According to the IRS, generally, a qualified charitable distribution is
an otherwise taxable distribution from an IRA (other than an ongoing SEP
or SIMPLE IRA) owned by an individual who is age 70½ or over that is
paid DIRECTLY from the IRA to a qualified charity. See Pub. 590-B,
Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs)) for
additional information or visit https://www.irs.gov/publications/p590b/index.html
Your qualified charitable distributions can satisfy all or part of the
amount of your required minimum distribution from your IRA. For example,
if your 2014 required minimum distribution was $10,000, and you made a
$5,000 qualified charitable distribution for 2014, you would have had to
withdraw another $5,000 to satisfy your 2014 required minimum distribution.
This is not personal tax advice, for which you should speak to your tax
and/or legal advisor.