Miss Manners has always been deeply annoyed by charity gifts, which is one of the rare places I disagree with her vehemently. That being said, I do generally agree that you shouldn't make a charitable gift for someone that you don't know that's something they'd appreciate. I have done charity for friends that I know actively want it, and there have been some years where me and my family agreed to do charity gifts. But if you are just generally making donations, just make them.

(I suppose one exception is after someone dies, where I always do donations and never do flowers, but I'm not sure if I have ever, as an adult, had someone close to me die where they didn't actually have a listed charity for in lieu of flowers, usually right there in the obituary.)