"Yes, you can hire help."
_________________________________
So if I just send enough money to your church they can do the good works for me, or if they are too busy they can hire someone to do these good works for me.
I think you see now why works buy you nothing.
The Church prohibits simony: a purchase of a supernatural gift, such as forgiveness of sin, with natural means such as money. But as long as you understand, as you seem to, that charity does not earn salvation, your work of charity, even if transacted through a donation and not through direct application of labor, opens your heart for more grace and strengthens your faith, by which you are justified.
It is not an either-or. You are justified by grace through faith working through love.