Fundraising Receipt

Three kinds of fundraising, three kinds of receipt

"I donated to a fundraiser" describes three legally different acts, and the paperwork diverges accordingly:

• A personal crowdfunding campaign — medical bills, disaster recovery, a family in need. The platform receipt documents a gift to an individual.

• A peer-to-peer charity fundraiser — a friend's marathon page benefiting a registered charity. The money flows to the charity; the friend is the messenger.

• An organisation's own appeal — the charity fundraising directly, issuing its own acknowledgments.

The single most consequential fact: gifts to individuals are not tax-deductible, however compassionate the cause. Only gifts to qualified organisations qualify — so the deductibility of your donation is decided by who legally received it, which the receipt reveals if you read it.

Reading a platform receipt: who got the money?

Crowdfunding receipts name the parties, and the names carry the tax answer. A receipt showing a payment to a named individual's campaign is a gift record — useful as proof of payment, useless for deduction. A receipt from a peer-to-peer platform showing the charity as recipient supports deduction — and for gifts of $250 or more, the charity's own written acknowledgment (which registered-charity platforms typically trigger automatically) is the document the deduction legally requires.

The trap case is the hybrid: a personal campaign that promises to pass funds to a charity. Until the money legally reaches the organisation, it is a personal gift — the organiser's good intentions do not create deductibility, and the receipt naming an individual is the honest record of that.

Platform fees, and what the beneficiary actually receives

Between the donor's charge and the beneficiary's payout sit deductions the receipts quietly document: platform fees where charged, payment-processing percentages, and — on tip-based platforms — the voluntary platform tip added at checkout, which goes to the platform rather than the cause.

Donors should read the checkout line: the tip is adjustable and its default is a choice someone made for you. Organisers should expect the payout statement to show gross contributions minus processing — and communicate netted figures honestly when reporting what a campaign raised, because "we raised $10,000" and "the family received $9,200" are both true statements a transparent organiser reconciles publicly.

Organiser duties: the other side's paperwork

Running a fundraiser creates record-keeping obligations the enthusiasm rarely anticipates:

• Personal campaigns — payouts to the organiser or beneficiary are generally gifts rather than income, but the paper trail (campaign record, payout statements, disbursement evidence) is what demonstrates that character if a tax authority or the platform asks. Organisers who are not the beneficiary should move funds transparently and keep the transfers documented.

• Charity fundraisers — the receipting duty belongs to the charity: acknowledgments come from the organisation, not the marathon runner. Organisers should route funds through the official channel precisely so donors get valid documents.

• Events with goods — auctions and ticketed dinners engage the quid pro quo rules: only the excess over value received is a gift, and the charity's receipt should say so.