The IRS cannot and will not check the amount you claim to have put in the weekly collection at church. It's been years since I itemized (only did it in the early years of my home mortgage), so I don't recall the exact wording, but I do know that you can claim any plausible sum without being audited ~ or, at least, you could do so 10-15 years ago. $20 per week would certainly not be an unreasonable claim, and that comes to over $1,000/yr.

I'm NOT recommending tax fraud, I'm merely pointing out that a modest contribution to your spiritual community (or communities) is perfectly OK and more-or-less expected, and that a provision exists whereby you can honestly deduct the actual amount of your gift.

Now, if you were planning to kick in thousands upon thousands of dollars, you might rethink. You'd want 501(c)(3) paperwork to be able to deduct such a sizeable and highly visible transaction, and you're unlikely to get it from Mudcat. Unless, of course, it's so generous that Max could use it to pay a CPA to set up the non-profit paperwork and still have plenty left over.