A charitable contribution is a donation or gift to, or for the use of, a qualified organization.
Per IRS Publication 526 Charitable Contributions, on page 2:
You can deduct your contributions only if you make them to a qualified organization.
How to check whether an organization can receive deductible charitable contributions. You can ask any organization whether it is a qualified organization, and most will be able to tell you. You also can check by going to IRS.gov/TEOS. This online tool will enable you to search for qualified organizations.
Note that any link in the information above is updated each year automatically and will take you to the most recent version of the document at the time it is accessed.