Back in the 1970s, my dad (for a time) stopped paying tithing, and instead donated 10% of his income directly to BYU. He had two reasons for doing that:
1) A significant portion of tithing money goes to BYU, and
2) His company matched donations to colleges and universities, so the church would, in effect, get 20%.
He did this for a year or two, but eventually his bishop told him that he couldn’t consider his donations tithing (in other words, he couldn’t declare himself to be a full tithe payer in TR interviews or tithing settlement). My dad did as he was told, but he thought it was a bit silly that the church would pass up the extra money.

In retrospect, there were countless better ways he could have used that money, but it shows how inflexible the LDS church can be.

This rears its head from time to time. Here is the jist of a talk I heard about this.

If you give the money directly to the organisation such as BYU, you are telling the Lord how to spend HIS money. If you pay tithing as instructed, then god can inspire and direct his servants how to spend HIS funds.

Hmmm. Well now that I’m an evil apostate, I have found many ways to use the “lord’s” money-often for charities that actually do some good.