[nbm]

Besides the advice in the other replies about choosing good charities, it’s also useful to separate giving to charities (organizations that have non-trivial resources and focus dedicated to handling and seeking donations and often figuring out which other orgs to send that money to) vs. direct charitable giving to colleges, food banks, clinics, universities and other non-profits with a local scope (which many of those receiving donations here appear to be).

Certainly not a guarantee it’ll be used effectively, and that sort of outsourcing of deciding the best way to use money is part of the appeal of the larger charities.