A donation in someone’s name makes a fitting gift for a person who has everything or cares deeply about a cause, as long as it goes to a charity they already support. Use the charity’s option to give in their honor, add a note in your own words, and keep the receipt, since the tax deduction is yours.
This gift suits the grandparent who says they need nothing, the teacher who runs the school coat drive, and the friend who spends Saturdays at the food bank. It also fits a memorial, in place of flowers.
The charity has to be theirs. A gift to your own favorite cause, made in their name, says more about you than about them. Give where they already donate or volunteer, and check the charity first in the IRS’s Tax Exempt Organization Search, which shows whether it can take tax-deductible gifts.
How they hear about it matters too, so pick a way that tells them it came from you:
- A gift on the charity’s own donation page. Choose its in-honor or in-memory option, and the charity sends them an e-card or a mailed card saying you gave. St. Jude and Feeding America leave the amount off the card.
- A TisBest charity gift card, when you aren’t sure which charity they’d pick. You set the amount, and they pick where it goes.
- A fundraiser for their charity on a milestone birthday, which family and friends can add to. Charities such as Best Friends Animal Society let you start one on their own site.
Since you paid, the tax deduction is yours, not theirs, so save the charity’s receipt. If you take the standard deduction rather than itemizing, starting with your 2026 return the IRS lets you deduct up to $1,000 of cash gifts to qualifying charities, or $2,000 on a joint return. A TisBest card won’t count toward that, since TisBest’s terms make each card a gift to its donor-advised fund, which holds the money until they pick a charity, and the deduction leaves those gifts out.
Whichever way you give, write the message yourself. A daughter who gives $75 in her mother’s name to the animal shelter where her mother volunteers might add a handwritten note about the dog her mother fostered. That note, not the amount, is what her mother will remember.
Subscribe and we'll send you 101 Essential Money Tips to get you started.
The 101 money moves that matter most, from the foundations to protecting what you’ve built.
Advertiser Disclosure: Many or all of the offers that appear on this site are from companies that compensate us, and some companies pay for sponsored content. That compensation may influence which products we cover and where and how they appear on a page, including the order in which they appear. We do not include every company or offer available in the marketplace.
