It's that time to make sure you get out your acknowledgements for the donations at the end of the year!
One issue that seems to arise for nearly every nonprofit organization is whether to note the value of a non-cash donation in the acknowledgement/thank you letter to the donor. Generally speaking, it is not a good idea to say, for example "Thank you for your donation of $1000 worth of computer equipment to Very Special NonProfit, Inc." It really is much better to leave it up to the donor and its accountant or tax advisor to determine the value of that donation. Instead, a letter should simply state what the donation was. Following along in the example above, the letter would say: Thank you for your donation of an HP 2000 laptop computer with MegaHuge processor, 500k RAM, and the notebook mouse." In other words, describe the item(s) with enough detail so that someone looking at the letter can get a really good idea of what was donated, but stop short of providing the value.
Want to read more? Look to the IRS itself (which actually publishes some very helpful guidance pieces for nonprofits). For nonprofits, you can check out Publication 1771 at: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf
Clearly, this is just a general piece of advice, and you should check with your lawyer or tax advisor for how it may effect your organization and what you should do.
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