I'm hoping a tax or estate expert will step in and opine. I suspect it's a complicated situation that depends on who and how many are the beneficiaries, what the relative tax rates are, etc.
If I were a beneficiary, though, I'd be a little peeved if an executor or trust administrator unilaterally donated part of my inheritance to what he or she felt was a worthy cause. I might be sufficiently annoyed to take legal action for breach of fiduciary duty or whatever the appropriate legal term is. But that's just me.
Chip Bearden
JB