Illinois Law Profs Suja Thomas and Christine Hurt (and Kevin Bacon) extol the Good Card:

Looking for that perfect holiday gift? Go with a Good Card! The Good Card is a gift card with stored value that can be redeemed as a donation to any of more than 1.8 million charities.

Christine notes:

Of course, since I'm a frustrated tax geek hiding in a corporate law professor body, my first question was "Who gets the deduction?" If I make a donation in my sister's name, then I get the deduction. This isn't why I do it (I hope), but I'm sure a lot of December charitable giving has the charitable tax deduction idea floating around it. Well, the answer is that the gift card buyer gets the deduction, which I think is the best incentive policy, if you want people to buy the gift card. The gift card recipient either uses or looses the earmarked funds, so they need no further incentives.

Update:  Sarah Lawsky (George Washington) has more here.