Tl;dr

If you’re taking the standard deduction (ie donating <~$15k), ignore all this–there are basically no tax implications for you
Consider how much money you want to donate to c3s specifically (as opposed to c4s, political stuff, random individuals, some foreign organizations, etc.). For money you definitely want to give to c3s, you can put it in a DAF to count them as a donation this year, then figure out where to direct it later. For non-c3 money, it doesn’t really matter when you give it

A surprisingly large number of my friends are scrambling to make donations before the end of the year, or wondering whether or not they should be scrambling to make donations before the end of the year, and feeling vaguely bad that they don't understand their tax implications.

I will quickly break down the tax implications and lay out how to buy yourself way more time and to decide on everything except how much you donate and how much of your donation will go to 501(c)3s vs other opportunities.

Note this post is greatly simplified. Your tax situation will depend on the state you live in and your income and maybe a bunch [...]

The original text contained 3 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
December 29th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/xCw3PauTi9CWkJ5Wq/end-of-year-donation-taxes-101

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“End-of year donation taxes 101” by GradientDissenter

LessWrong (30+ Karma)

“End-of year donation taxes 101” by GradientDissenter