Don't click the add charitable donation!
I've noticed that a lot of websites and shops have an option to make a charitable donation to be added to your bill. If you click this, the money will go to the charity, often after deduction of card processing fees. The company will then use it in their PR, saying "Last year we donated £X million to charities".
In the UK if you make a direct donation and declare that you are a tax payer the company will receive a 25% uplift from the government. If you are a higher rate tax payer you can also claim the difference between this 25% and your top tax band as an addition to your personal allowance, with a choice either reducing next year's tax or receiving a payment at the end of the tax year. If course you can decide to donate the tax saved here too and it won't cost you more than if you clicked the donation button. I expect most countries have similar schemes, please let me know if yours does.
So pleased don't click the donation button, give the same amount to a charity directly. Of course this also lets you choose which charities to give to.
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