I find that charities come to me often enough that I don’t have to seek them out. Truthfully, I don’t always do my homework on them—as long as I know something good about the org and the cause I’ll probably give what I can when asked.
If I’m looking to buy myself some karma, I like giving to the American Cancer Society. One of my best friends works for them and has vouched for it, and I am philosophically inclined to donate to an organization dedicated to applied scientific research. At one point years ago I looked them up on a website that show you what proportion of their money goes to overhead versus actually being useful, and they ranked reasonably highly. I think it might have been this guy, from the BBB, but I’m not sure.
Good question. Thanks for asking. I hope this thread inspires some donations to worthy charities.