Fast coding - items input

Currently I haven't figured out how I can select items via coding or manual selection.
As a charity we receive a lot of donations for different projects and purposes.
To avoid our "Chart of Accounts" from exploding we work mostly with items to be able to make reports on different projects that are often short term.

I would really appreciate if there was a solution to select items for "Money in" transactions since we DO NOT primarily use Tax Invoices for receiving donations.