Never send money to national organizations that claim to directly help people when there are people in need locally. You know where your money is going when you keep charity close to home and the recipients can put a face on the help they received.
Just my opinion.
I agree with that.
Several years ago I sent a rather sizeable donation to a ‘small’ group advertising that they help wounded military get laptop computers to aid them after their service.
Thereafter, I was placed on their donations list and frequently (2-3 times a month or more) got requests to donate. Some of those ‘mailings’ were expensive to produce and included paid return postage and paid return FEDEX (and I know that isn’t cheap).
I quickly decided that they were using ‘donations’ to send out fancier request packages for more ‘donations’, rather than the money going for the intended purpose. I requested they remove me from their listing. It took several requests before they finally quit sending me ‘mailings’.
==
Donate locally. There is a higher probability that funds will be used more appropriately.
Good opinion. Thus the old saw, "Charity begins at home."