Here in Arizona, we have some very significant tax credits geared towards several types of charities. These are dollar for dollar tax credits that offset your state taxes owed. For example for certain foster care charities, a couple MFJ can contribute $1000 and get an offsetting state income tax credit of $1000. Now, obviously, the state doesn't allow you to deduct these contributions as that would be in effect double dipping. However, I'm not sure if that applies to federal deductions. I haven't looked into it since we just take the standard deduction. These charities generally take credit cards for the donation so if you use a card that gives you airline points or cash back, you can get at least some tiny net benefit I suppose.