Year-end charitable giving totals with an AI agent

7 min read
Direct answer: Connect every account you give from to an agent with BankBridge, then ask it to find donation charges for the year by category and by the names of organizations you support. Have it total by organization, list each gift of $250 or more (which needs a written acknowledgment from the charity), and export the list for your tax preparer.

Why donation totals are hard

A typical year of giving is spread out: a monthly gift on one card, a fundraiser on another, a payment-app gift to a school auction, a check at the end of the year, and a few round-ups at checkout. Nothing collects them in one place. At tax time you are searching email for receipts and guessing at the rest.

Your bank and card records do have every one of those payments. An agent can search all of them at once.

1. Find every donation

Connect checking and every card you give from at bankbridge.money, add BankBridge to your agent (Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code), and ask:

“Find every donation I made in 2026 across all my accounts. Start with transactions in the government and non-profit category, then search for these organizations: Food Bank of the Rockies, Lincoln Elementary PTA, public radio. Also search for fundraising platforms. Show date, organization, amount, and account.”

The agent uses list_categories to find the right category name in your data, list_transactions filtered to it, and search_transactions for each name. Remove anything that was not a gift, like a museum ticket or a charity gala dinner where you received something of value (only the amount above that value may count).

2. Fill the gaps

Some giving never shows up as a clean charge:

  • Checks. They appear as a check number with no payee. Ask the agent to list checks over $50 and fill in which were donations.
  • Payment apps.Gifts to a person collecting for a cause are generally not deductible. Gifts to an organization's own account may be. Mark each one.
  • Payroll giving. Not a bank transaction. Get it from pay stubs.
  • Gifts of stock. If you gave shares from a brokerage you connected, ask the agent to check list_investment_transactions for transfers out; your brokerage statement has the details.

3. Total by organization

“Total my 2026 donations by organization. Include the gaps I filled in. Show last year's total per organization next to it.” 
Charitable giving, 2026 (through Nov 15)

Organization                 2026      2025   Gifts
Food Bank of the Rockies   $600.00   $480.00    12
Public radio station       $180.00   $180.00    12
Lincoln Elementary PTA     $250.00   $100.00     1   receipt needed
Disaster relief fund       $100.00        -     1
Total                    $1,130.00   $760.00    26

Claude Code and Cowork can save this as a CSV; in the chat apps, ask for a CSV code block. Keep it with your other tax files, or run /tax-prep in Claude Code to export the full year at the same time.

4. Flag gifts that need receipts

For any single gift of $250 or more, the IRS requires a written acknowledgment from the charity, and a bank record alone does not satisfy it. Ask:

“List every single donation of $250 or more this year with the date and organization, so I can check I have a written acknowledgment for each.”

Charities usually email these automatically. Search your inbox for each one and request any that are missing before you file.

2026 rules worth knowing

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act changed charitable deductions starting with the 2026 tax year:

  • If you take the standard deduction, you may deduct up to $1,000 (single) or $2,000 (married filing jointly) of cash gifts to qualifying charities. Card, check, and electronic payments count as cash; gifts to donor-advised funds generally do not.
  • If you itemize, only contributions above 0.5% of your adjusted gross income are deductible.
This is not tax advice. Limits and exceptions depend on your income, filing status, and the type of gift. Bring your agent's summary to a tax professional (a CPA or enrolled agent) to decide what to claim.

For the rest of your return, see tax prep with AI and bank data. Ready? Connect your accounts($5 per month per bank) and ask your agent for this year's giving.

FAQ

How does the agent recognize a donation?

Many donations carry a non-profit or donations category, which the agent can filter on. Others, like gifts through a payment app or a fundraising platform, need a name search. Give the agent the organizations you support and the platforms you give through, and review the list it returns.

Which donations need a receipt from the charity?

The IRS requires a contemporaneous written acknowledgment from the charity for any single contribution of $250 or more. A bank or card record alone is not enough for those. The agent can list every gift at or above $250 so you know which acknowledgments to collect.

Will payroll giving or donor-advised fund grants show up?

Payroll deductions do not appear as separate bank transactions; use your pay stubs or W-2. A transfer into a donor-advised fund shows up as a transfer, but grants from the fund to charities do not touch your bank. Use the fund's statement for those.

Can the agent tell me what I can deduct?

It can organize totals and point out the rules that might apply, but deductibility depends on whether you itemize, your income, and the type of gift. Bring the agent's summary to a tax professional for the answer.

How early should I run this?

Run it in November so you can see where you stand before year-end giving, then again in January for the final numbers. BankBridge returns up to 24 months, so you can also compare against last year.