For the Fidelity or Schwab check that says "IRA" and arrives with a donor's name — or without one
IRA qualified charitable distribution (QCD) acknowledgment letters: what the donor needs, and the one thing that disqualifies the gift
A qualified charitable distribution is a gift sent straight from an IRA to your charity by a donor who is 70½ or older — up to $111,000 per person in 2026. The donor leaves it out of their income instead of deducting it, so your letter should not say "tax-deductible", but they still need a written acknowledgment with the amount, the date and the no-goods-or-services statement, because their custodian's Form 1099-R says nothing about charity. And if you give them anything in return, the entire distribution stops being a QCD. The template, a notification form for donors, a year-end statement section and the rules are below.
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QCD versus the two gifts it gets confused with
| IRA qualified charitable distribution | Donor-advised fund grant | Ordinary check | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whose name is on the check | Custodian (Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard…), often "FBO" the owner | Sponsor (Fidelity Charitable, community foundation) | The donor |
| Legal donor | The IRA owner | The sponsoring charity | The donor |
| Donor's tax treatment | Excluded from income; not deducted; counts toward RMD | Deducted earlier, when they funded the DAF | Itemized deduction (or the 2026 non-itemizer deduction for cash) |
| Letter must say | Amount, date received, no goods or services; public charity, not a DAF/SO/PF | Thank you; this is not a tax receipt; no benefit to advisor or fund | Amount, date, no goods or services (or the quid pro quo disclosure) |
| Letter must not say | "Tax-deductible" | "Your contribution of $X" / anything receipt-like | — |
| Any benefit to donor? | Disqualifies the entire distribution (§408(d)(8)(C)) | Excise tax on the advisor (§4967) | Reduces the deduction; disclose if payment > $75 |
| Hard credit | The person | The sponsor (soft credit the person) | The person |
| Can it go to a DAF? | No | n/a | Yes |
Five things that go wrong
- Thanking Fidelity. The letter goes to the IRA owner, with the custodian mentioned as the route. A receipt addressed to "Fidelity Investments" is useless to the donor's preparer.
- Calling it tax-deductible. A QCD is an exclusion. Donors who read "tax-deductible" and also deduct it on Schedule A have double-dipped; say "qualified charitable distribution" and leave the word deductible out.
- Sending a thank-you gift. A tote bag within the low-cost-article limit is fine; a dinner, a round of golf or a membership with real perks turns the whole $10,000 into taxable income for the donor (§408(d)(8)(C)). Flag these before the letters go out.
- Depositing IRA checkbook checks in January. If the donor wrote the check from an IRA checkbook, the distribution happens when you deposit it. A December 29 check deposited January 3 is a 2027 QCD, and may push the donor over an RMD deadline.
- Losing the donor. Custodian checks often arrive with no name or address. Call the custodian with the check number, and publish a notification form so donors tell you in advance.
QCD acknowledgment letter template
Everything the donor's preparer needs: amount, date received, no goods or services, public-charity status, EIN, and the 1099-R reminder. No "deductible".
[Organization legal name] [Mailing address] EIN [00-0000000] [Date] [Donor name] [Donor address] Dear [Donor first name], Thank you for your gift of $[amount], which we received on [date received] as a distribution from your IRA at [Custodian, e.g. Fidelity Investments]. It will support [program or "our general operations"]. If you intended this gift as a qualified charitable distribution, this letter is the written acknowledgment you need. No goods or services were provided in exchange for this contribution, in whole or in part. [Organization name] is a public charity exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and is not a donor-advised fund, a supporting organization or a private foundation. Your IRA custodian's Form 1099-R will report the distribution without identifying it as charitable, so please keep this letter with your tax records for your preparer. [One or two sentences about what the gift makes possible.] With gratitude, [Signer name] [Title]
IRA gift notification form for donors
Post it on your website or include it in the year-end appeal so the next anonymous custodian check has a name attached.
IRA gift notification — please tell us your gift is on its way Many IRA custodians mail checks with no donor name or address on them. To make sure we can thank you and send the acknowledgment you need for your taxes, please let us know: Your name: ______________________________ Mailing address: ______________________________ Email or phone: ______________________________ IRA custodian (Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard…): ______________________________ Approximate amount: $______________ Expected date: ______________ Designation (optional): ______________________________ Please have the check made payable to [Organization legal name], EIN [00-0000000], and mailed to [address]. If your custodian sends the check to you, you may forward it to us unopened or opened; a check payable to us still counts as a direct transfer. Reminder for year-end gifts: a distribution counts for the year in which your custodian makes it (or, for IRA checkbook checks, the year we deposit it), so please allow time before December 31. Return this form by mail or email to [contact]. Thank you!
Year-end statement section for IRA gifts
Keep QCDs out of the "contributions" total and in a section of their own.
Gifts received as distributions from your IRA (qualified charitable distributions). These amounts are listed separately because a QCD is excluded from your income rather than deducted; no goods or services were provided in exchange for any of them. [date] — $[amount] from [custodian] [date] — $[amount] from [custodian]
IRA gifts, DAF grants and ordinary checks from the same spreadsheet
Put the donor's name in the Donor column and the route in a Notes, Method or Source column (for example QCD – Fidelity IRA, IRA charitable rollover or RMD). The generator adds the QCD acknowledgment paragraph with the custodian's name, keeps the amount and the no-goods-or-services sentence, never says "deductible", flags the row so the person gets the hard credit, and shows a red warning if a QCD row also lists goods or services. DAF grants in the same file get the not-a-receipt letter; everyone else gets a normal receipt.
QCD questions
What is a qualified charitable distribution?
A transfer of up to $111,000 in 2026 (indexed each year under SECURE 2.0; it was $108,000 in 2025) sent directly from an IRA to a public charity by an owner who is at least 70½ on the date of the distribution (IRC §408(d)(8)). The amount never enters the donor's income, counts toward their required minimum distribution, and does not require itemizing. For the charity it is simply a cash gift from the IRA owner that arrived by an unusual route.
Who is the donor: the person or the custodian on the check?
The person. The check or wire comes from Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard, Edward Jones or another custodian and often says "FBO [name]" or shows only an account number, but the gift is from the IRA owner. Address the letter to them, hard-credit them in your records and list them (not the custodian) on Form 990 Schedule B. This is the opposite of a donor-advised fund grant, where the sponsor is the donor.
Does a QCD donor need a written acknowledgment?
Yes. IRS Notice 2007-7, Q&A-39, says a distribution qualifies as a QCD only if the whole amount would have been deductible under §170 (ignoring the percentage limits), which pulls in the §170(f)(8) substantiation rules: for $250 or more the donor must have a contemporaneous written acknowledgment stating the amount and whether any goods or services were provided. The custodian's Form 1099-R shows an ordinary distribution and says nothing about charity, so your letter is the donor's only proof.
What must the letter say?
The amount, the date you received it, and that no goods or services were provided in exchange, in whole or in part. Add that you are a public charity (not a donor-advised fund, supporting organization or private foundation, none of which may receive QCDs) and your EIN. Say that you received it as a distribution from their IRA so the donor's preparer connects the letter to the 1099-R. Do not call it tax-deductible: a QCD is excluded from income, and a donor who also deducts it has taken the benefit twice.
Can we give the donor anything in return?
Essentially no. Under §408(d)(8)(C) the distribution must be fully deductible apart from the percentage limits; if a dinner, membership perk or auction item reduces the deductible amount by even a dollar, the entire distribution fails as a QCD and becomes taxable income to the donor. Only items within the IRS insubstantial-benefit limits (for 2026, low-cost articles costing up to $13.90, or benefits worth no more than 2% of the gift up to $139, per Rev. Proc. 2025-32) are safe. If a donor wants gala tickets, ask them to pay for the tickets personally and keep the IRA gift separate. The generator flags any QCD row with a goods value for exactly this reason.
What date do we use for the gift?
The date the custodian issued the distribution (the check date or wire date) is what the donor's 1099-R will reflect, and the acknowledgment should state when you received it. For year-end gifts this matters: a custodian-issued check dated December 28 that arrives January 4 is a 2026 distribution for the donor. The exception is an IRA checkbook: when the donor writes the check themselves, the custodian records the distribution only when you deposit it, so deposit December IRA checks before December 31 and tell donors to allow time.
The check arrived with no donor name. What now?
Call the custodian's charitable-gift or distributions line with the check number; they can usually confirm the account holder's name once you identify yourself as the payee. If not, hold the gift as unidentified, ask donors in your newsletter whether anyone sent an IRA gift, and publish an IRA gift notification form (above) so future donors tell you first. Record the custodian name and check number in your notes so the letter can say "from your IRA at Schwab".
Can the donor make a QCD to our donor-advised fund, scholarship fund or supporting organization?
Not to a donor-advised fund, a supporting organization or a private non-operating foundation; §408(d)(8)(B) excludes them. A QCD to a public charity's general fund, a restricted program or an endowment you own and control is fine. Since 2023 a donor may also make a one-time election to fund a charitable gift annuity or charitable remainder trust with a QCD of up to $55,000 in 2026 (indexed); that gift has its own acknowledgment rules, because the donor does receive an income interest.
The donor is 71 and still contributing to an IRA. Does that affect us?
Not your letter, but you may be asked. Since the SECURE Act, deductible IRA contributions made after age 70½ reduce the amount of later distributions that can be excluded as QCDs (the "anti-abuse" rule in §408(d)(8)(A)). The donor and their preparer sort that out on Form 1040; you acknowledge the gift exactly the same way. Likewise you do not verify the donor's age: that is their responsibility.
Can a 401(k), 403(b) or Roth IRA make a QCD?
Employer plans cannot; the donor would first roll the balance into an IRA. Traditional, rollover and inherited IRAs can (an inherited-IRA beneficiary must themselves be 70½). SEP and SIMPLE IRAs qualify only if no employer contribution was made for the year. Roth IRAs technically qualify but rarely make sense because Roth distributions are already tax-free. None of this changes the acknowledgment: if money arrives from any IRA custodian, send the QCD letter and let the donor's preparer decide.
How do we show QCDs on a year-end giving statement?
List them in their own section, labelled as distributions received from the donor's IRA, apart from their other cash gifts, with the dates and amounts and the no-goods-or-services statement covering both sections. Some donors' preparers prefer a separate letter per QCD; the per-gift letters from the generator do that. Do not total the QCDs into a "tax-deductible contributions" line.
How does the generator handle IRA gifts?
Put the donor's name in the Donor column and the route in a Notes, Method, Fund or Source column: "QCD", "IRA distribution", "IRA charitable rollover", "RMD" or the custodian name with the word IRA. The engine adds the QCD paragraph (acknowledgment language, public-charity statement, 1099-R reminder, custodian name when it recognises one), keeps the amount and the no-goods-or-services sentence, never uses the word deductible, and flags the row so you hard-credit the person. A QCD row with a goods value gets a red warning. The first name "Ira" on an ordinary check is not treated as an IRA gift.
General information based on Internal Revenue Code §408(d)(8), §170(f)(8) and §6115, IRS Notice 2007-7, IRS Notice 2025-67 (2026 limits), Rev. Proc. 2025-32 and IRS Publications 590-B and 1771. Not legal or tax advice; donors should confirm their own treatment with a tax adviser.