Operation USA is the preferred charity of this website. This is in part because I've met some of the folks who run it and seen that they do not use your donations to buy themselves big homes and cars under the guise of "administrative costs." They really put the money to good use. The other reason I like them is because, from tracking news reports, I can see that they do it well.
Today in the L.A. Times, its president, Richard Walden, has an article suggesting that giving to the Red Cross is not as good as giving to organizations like his. It's obviously a self-serving message but I think it's also correct. Or to put it another way: I can't imagine anyone else doing more with donation money than Operation USA does. [Thanks to Vince Waldron for calling my attention to the article.]