The last week of December is when your mailbox and your donation page both get busy. A little prep now means every gift lands in the right year, and nobody has to untangle it in February.
How the IRS dates a gift
IRS Publication 526 says a gift counts in the year it's actually made, which usually means the day it's delivered with no strings attached. Here's how that works out:
- Checks: a check mailed to you counts on the date it's mailed. A check postmarked December 31 that reaches you on January 4 is a 2026 gift.
- Credit cards: the year the card is charged, even if the donor pays the bill in January.
- Text-to-give: the year the text is sent, when the gift is charged to the donor's phone bill.
- Pay-by-phone accounts: the date the bank actually pays the gift.
- Stock: the date a properly endorsed certificate is mailed or delivered to you. If the donor's broker or the company handles the transfer, it's the date the shares move into your name on the company's books.
- Pledges and promissory notes: not a gift until it's paid.
Those are the donor's rules, but it's your records they'll lean on.
Keep the envelopes
For every check that arrives in early January, keep the envelope or write the postmark date on your deposit record. It takes seconds, and it's the only proof of when the check went in the mail. Give whoever opens the mail one simple rule: "January checks keep their envelopes."
Ask your online giving tool two questions
What date does your receipt show, and in which time zone? A gift made at 11:30 p.m. on New Year's Eve in California is already January 1 on the East Coast. Check your tool's settings, or ask its support team. Better to find out on December 1 than on January 2.
Send stock instructions early
If someone mentions giving stock, send your brokerage account details right away. Transfers between brokers aren't instant, and when a broker handles it the gift counts once the shares are in your name, so a December 30 request can slip into January. Tell donors plainly which date counts for them.
Know your last mail day
December 25, 2026 is a Friday and a federal holiday, on the Office of Personnel Management's calendar, so plan your last mailings around a short week. December 31 is a Thursday. If you send a "last chance" email, send it early enough on the 31st that people can still act on it.
Record gifts by the date they were made
When you thank donors, list each gift by the date it was made, not the day it reached your desk. IRS Publication 1771 describes the date of a contribution as the date the donor gave it to you. If your books need a gift entered differently, ask whoever keeps them. Your thank-you can still show the date the donor gave.
Plan the January statements now
For any single gift of $250 or more, the donor needs a written acknowledgment from you to claim a deduction, IRS Publication 1771 says. Set up your list in December, and January's statements become a mail merge instead of a project. Our January guide, Send last year's giving statements, covers what to include.
Keep reading
This guide is general information, not tax or accounting advice.
Sources
- IRS Publication 526 (2025), "When To Deduct" (opens in a new tab)
- IRS Publication 1771, Charitable Contributions, Substantiation and Disclosure Requirements (opens in a new tab)
- U.S. Office of Personnel Management, federal holidays 2026 (opens in a new tab)
Updated October 9, 2026