Say what gifts pay for in concrete terms drawn from real program costs, show spending in the same categories your organization reports to the IRS, and be exact about whether a gift is designated for one purpose or used where the need is greatest. The FTC warns donors about vague, sentimental claims that give no specifics about how a donation will be used, so specifics are the whole job of this page.
Where the money goes is one of the most common donor questions and one of the least answered. Giving pages tend to offer a pie chart with no year, a line about "every dollar," and a set of gift amounts tied to items nobody has priced recently.
This page covers how to write about donations and spending. It is not accounting, tax, or legal advice; your finance team and counsel approve the final wording, and rules on charitable solicitation vary by state. The disclosure rules behind this work are summarized on our nonprofit and association content overview.
What donors are told to watch for
The FTC's guidance to donors warns that scammers make lots of vague and sentimental claims but give no specifics about how a donation will be used, and it advises that a donor unsure how a charity will use a donation consider giving to a different charity. Honest organizations sometimes write in exactly the style that advice warns against, because emotional copy is what fundraising templates produce. Urgency is not an explanation. A page that says "your gift changes everything" and stops there leaves a careful donor with the same doubt the FTC told them to act on.
The same FTC page points donors to independent organizations that offer reports and ratings about how charitable organizations spend donations. Your own page will not be the only account a careful donor reads. Give the facts in your words, with the year and the source, so that a donor comparing your page with an outside report finds the same picture rather than two stories that need reconciling.
Use the categories you already report
Part IX of the Form 990 reports expenses in columns for program service expenses, management and general expenses, and fundraising expenses. The 2025 form says Section 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations must complete all columns, while other filers must complete only the total column, so some associations will not have this breakdown on file. Where you have it, your website chart should use those same categories, for the same fiscal year, from the same filing or audited statement, and say which year it shows. Before a new chart goes up, ask the finance director, "If a donor compared this chart with our latest Form 990, would the categories and the year match?" If they would not, the chart needs a footnote or a fix.
Write a sentence or two explaining what management and fundraising costs pay for, in your own terms, without apologizing for them. Those costs are part of running any program. A donor who understands that an accountant, an audit, and a database keep the program running reads the chart differently from one who sees an unexplained slice.
Gift examples that hold up
Gift ladders ("$50 provides a week of meals") are useful when they are built from real costs and labeled honestly. They mislead when the figure is years old or when an unrestricted gift is implied to buy one specific item.
| Common phrasing | The problem | A better version |
|---|---|---|
| "$50 feeds a family for a week" | No source, no date | "In 2025, about $50 covered a week of groceries for a family of four in our pantry program" |
| "Your gift buys a vaccine" | Implies a restricted use the gift may not have | "Gifts to our general fund support care like vaccines, food, and shelter" |
| "100% goes to programs" | Hard to support across all spending | State what a specific fund or match covers, and how other costs are paid |
The numbers in the right column are placeholders for your own figures, which your finance team should calculate and date. Our page on explaining programs and outcomes accurately covers the program side of the same claims.
Matches, designations, and general gifts
Donors often want to direct a gift, and organizations often prefer flexible support. Both are fine; the page only has to be clear about which one the donor is choosing. Say what a designation means in practice, what happens if a designated program is fully funded or ends, and whether a memorial or tribute gift goes to the general fund. Your policies and your state's rules decide those answers, so the wording comes from finance and counsel, not from a donation form template.
Matching gift campaigns need the same plainness. Say who is providing the match, the cap, the deadline, and what happens to gifts that arrive after the match is met. A donor who learns afterward that the match had already run out may feel misled even if no one intended it, and the page is the easiest place to prevent that.
A fictional example: the wildlife center's giving page
Consider a fictional wildlife rehabilitation center in Arizona whose giving page says "100% of your gift saves lives." The rewrite opens with a two-sentence answer on how gifts are used, then a chart of the last fiscal year's expenses in the three Form 990 categories, with the year stated. A short section explains the veterinary fund, which accepts designated gifts, and says unspent designated money stays in that fund. The gift ladder uses the center's own costs for an intake exam and a week of food for a recovering raptor, each dated. Nobody drafting that page should have to invent a cost per animal or a policy on surplus funds, because the center's finance manager tracks both and signs off on the wording. The old slogan does not disappear entirely; it moves below the answer, where it reads as conviction instead of a substitute for facts. The questions the page answers came from the center's own staff logs, gathered the way our page on what donors and members ask before they give or join describes.
Hudson South's four steps apply in order. Authority Asset gathers the filings, cost figures, and gift policies the finance team approves. Hudson Twenty-One maps the organization's voice across 21 dimensions, so a page about money still sounds like the people who do the work. Market Intelligence researches what donors in your cause ask about money. AEO Creation writes the giving and transparency pages that lead with the answer.
See how your giving page reads to a careful donor
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- Donating Safely and Avoiding Scams. Federal Trade Commission. Read 2026-10-16.
- Form 990, Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax (2025). Internal Revenue Service. Read 2026-10-16.