I see charities begging for money but never see them seeking out people in need or advertising their services lol

The charity depots that distribute aid are not online, other than counselling.
Mostly they are shopfronts in places where there are large enough numbers of the people they help.
Some are especially fitted out vans that travel around the various areas where the homeless shelter.
Some are community centres with showers and laundromats.

But there is an increasing problem with some professional charities spending more than 95% of their donations on wages for their workers.
And further problems overseas with some governments and community leaders stealing the funds or goods for themselves.

One has to take great care in choosing who to donate to.

I've never given to cancer research. I find it obscene that charity funds the research, and yet the chemical company reaps vast profits on the treatments from the patients. Huge pharmaceutical companies have more than enough to fund their own research.

research the charity. It is required that they disclose what percentage goes to the charity and how much goes to Officers and overhead.
Personally, I like Tim Tebow Foundation, regardless what you think of him as a person, he does good work with charities

This is often true and it's such an easy way to scam people.

I stick to St. Jude's and a local shelter that keeps homeless, drug-addicted, mentally ill men off the streets. I'd hate to see what would happen if these men weren't assessed, housed, fed and given basic health services.

My experience has been decent so far. When they come asking for donations, they often highlight what they’ve done so far. Kinda their selling point to prove your money is used wisely. Other times it’s for building a new hospital wing or replace aging equipment and such.

Unicef went to our place around 7pm ask for some help, I gave some donations and they “murder” our names so I stopped it.

(I am not sure if it really goes to the needed sometimes so it is hard to donate nowadays)

I've seen some put out the numbers of how many people they helped, but most indeed don't. 🤔

Exactly why I never get guilted into "donating" my change at the grocery store.

Consultants, executives and advertising isn't cheap. Volunteer labor is.

A certain ribbon charity spends a lot of effort on sueing other "charities."

The ones that advertise the most are scams.

The begging ads drive me nuts.
All over tv/radio and online.

Never yet seen one thanking donators.
Never yet seen one illustrating what they did with the total raised the previous year... you know, so you could judge whether or not they used it wisely.

You have to spend some real time investigating any charity you send money to because so many of them are basically just money laundering for rich people.

Check if the charities have a document called “community impact report” on their website anywhere. If they don’t, probably a scam

Actually, a number DO emphasize exactly those things.

Funny how that works, isn't it?

I always felt like the United Way was a scam

Some charities are greedy scammers