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Folks forking over substantial sums might consider a planned gift. Start a charitable gift annuity, for instance, and earn an income off your donation. Return rates, calculated in part on actuarial tables, rise with age (a 55-year-old earns 5.5 percent, while those 90 years and over get 11.3 percent).

Gloria Clinton, a 64-year-old property manager in Salinas, Calif., used the sale of a condominium in 1999 to fund a charitable remainder trust with the Rotary Foundation. She took a partial deduction for the $150,000 sale price and now receives an annual income of 6 percent. When she and her husband pass away, the remainder goes to Rotary. "I wanted to do something that would help others eventually," says Clinton. "I don't like the stock market. I like knowing I'll get a guaranteed rate of return."

If you'd rather spread the wealth, consider a donor-advised fund. Community foundations have been offering these vehicles for decades, but many finance firms got into the game in the 1990s. Donors to Fidelity's Charitable Gift Fund, for example, make an irrevocable gift of at least $10,000 (Vanguard's Charitable Endowment Fund minimum is $25,000). The giver gets an immediate tax deduction for the amount, then makes grants from the fund at leisure. Gibbs LaMotte sold a real-estate consulting business in 1997 and put over $150,000 into a Vanguard charitable fund. Now the 62-year-old and his wife use the cache to make gifts each year to a number of nonprofits. "It's like a parking space for the money while you figure out who to give it to." Most fund programs let you pick from among several types of investment pools. Vanguard's Total Equity pool, for instance, has returned 17.38 percent year to date.

Money isn't everything. Many cash-strapped groups seek used computers. A list of them can be found at www.sharetechnology.org. For your privacy, be sure to erase the hard drive, and get a receipt from the group for tax purposes. Cellphones can also be recycled. Send your old mobile to CollectiveGood in Tucker, Ga., and designate a charity from the list at www.collectivegood.com. CollectiveGood will send half the phone's resale price ($3 to $4) to the charity.

No matter the item, you can deduct only its fair market value, or the amount it would fetch for sale. Determining the worth of low-value items is up to you. The Salvation Army posts a helpful guide at www.salvationarmy.org (sofas can fetch from $35 to $200; children's sweaters, $2.50 to $8). Be honest about the item's condition. Every year, the northeastern division of the Salvation Army spends $4 million disposing of broken and unusable refrigerators, computers, and tires. "If you wouldn't give it to your best friend or your neighbor," says Lt. Col. Timothy Raines, "then we probably can't use it either."

Cars are one of today's most popular in-kind gifts. But their popularity has spawned shady operators. Many cars are processed through for-profit vendors, who sometimes give as little as 10 percent of the sale price to charity. But some charities do their own dealing. Last year, Volunteers of America received more than 75,000 vehicles (www.carshelpingpeople.org). "It's much more cost-effective for us to do it ourselves," says Jim Hartman, national director of the vehicle donation program, noting that his group receives 100 percent of each gift and will pick up vehicles nationwide.