Custom Contribution Statements

Contribution Statements are an itemized listing of the donations made by one donor and are typically used for year end tax receipts. The Custom Contribution Statements tool enables you to create these tax statements how you want them to look and feel. Add your logos, choose your fonts and colors, or change which fields are displayed. These custom statements can be used for print/mail or emailed directly from DonorSnap.

If you’re looking for a canned option that does not require customizing a Word mail merge template, DonorSnap provides standard Contribution Statements installed with the program, in 3 different layouts: portrait, landscape, and portrait window envelope. Learn more about the standard contribution statements.

Start with a Statement Template

DonorSnap gives you a few templates to get you started generating year end tax statements. NOTE: You must start with one of these templates for your Contribution Statements, as they include programming language to include the correct fields. Do not begin with your own statement file that you’ve created from scratch.

Click HERE for 7 other creative statement ideas and templates to download from our blog.

Change the logo image to your own and make other customizations that you would like.

Be sure not to change any of the text in red or it will break your template.
Any Contact record or TimeFrame mail merge fields must be placed between the red «BeginGroup:Contacts» and «EndGroup:Contacts» tags. Likewise, any Donation record mail merge field must be placed between the red «BeginGroup:Donations» and the «EndGroup:Donations» tags.

Upload your customized template to DonorSnap. Processing > Documents and Labels > Upload / Download / Delete > change the dropdown at the top to Contribution Statements.

Watch the full Custom Contribution Statements Training Webinar to walk through it step by step.

Generate Printed Custom Statements

Once you’ve uploaded your custom statement template, go to Processing > Documents and Labels > Custom Contribution Statement to generate printed statements.

1. Enter the date range of the donations to include in your statements.
2. Select a DataMiner Batch if you are limiting to a select few instead of generating statements for all donors.
3. Use the Donation Filters to exclude certain types of donations from your statements.
4. Choose your selected template from the Other Settings box.
5. Click PDF to generate one large PDF file, one statement per donor, which can be saved to your computer and printed (note that the PDF cannot be modified later).
6. Click WORD to generate one large Word document, one statement per donor, which can be saved to your computer and printed. Word Documents can be modified later.

Note that the Excel file is not an Excel download of all contacts in your statements. It is only a file to generate your original template file.

Email Statements

Emailed custom contribution statements are generated in the same tool as the standard statements: Processing > Contribution Statement Email

1. Click to Add New Contribution Statement Listing. (creates a new batch of emails to send out)
2. In the Statement Type field, choose Custom.
3. Select the appropriate template. Click Insert.

Continue to generate email as usual.

Tips for Your Mail Merge Templates

We’ve collected a few things we think will be helpful for you, and we will continue to update this area.

Update Fields in Your Template

If you tried typing a new field over the top of an existing one, you have probably already discovered that you can’t do that. Typing a new name on an existing mail merge field doesn’t change the code behind the field. Watch this video to update the fields in your template:

Don’t Put Anything Below the Bottom Red Codes

At the bottom of each template are two red codes labeled #PageBreak# and EndGroup:Contacts. Do not put any body content below these tags or it will not show up in your final statements. You can continue to place content in the footer of your letter though and it will show up in the generated statements.

Tables: View Gridlines for Easier Adjustments

Working with tables can be frustrating when you can’t see where the column boundaries are. Click on your table and then use the Table Tools Layout menu to turn on “View Gridlines” to make things easier. This video shows it in action:

Columns and Section Breaks are Not Supported

At the moment, placing continuous section breaks in your template will break the mail merge process. If you need content on the left and right side of the page, consider using text boxes in moderation to position supporting text.

Remove Extra Zeros After Amount and Timestamp After Date

If you are seeing four zeroes after an amount (e.g. 100.0000) or a timestamp after a date (e.g. 1/1/2022 12:00:00AM), this can be easily fixed. If you are using a system field, just change your letter to use the fields with the suffix “Text” at the end of it. Look for DonationAmountText or DonationDateText and those fields will be correctly formatted for you.

If you are using a user defined amount or date field you will need to add formatting to your field directly instead of the easy “Text” field names. Press Alt + F9 (or Option + F9 on Mac) to view the field codes. It will look like this: { MERGEFIELD “SampleAmountField” }. Change it to look like this instead: { MERGEFIELD “SampleAmountField” # $,0.00 }. For dates, change it to look like this: { MERGEFIELD “SampleDateField” \@ “MM/dd/yyyy” }.

Do Not Preview Results in Word

The Custom Contribution Statements are complex mail merges that use two worksheet tabs of a spreadsheet. Word can only connect to one worksheet at a time, so any attempt to preview the mail merge inside of Word will break your template. Clicking the Preview Results button will prompt you that the mail merge fields are not valid, and Word will substitute them for other ones, breaking your template.

Embed Custom Fonts in Word Template

If you have special fonts that you would like to use in your statements, you can embed them so that the PDF honors your uncommon fonts. Follow the steps here: Embed Custom Fonts in Word Templates.