That's not how it works in France, you give 1000€ and you get an actual tax credit of 750€ (this is restricted to 20% of income tax).
So if you normally pay, say, 5000€ of tax, now in total you pay 4250€ of tax + 1000€ of donation ; but you can display on your website "donated 1000€ to foundation X !" (which has a value in itself as it improves opinion of your company, you can make a small press release, etc..) And that cost you only 250€ in practice.
It's stupid in Canada and seemingly nothing to do with giving or encouraging it. If you're in the highest tax brackets, that last $1000 you earn as income nets you ~$550. If you donate that $550 to a charity, you only get a credit that works out to half your tax rate on $550.
It's less credit for the first $200 in donations, and more credit for amounts above that for unknown reasons. Because 2 people donating $200 shouldn't count as much as 1 person donating $400? Or $200 every year gets you less credit than $400 every other year. Shouldn't we encourage regular giving in small amounts?
Meanwhile, if you have a stock that goes from $100 to $1000 and donate it, not only do you get totally exempt from capital gain tax, you get ~30% back on that full $1000.
If your income is low enough to not pay income tax, you get nothing back on your donations until you do.
Why aren't income-earning people allowed to get a full deduction on the tax paid on their donations?
You do realize that even with the write-off, making a donation is still strictly net negative from a finance point of view[1]? If you donate $1000, your bank account contains $1000 fewer dollars, but you don't get back $1000 in tax credits. It reduces your income by $1000, which roughly translates to a benefit of $1000 * [your marginal tax rate].
[1] assuming you're not pulling any tax shenanigans