Donating publicly listed securities in kind to a registered Canadian charity eliminates the capital gain on the donated shares — the inclusion rate on that gain is nil — and you still receive the donation tax credit on full fair market value. Selling the shares first and donating the cash does not get you this. It needs only a non-registered brokerage account holding an appreciated position, which is a far lower bar than anything else on this page.

Private-company shares are a different and much more constrained case; do not assume the same treatment carries over.