Think of spending $70k in Haiti (for example) as investing in the Society of Haiti, Inc.: what level of the problem would you like to address? Buying food will

Think of spending $70k in Haiti (for example) as investing in the Society of Haiti, Inc.: what level of the problem would you like to address? Buying food will help people eat right now, but will not solve their long-term problem (unless it's truly just short-term). On the other hand, long-term thinking is unhelpful if they die of starvation first, so you need both. You could also invest through an organization that teaches Haitians skills that let them earn more than subsistence farming would. You could invest through an organization that (re)built homes and buildings. You could invest through an organization that drills wells to provide clean water. In a discussion a few weeks ago on Haiti here, one post compared the Dominican Republic and Haiti and noticed that Haitians were unwilling to learn (to overly summarize) and insisted on patterns of belief and thinking that keep them in poverty; you can invest through an organization that attempts to change culture. You could use the money to take six months off work (theoretically speaking) and volunteer in Haiti personally. I think you'll be happier about your decision if you are investing in an area you really feel benefits, e.g. Haitians. I also think you'll be happier about the decision if you decide how much money you want to invest, rather than doing it out of guilt or from a reason-based ideological imperative.