement that it cancels and replaces original
(or, previous) receipt
 “Cancelled” on receipt on record.

22. STORING RECORDS
 Must be kept for a minimum of two years from the
end of the calendar year in which the donations
were made.
 Can be electronic!
 Readable, accessible
 Anything sent electronically (e-receipts) should be
stored electronically
 Same retention rules
 Non-erasable media, stored offsite is recommended

23. RESOURCES
 Canada Revenue Agency
www.cra.gc.ca/charities
 Mark Blumbergs’ Receipting Kit
http://www.globalphilanthropy.ca

24. Receipting in RE

25. RECEIPT FUNCTIONALITY

26. RECEIPTING IN THE RAISER’S EDGE
 Review how to receipt in The Raiser’s Edge
 Performing Consolidated Receipts
 Reprinting/Reissuing Receipts

27. Basics of Receipting

28. RECEIPT STACKS
 Some charities do new receipt stacks per year
 Some never change receipt stacks
 Some have different receipt stacks for different
gifts.
 Configuration -> Tables

29. MAIL: RECEIPTS

30. MAIL: RECEIPTS

31. MAIL TABS
 Filters, Attributes, Ind. Address, Org. Address,
and Format are similar in other Mail Functions
 Gift Types can be used to restrict Gifts in Kind
 eReceipts can be used to send email receipts
through The Raiser’s Edge

32. MAIL MERGES IN RE
Simple Mail Merge
 One Word template for all
receipts in that parameter file.
 Best for Consolidated
receipts.
 Any dynamic content to be
handled by IF-THEN-ELSE
 Conditions can be on multiple
fields
Conditional Mail Merge
 Multiple Word templates
based on different data.
 Does not work well for
Consolidated in most cases
 Need a template for each
value, or need to build a
catch-all
 RE Condition only works on
one field

33. MAIL MERGES
Note: In order to send to the Word Merge Wizard, you must have a
gift that is receiptable .

34. IF-THEN-ELSE
Examples:
 Special messaging
 If values do not exist
{ IF Fund_description_1 =
"ANNUAL" "Thank you for
giving to our Annual Fund"
"Thank you for your
generous gift" }

35. RUNNING RECEIPTS

36. Year-End/Consolidated Receipts

37. WHEN CAN YOU CONSOLIDATE?
Cash Donations can be consolidated by year.
One-Time Receipts must be issued for Gifts in Kind.
One-Time Receipts should also be issued for gifts with
advantage amounts due to how Raiser’s Edge works.
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/chrts-gvng/chrts/prtng/rcpts/whn-eng.html

38. RECEIPT TYPES
One Receipt Per Gift
 Multiple receipts
 Individual Gift Amounts
 Campaign, Appeal, Fund
 Benefit Information
Consolidated Receipts
 One Receipt per Run
 One gift total, calculated by
The Raiser’s Edge
 No gift-specific information

39. THE CONSTITUENT RECORD

40. RECEIPTING STEPS
 If you don’t receipt throughout the year and you
want to issue all receipts:
1. Deal with your GIKs and Benefit receipts first
2. Perform Consolidated Receipts

41. THE PROBLEM
 The fundamental issue:
 Raiser’s Edge will consolidate all receipts based on
parameters if the constituent is set to “Consolidated
Receipts”
 Raiser’s Edge will receipt one receipt per gift if the
constituent is set to “One Receipt Per Gift”
 GLOBAL CHANGES

42. YEARLY PROCEDURE
1. Set up your parameter file
2. Run one receipt per GIK/Benefit gifts
1. Global changes, query of changed records
2. Receipt
3. Revert Records
3. Consolidate Cash Gifts
1. Global Changes, query of changed records
2. Receipt
3. Revert Records

43. SET UP PARAMETER FILE(S)
 Mail: Receipt
 One parameter file will work for BOTH One
Receipt Per Gift and Consolidated
 Any gift-specific fields will not be sent in the
Conditional; Think about how you lay out your
content.
 No specific Gift Date. Use the Year.

44. GIKS AND BENEFITS
 We need to run our GIKs and Gifts with Benefits
separately
 All constituents should be marked as “One
Receipt Per Gift”
 This might mean a global change.

45. GLOBAL CHANGE
 Admin
 Global Change
 Constituent
 Replace “Consolidated”
with “One Receipt Per
Gift”
 Create Query of Changed
Records

46. RUN RECEIPTS
 Now we can run our receipts
 Once we are done, we revert:
 Global Change using the Query we created when we
ran the first time.
 Run the opposite: Change “One Receipt Per Gift” to
“Consolidated Receipts”

47. YEARLY PROCEDURE
1. Set up your parameter file
2. Run one receipt per GIK/Benefit gifts
1. Global changes, query of changed records
2. Receipt
3. Revert Records
3. Consolidate Cash Gifts
1. Global Changes, query of changed records
2. Receipt
3. Revert Records

48. LATHER, RINSE, REPEAT
 Change all One Receipt Per Gift to Consolidated
 Run our receipts
 Revert as needed

49. ALTERNATE PROCEDURE
 If you are more comfortable with Import, you can
use Import to perform the same functions.
 Exporting all constituent Import IDs and Receipt
Types provides you with a backup.

50. NOTES
 Always test first. Do not “Mark Receipted” on first
run – verify that you are getting what you expect.
 Ensure that you are only receipting for one year.
Gift Date will not come through, so you will need
to add the year into the receipt file (ideally in the
parameter template)
 If you only receipt once per year, it’s probably
best to leave constituents as “Consolidated” and
not worry about reverting.

51. Voiding and Reprinting

52. TWO WAYS TO REPRINT
Using Mail
 You need to create separate
parameter files for both
reissue and reprint
 Functionality issues with
multiple receipt stacks
 Can reprint large numbers of
receipts at once.
On the Gift Record
 You can use the normal
receipt parameter files
 You can add specific notes on
the reprint
 Can only reprint one receipt
at a time, and does not work
well for consolidated.

53. REPRINTING IN MAIL
Reissue
 Same receipt number
Reprint
 New receipt number

54. REPRINTING IN MAIL
 Exactly the same as creating a receipt parameter
file.
 Easiest procedure is to copy/paste receipt merge
from Word.
 Note: Word copy/paste does NOT transfer
margins and other page options.

55. ON THE GIFT RECORD

56. VOIDING RECEIPT NUMBERS
 We recommend an additional process for listing
Voided receipts.
 Advantages:
 Easy to query/provide to auditors
 Can set to pull into any receipt parameter file
 Consider attributes or notes

57. RECEIPTING IN THE RAISER’S EDGE
 Review how to receipt in The Raiser’s Edge
 Performing Consolidated Receipts
 Reprinting/Reissuing Receipts

58. CRA and Raiser’s Edge Receipts

59. REVIEW
CRA Policy
 What should be on your
receipt?
 What should you know about
electronic receipting?
 What can be included on a
consolidated receipt?
Receipting in RE
 Differences between OneTime Receipts and
Consolidated Receipts.
 Setting up records for
consolidated receipting.
 Reissuing and reprinting, in
compliance with CRA.

60. RESOURCES FOR CRA
 Canada Revenue Agency
www.cra.gc.ca/charities
 Mark Blumbergs’ Receipting Kit
http://www.globalphilanthropy.ca

61. VERSIONS
 Screenshots are from:
 Windows 7 Professional
 The Raiser’s Edge 7 (Mostly 7.92 Patch 2)
 Microsoft Office 2013 64-Bit*
*Note: 64-bit Office is not supported by Blackbaud

62. CONTACT US
Kirk Schmidt
Director of Professional Services
800.278.4892 x705
403.971.9905
kirks@methodworksconsulting.com
www.methodworksconsulting.com