Because the standard deduction has been raised to $12,000 for
individuals and $24,000 for married couples filing jointly, some people
may lose the advantage of deducting charitable donations, since their
itemized deductions won’t exceed those amounts.
So for donors who are over 70 1/2 years old, they may want to use the
charitable IRA rollover. The charitable IRA rollover is a distribution
from an individual retirement account directly to a charity. The
distribution from the plan administrator directly to the charity counts
toward the donor’s required minimum distribution for the year, but the
charitable donation is not included in the donor’s adjusted gross
income.
Others may use a donor-advised fund. Donor-advised funds (DAFs) are
accounts where the donors can advise on where and when to distribute
funds. Donors claim the charitable deduction in the year the money is
transferred to the DAF even though the funds have not been given
to the final specific charities. This allows donors to consolidate several
years of charitable gifts into one year for their income tax returns.
For example, married donors who usually give $3,000 per year to their
favorite charitable organization can create a Donor-Advised fund,
deposit $21,000 in it for a current year tax deduction, and then
distribute $3,000 per year as annual gifts in future years. For example,
here is information about a few Donor Advised Funds.
https://www.fidelitycharitable.org/philanthropy/what-is-a-donor-advised-fund.shtml
https://www.schwabcharitable.org/public/charitable/donor_advised_funds
http://programforgiving.org/charitable/pages/home.jsp
This is not legal or tax advice. You should speak to your legal or tax
advisor.