Well, it's not that universities aren't legitimate charities. It's that, you can't really efficiently distribute money that way. You can throw a bunch of dollars here and there, and get some benefits and whatnot, but the incentives aren't towards efficiency, they're towards maximizing ego.
Which was my original opposition to private versus public donation, where you just donate to where you feel like versus where it would get you the most bang for buck.
I see the Awesomeness.
I think donations are tax deductable, but it's one of those huge trainwrecks of legislation built up overtime.
Fight smart, not fair.
Who Am I?
Donations are tax deductible, but you get less than a dollar off your taxes for every dollar you donate. It basically re-directs money away from the government and into non-profits. Which is ok, because there are some advantages to using non-profits as opposed to direct aid from government agencies. Non-profits tend to be a lot more innovative, for example, and can develop relationships within local communities. But the US gov. currently does not track the measurable effects these donations have on the target populations, so it's anyone's guess what we're getting for this money.
"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."
So we might want to only allow deductions from listed charities?