Here in NZ it's as easy, except you can put your donations in ahead of time (as you make them) and get the donation tax refund right then, not wait for the end of the year

In the US that's not possible because you only deduct charitable gifts if you itemize, and you decide that after the tax year when you file. Your employer can reduce your pay and give a gift on your behalf, which is essentially the same thing.

Although usually the best thing is to donate stock with high gains to avoid future capital gains tax, but you have to understand a lot of tax rules to realize that's a good idea, and there are plenty of extra forms to file at tax time.

In NZ we generally don't have ANY deductions (nor a tax on capital gains) - this makes filing tax easy - if you have one employer chances are they got your tax exactly right - most people don't even need to file - and certainly none of that fluffing around telling your employer how many 'deductions' you want them to fudge your PAYE with. As an employer it's equally simple, I do my payroll with a simple line in a spreadsheet.

NZ doesn't have a separate capital gains rate like the US, but capital gains are still taxed as income, so donating stocks might actually be more worthwhile there unless there is some special tax treatment. Obviously simplified filing is nice.