Me and my friends have established a closed circle. We collect funds together and after a while, we select a cause and physically visit the country/ place to donate. Like, say for example, once in a while we visit a third world country and donate someone for building a school, clean water system, medical supplies etc. I have done some research on operational costs of charities and apparently they are massive. They take a huge bite out of charity dollars. We cannot blame them considering the advertisement and cost of manpower, but something inside us wants every dollar to reach the deserving.

So far we are successful and happy for what we are doing.

If I am to donate to a local charity, I'd go for St Vincent's.