To qualify:   

You must be age 70 ½ or older at the time of the gift.

Transfers must be made from a traditional or Roth IRA account by your plan provider directly to the charity.  Funds that are withdrawn by you and then contributed do not qualify, nor do planned gifts.

Gifts must be outright. Distributions to donor-advised funds, supporting organizations, or life-income arrangements such as charitable remainder trusts and gift annuities are precluded.

Benefits-qualified charitable distribution:

Can total up to $100,000 in each tax year (if your spouse has a separate IRA account, you can each contribute up to $100,000 per tax year);

Can be excluded from your gross income for federal income tax purposes on line 15a of Form 1040 (no charitable deduction is available, however);

Can be used to satisfy your Minimum Required Distribution (MRD);

You are subject to limitations on your itemized deductions.

Example: Suppose John has $500,000 in an IRA and will be required to withdraw approximately $25,000 this year, and suppose that he also wants to contribute $20,000 to Covington Latin School. He can authorize the administrator of his IRA to transfer $20,000 to CLS and $5,000 to himself. The $20,000 distributed to CLS will not be subject to tax and will be counted toward his annual minimum distribution.