if local business donated time and resources to after school clubs if that qualifies them for a tax credit. �It's not exactly a "charitable donation", but it might be something similar. �
No, it is a charitable donation. Public schools are by definition charitable; most private schools are organized as 501(c)(3)s, so contributions are deductible as charitable contributions.
Tax credits reduce tax dollar for dollar, and you don't see many of those. Tax deductions reduce *income* dollar for dollar (although with C-corporations, which most very large businesses are, there are more restrictive limits than with other forms of business), so save 10-45 cents on the dollar in tax, depending on the size of the business and whether there's state tax involved.
In our area, almost all of the schools are teamed up with a "Partner in Education" or two - local businesses that donate products and services in exchange for modest publicity. And all of the sports teams and quite a few of the non-sports clubs fundraise either by soliciting businesses for cash, or by soliciting them for product that's resold for cash.
The deduction is never worth it in and of itself, because you spend $1 in costs to save at most 45 cents in tax. So the value of the deduction is that it allows you to spend a net 55 cents, rather than $1, to get your quantum of advertising. And really, you get that same deduction for giving advertising dollars to a for-profit group.
For self-employeds providing services, because the provision of services involves no out of pocket costs, there's no deduction for the time component. You still have to expend money in order to get the tax break, which many people feel is unfair, but which really just puts all businesses on the same footing.
