In an interesting coincidence the US Congress published a report on February 11, 2013 on the “Present Law and Background relating to the Federal Tax Treatment of Charitable Contributions”.  This was the same day as the Canadian Finance Committee of the House of Commons published a similar report on Canadian donation incentives which I discuss at https://www.canadiancharitylaw.ca/blog/house_of_commons_finance_committee_releases_report_today_on_tax_incentives_/ .  The US report goes into details of the US tax incentive for donations and discusses the rationale and challenges with such incentives.

To read the US report see:

PRESENT LAW AND BACKGROUND RELATING TO THE FEDERAL TAX TREATMENT OF CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS
Prepared by the Staff of the JOINT COMMITTEE ON TAXATION February 11, 2013

https://www.jct.gov/publications.html?func=download&id=4506&chk=4506&no_html=1