non-taxable methods to make charitable donations? (US)

[dsollen]

Hello everyone, I'm popping in here in the hopes of finding out what programs the US tax law may have for charitable donations. I (somewhat) recently graduated from college, have a good job, and finally have enough income that I can afford to make donations. I'm looking for a means to do so in a way that seas as much money as possible going to the charity of my choice and not to the US government (no offense to Uncle Sam, but I can give it to worthy causes just as well as him, without the 35% lost to overhead expenses).

I know of course that I can take a deduction for charitable donations on my taxes, but that doesn’t help me if I decide to take the standard deduction rather than itemizing; plus it feels somewhat restrictive. I'm sure the US must have other programs for charitable donations out there, but so far I have run into a dead end on Google searching for them. I was hoping someone here could give me a link to a site listing such options, or the name of some options that I can Google to get the details on.

Specifically what I would like is something similar to the UK's "give as you earn" program where money is automatically deducted from your paycheck (pre tax obviously). Ideally something similar to a charitable version of a 401K, where the money goes, untaxed, into an account where I can continue to invest it and earn more (untaxed) interest until I decide when/where I want to donate it. Of course so far I haven’t been able to find any hint of either program existing within the US....

[jIM_Ohio]

many employers have deductions for the united way... check with your employer

[disneysteve]

I don't know the details but you can set up a charitable trust where you would deposit money in the trust and then direct where the funds go. I don't know how those are handled for tax purposes, though.