If you are able to itemize your deductions on your federal income tax return then you will need to keep records of your charitable contributions each year for tax time. If you cannot itemize on your federal income tax return, but use the standard deduction then you may not need to keep records, unless your state offers incentives. If your state of residence offers partial refund incentives for donations made to public institutions, community foundations, homeless shelters, food banks, or similar programs then you still need to keep records for your state income tax return. If you own a computer with a spreadsheet program you can easily keep a running total of contributions. Don’t despair if you do not have a computer, you can write the information down in a spiral notebook and add your numbers with a calculator.
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