There are various organisations that take contributions from Clients and recover the (UK) tax and allow the Client to distribute the proceeds through vouchers and other means to Charities. See for example the website of Broom Foundation.
My question is what constitutes tzedaka: is it
1] only the donation to say Broom Foundation
or 2] only the donation with the Foundation's voucher to the Charity
or 3] both.
To support [1], the money is removed from personal use and given to the Foundation. The way to increase tzedaka is by giving more to the Foundation.
To support [2], the Charity recipient gets more only if he is given more at this stage - not if more is donated to the Foundation.
The difference will be how to increase tzedaka in the 10 days of Repentance.
I am not asking about anything to do with the tax refund. The question is about when is the tzedaka considered as given according to halacha. Is it when the funds are paid to the Foundation or when the Foundation's vouchers are given to the charitable cause.
