Under Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) rules, an IRA can make a contribution directly from the IRA to a charity. The donation is not claimed as a deduction, though the distribution from the IRA is not reported in income, either. In fact, since the IRA itself is a pretax account, contributing directly from an IRA to a charity is the equivalent of a “perfect” pretax contribution.
Read more information about QCD rules and the discussion of donating to charity directly from your IRA at the Wall Street Journal: