Opportunity Village is a local is a local org. that works with special needs children. They teach them to fit into society, work for a living and even have their own apartment. I have witnessed my friends brother go there and he married a girl and they have a place of their own. It is amazing.He also did very well in the special olympics.
I also give to the Las Vegas Rescue Mission which feeds the homeless. In order to get a meal you must sit through a sermon. I am pretty sure the Salvation Army does that as well. I even got a chance to witness there once with some of motorcycle riding buddies.
Salvation Army field units saw that those of working the dikes and walking inspection tours in the middle of the night were fed well and had hot drinks. (You never saw a Red Cross Van at 3AM)
A half dozen of us unloaded seven semi loads of sandbags in the rain, pushing a bulge out of a polyethelene liner and reinforcing about 50 yards of dike that night. I don't know whether it would have held otherwise, but the Salvation Army looked out for us.
Later that week, a Red Cross Disaster relief Van collided with my old dodge, he was doing 50+ through a residential section and failed to yield at an unmarked intersection. Totalled my car, and but for the grace of God, would have killed me. I had to fight their insurance company to get 400 dollars out of my car. I never saw the Red Cross people help anyone. (Maybe there weren't enough cameras around).
That was enough for me. Veterans organizations and the Salvation Army get the Lion's share of my charitable donations.
It was only after this, while talkng with friends who were veterans of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam, that I heard how the Red Cross sold the servicemen items out of packages folks had donated back in the states.
BTW, does anyone have any stats on which veterans organizations do the most for our veterans. The DAV does a lot around here, but I'm on a lot of mailing lists and I want the money to do the most good.