Email receipts to donors

Updated November 1, 2026

You can have FreeCharityReceipts email the PDF to the donor. It is optional. The email goes out in your organization's name, and replies go to your Organization Email. There is no extra charge for the email itself.

What you need

Credits or a pass. The receipt must be paid with credits or a pass. A free daily receipt can't be emailed. If you aren't eligible, the box says Available when this receipt is paid with credits or a pass.
An Organization Email, so the donor can reply.
The tick box. You confirm you will keep your own copy, because FreeCharityReceipts doesn't keep a lasting copy. Without the tick you see Tick the box to confirm you'll keep your own copy.

One receipt (Create or Correct)

Sign in and fill in the form.
In Email this receipt to the donor, type the Donor email: one address only.
Tick the box that says you'll keep your own copy.
Generate the receipt as usual.

The PDF still downloads for you. If it worked, you see Emailed to the donor at and the address. If not, you see We couldn't email the donor. Send the PDF yourself.

Many receipts (Bulk)

Paste rows. Tick Email each donor their receipts above the grid. A Donor Email column appears. Rows left blank aren't emailed.
Upload a file. Map a column to Donor email (optional), then tick Email each donor their receipts in the Confirm window.

You tick one box for the whole run. A donor with several receipts in the run gets one email with all of them. The window shows Receipts to email and Donors (one email each). For an upload, the emails go out once, when every receipt has been issued. If the upload stops and is never resumed, nobody is emailed. The Stop this run button is off while donors are being emailed. If you click Stop this run before that, emailing is turned off for good. Nobody is emailed, resuming issues the rest of the receipts without emails, and the results screen says so. The receipts are in your ZIP, so send them yourself. Running out of credits is different. Those emails wait, and go out when you resume.

Limits

500 donor emails per account in 24 hours. An email with several receipts counts once. If a run needs more than you have left, you see This run needs N donor emails; you have M left today. You can choose Start without emailing or Generate without emailing.
A donor's receipts are sent together only if they fit in one email. Too large, and that donor's email isn't sent. The receipts are still in your ZIP.
If donor emailing is paused on our side, you see Emailing donors is temporarily unavailable. You can still make the receipts.

When an email doesn't arrive

If an email bounces or the donor's provider refuses it, we email your account address with the receipt number, the donor's name and the address. The notice says to check the address and send the receipt yourself. For a file upload, the results screen also counts the emails that couldn't be delivered. If a donor's provider reports the email as spam, you get a notice too. Don't email that donor again.

A copy of every receipt still goes to your organization email, and the PDF is always in your download.

What is kept

Create, Correct and pasted Bulk. The donor's email address is used to send the message and isn't saved. A record of the outcome is kept, without the address.
File upload. The address stays in the uploaded row until that donor's email is sent, then it is erased. The donor data in unsent rows is cleared after 30 days. If an attempt can't be confirmed, the row is kept until it is resolved or removed with the file at 30 days.

See What we keep.

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