Had the charitable remainder trust been around in biblical times, the saying might be, “Give and ye shall receive, especially if ye have a good tax lawyer.”

Be warned (or relieved). That is as funny as this article will get, because charitable giving is extraordinarily complex these days. There are remainder trusts, lead trusts, annuity gift funds, community trusts, foundations, donor-advised funds and shifting government policies on the estate tax. Add to that an army of acronyms like CRUT and CRAT, and the giving equation becomes infinitely more confusing. 

We will explain it all here. O.K., not all. But this is at least a starting point, with brief descriptions of several popular ways for the wealthy and the middle class to give to charity. If you are thinking of making a significant charitable contribution or estate planning, you would be wise to consult a specialist, either a financial adviser or a lawyer. 

That said, here are a few basics:

People considering a donation of cash should probably consider giving it away now only if they are certain they will never need the money. What they will get is the benefit of an income tax deduction for all or part of the donation.

For people with appreciated securities like stocks, donating now can make financial sense. Alan S. Halperin, a trust and estates lawyer at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan in New York, posed the hypothetical situation of a client with $1 million in a highly appreciated stock who wanted to cash out, but who also wanted to make a charitable donation.

“He could give a lump sum to a public charity – say, $200,000 of the securities,” Mr. Halperin said. “He would get an immediate income tax deduction of $200,000.

If the person sold the other $800,000 of stock, the deduction would significantly ease the capital gains, though the deductible amount would vary.

This allows a contributor to make a donation to a charity while receiving a fixed income in return. For the charitably minded who are not wealthy, this is a handy device.

As an example, a charitable gift annuity from the American Lung Association can cost as little as $5,000. If a 60-year-old donor bought a $5,000 annuity from the association, the donor would get a guaranteed payment of $330 a year for life, doing something nice within his means while also receiving a tax deduction. As the Lung Association says on its web site: “A charitable gift annuity is a way for you to give more to help the fight against lung disease than you otherwise thought possible.”

But the charities had better manage the money well. If they lose it, they must still pay the donors.

For people who want to give money now but want to wait to decide who should get it, this may be the tool to use. Again, take the example of the person with $1 million in stock. This person has not decided on a charity, or maybe he does not want to give a large amount to one charity all at once.

Donor-advised funds allow for some of the flexibility of a private foundation, but you do not have to be rich to use them. They are run by various charities and community trusts and allow donors to decide who will get their money and when. Some charities and community foundations require that donors give them a portion of the donation. 

For instance, Cornell University’s donor-advised fund, which requires a minimum gift of $25,000, stipulates that half the donation go to Cornell. If your gift is $500,000 or more, 25 percent goes to Cornell. Some mutual fund companies like Fidelity Investments also offer charitable gift funds. Donors benefit from the fund’s management expertise but also pay a management fee.

Here is an option for the wealthy. It allows donors to give money or property to a charity but to draw income from the assets during their lifetime. The remainder trust can also be set up to take effect at death, providing income to a spouse or an heir for a fixed period or until their death. The “remainder” – whatever is left once the person, spouse or heir dies – then goes to charity.

There are two types of remainder trusts. The charitable remainder annuity trust, or CRAT, provides a guaranteed annual income. The charitable remainder unitrust, or CRUT, pays an amount based on what the assets in the trust are worth.

A remainder trust allows donors to contribute large sums of money, potentially save on taxes and draw income from the donation for the rest of their lives. In some cases, charity can actually be profitable, though it depends on how ling you live to collect income.

Roy Diliberto, a financial planner in the Philadelphia area and the president of the Financial Planning Association, gives an example. A client had an abstract painting that he had bought for $30,000. The painting was recently auctioned for $8.5 million, leaving the potential for substantial capital gains.

But before the auction, “we transferred that painting into a charitable remainder trust and the trust hired the auction house,” Mr. Diliberto said.

As a result, the capital gain was tax-free, but the client was able to receive income from the $8.5 million. “It was a very significant amount of money that was saved,” Mr. Diliberto said.

For a remainder trust set up during a person’s lifetime, Mr. Halperin suggested a $3 million net worth as a minimum. How much people want to give, and if they want to use a remainder trust at all, depend on several factors, including their age and wealth.

For younger clients, Robert W. Tull, Jr., a financial planner in Chesapeake, VA, recommended setting up a trust at death, in case of unforeseen hardships that might require money down the road. Aside from the income stream, the donation is nonrefundable.

“Once it goes into that trust,” Mr. Tull said, “you can’t get it back.”