Something along the same lines is to be charitable directly instead of donating money to orgs that probably only use a fraction of your donation to ' do good '. A small amount of money or a winter coat given directly to the person in need can have a much bigger impact and it happens immediately . And if you have valuable skills donate your time . I frequently repair cars for people that can ' t afford to pay a good mechanics hourly rate and by doing so they dont get into a deeper hole by not being able to get to work , find work , or just deal with other issues in their life that they need to deal with . But it is also important to assess the situation and decide if your time andor money is better utilized with someone that is actually going to make proper use of it . Happy to help but I am not interested in perpetuating someone ' s poor decisions . Tough call in some cases but it is better to help those that will leverage the assistance for a better life since they will be more likely to help others in the future .