Charity isn't always about being as "effective" as possible.  People there are literally dying from not having food, water, and medical care.  I hate to say this on hacker news, but not <i>everything</i> is a numbers game.  Haiti is in a humanitarian crisis right now.  Yes, you could logically say to yourself that X dollars would be more "effective" elsewhere and that Haiti will never become a flourishing country, but that largely misses the point.  It also presumes that you have the balls to say who should live and who should die.  People there need help.  Now.<p>A good charity I donated to is Partners in Health which was founded in Haiti (by an American) and has always been in Haiti.  You can read more about them in "Mountains Beyond Mountains" which coincidentally and topically was written by Tracy Kidder who also wrote "Soul of a new Machine".