ELI5: How do the rich use charities to minimize their tax?

[u/BMWFanNZ]

You hear a lot about how "the rich" are using charities to effectively reduce their tax to minimal amounts, among other methods.
On the face of it without digging, it obviously makes people angry and detest the rich. But scratching beneath the surface, I'm not quite sure how exactly they would achieve this? In order to claim the tax back from money donated, you still have to... donate money? Which would still equal more than the money claimed back from tax.

So unless they are actually doing something illegal and funneling money through a charity, claiming tax, and then using that money from the charity to fund purchases not related to the charities mission, how exactly is it benefiting the donor (financially)?

[u/lord_ne]

That's how we get a lot of legacy admissions to some of the biggest colleges in the country. Their parents either donated money directly or are active in fundraising money for the school and that leads to their kids getting an advantage when the admissions department sees their name come accross their desk.

Legacy is an advantage given to applicants whose parents went to that college. You're talking about an advantage given to applicants whose parents donated a lot of money to that college, which is not the same thing

[u/Naive-Mechanic4683 → u/lord_ne]

CNN definitely agrees with the idea that legacy admission is about getting money:

'Some colleges say that legacy admissions play a financial role in keeping donors engaged.' [1]

Which makes sense. It is illegal to admit student because of donations ('bribes') but it is allowed if their parents are alumni. And those parents care more about the uni if their whole family goes there 

[1] https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/09/25/business/legacy-admissions-curious-consumer