CNN did a whole expose on veterans charities a couple years ago, and found that many of them are scams, the majority of money donated doesn't go to help the vets, but rather ends up in the pockets of fat cat administrators, ever since then I stopped donating through the mail, there's no way to know where the money ends up. I happened to come across this homeless guy and gave him a few bucks, we started chatting, his name is Mark and he's a vet who served in Vietnam, he's always sitting on a bus bench in front of a CVS I frequent, every few weeks I give him a little money, what he does with it is his business, but he always looks like he hasn't showered in a month or eaten in a week. It makes me feel good knowing I'm helping someone less fortunate than I am.