IRA Gift Tracking

James Kew:
Here, we take the view that the IRA beneficiary really owns the money being given, even though it is in the custody of their IRA custodian, so we do record the gift under the individual’s record and don’t soft-credit, let alone hard-credit, the institution holding the funds.  We have a special IRA acknowledgment letter and could query on that (the Gift Letter Code) if we needed to group IRA gifts for reporting purposes.  Also, we typically type “IRA QCD” in the Reference field and could potentially query on that instead.  What does our IRA letter say (even though you didn’t ask)?  Well, it is a bit “legalesey,” but no one has complained about it:
“Thank you for your IRA Charitable Rollover gift. An IRA rollover gift may comply with the "Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD)" requirements of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2015 and Section 408(d)(8) of the Internal Revenue Code as amended.  Your QCD amount of $XXX was transferred from your IRA custodian <name> on <date>.  No goods or services were provided in exchange for your QCD. Our organization is a qualified public charity and therefore may receive your QCD. Your QCD is a gift to us for general purposes or to a designated fund, and not to a donor advised fund or a supporting organization.  Thank you again for this generous gift through an IRA charitable rollover.  Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.”