Lots of people like to make charitable donations in December. Typically people make their charitable donations by writing a few checks and dropping them in the mail. Which works.  But did you know there is a tax-savvier way to make your charitable donations? If you have a taxable investment account with stocks, ETFs or mutual funds that have increased in value (appreciated securities) you can actually donate those directly to your favorite charity. So instead of selling those appreciated securities and paying a capital gains tax you could simply gift away the capital gain. If you have held those appreciated securities for at least one year you can gift away…