10 ways to give more to charity and reduce your taxes

Integrating charitable planning into your financial and tax planning 

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Many donors ask, “How can I have more money for charitable giving?” or “how can I lower my tax bill?” Here are 10 tax-smart, high-impact strategies for you to consider, many of which can be done even if you don’t itemize deductions for charitable donations on your tax returns. To simplify things, we’ve added labels to help you identify whether each strategy could be beneficial from a tax perspective for those who itemize tax deductions or take the standard deduction.

Should you itemize deductions or take the standard deduction? 

Generally, you only itemize deductions if the total allowable deductions exceed the standard deduction amount for the year. Here are the standard deduction amounts for 2025:   

Giving strategies for 2025 and beyond 

To help you identify which method of donating could make the most sense for you, we’ve labeled each strategy to show who could potentially benefit the most: those who take the Standard deduction or those who use Itemized deductions. 

Standard deduction | Itemized deductions  

Donating appreciated stock, private business interests, real estate, and other non-cash assets held more than one year has two tax benefits. First, you generally eliminate the capital gains tax that you would otherwise incur if you sold the assets and donated the sale proceeds, increasing the amount available for charities by up to 20%. Second, if you itemize deductions when filing your 2025 tax returns, you may be able to claim a charitable deduction for the fair market value of the contributed assets. 

Standard deduction | Itemized deductions 

A donor-advised fund (DAF) account, such as with DAFgiving360, is a tax-smart and simple giving solution. A DAF provider is a public charity, and by contributing to a DAF account, you can potentially reduce your tax burdens, contribute assets for potential tax-free investment growth, and use contributions to recommend grants to other public charities immediately or over time. DAFgiving360 and other DAF providers also have specialized teams for accepting non-cash asset contributions. 

Itemized deductions 

Rebalancing often involves selling appreciated investments that have exceeded target allocations and using sale proceeds to buy more of the assets that have become underrepresented in a portfolio. To potentially reduce the tax liability of rebalancing, you can use a part-gift, part-sale strategy. This involves donating long-term appreciated assets in an amount that offsets the capital gains tax on the sale of appreciated assets and claiming a charitable deduction. The gifting part of this strategy can be implemented with a donor-advised fund. 

Standard deduction 

If you are age 70½ or older in 2025 and have a traditional IRA,¹ each individual can give up to $108,000 directly to an operating charity through a qualified charitable distribution (QCD)². There is no tax deduction for a QCD. However, a QCD will not count as taxable income and can also be used to satisfy your IRA’s 2025 required minimum distribution (RMD). Unfortunately, you cannot use this strategy with a DAF.³  

Standard deduction 

Unlike individuals who inherit taxable retirement accounts, public charities don't have to pay income tax on donated assets, making them ideal beneficiaries of IRAs or employer-sponsored retirement accounts. This means every penny of your donation will be directed to support your charitable goals after your lifetime. What's more, designating a charity as beneficiary of the account assets will remove the assets from your taxable estate. 

Itemized deductions 

Converting a tax-deferred retirement account, such as a traditional IRA, to a Roth IRA can provide potential tax-free growth, tax-free withdrawals, and no annual RMD. The conversion will also eliminate the tax liability for beneficiaries (if account assets are passed to heirs). A Roth conversion will create taxable income, but by making a charitable contribution in the amount you converted and claiming an itemized charitable deduction, you can reduce your tax bill. And don’t forget that one of the best ways to do this donation is by giving a long-term held, appreciated asset (see strategy #1). 

Itemized deductions 

If you plan on taking distributions from a tax deferred retirement but you can’t do a QCD because you’re under age 70½, you could use a charitable donation to potentially offset some or all of that distribution. A great way to make the donation is by giving appreciated assets held long term (see strategy #1). You won’t need to recognize income from the donation and then, if you itemize your deductions, you can take a deduction for the fair market value of the asset. 

Itemized deductions | Standard deduction 

If you have life insurance that is no longer needed, you can donate it to charity. By contributing your policy during your lifetime, and with a charity selling it, you’re able to use the value of the policy to benefit your favorite causes, while also claiming an income tax deduction and potentially reducing estate tax liability. You can also name a charity now to be a beneficiary of the policy after your lifetime, helping extend your charitable legacy and removing the policy from your taxable estate. 

Itemized deductions | Standard deduction 

You may anticipate that your total itemized deductions for 2025 will be below your standard deduction amount. If you do, consider combining or “bunching” charitable contributions for two or more years into 2025 to create itemized deductions that exceed your standard deduction. With a two-year bunching strategy, you would itemize deductions on your 2025 tax return and take the standard deduction on your 2026 return to potentially produce a larger two-year deduction than you would get by claiming two years of standard deductions. A bunching strategy can be implemented with a DAF (see above), allowing you to continue giving to other charities each year. 

Itemized deductions 

If your investment portfolio has publicly traded securities that have declined below their cost basis (this generally is the purchase price), you can sell those assets at a loss and donate the cash proceeds to claim a charitable deduction. Then, through a process called tax-loss harvesting, you can use the amount of your loss to reduce your taxable capital gains and potentially offset up to $3,000 of your ordinary income. You may also carry forward any remaining loss amount to offset gains and income for future tax years. 

Is there a limit on itemized deductions for charitable donations?