Ask HN: How to donate money effectively?

I'm thinking of donating some cash to a charity of some kind. How can I make sure my money will actually make a difference and be utilized properly?

If you want to allocate money to charity now and you're currently unsure how best to do so, maybe you should consider using a donor-advised fund [1]. I prefer Vanguard [2].

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donor_advised_fund

[2] https://www.vanguardcharitable.org/content/donoradvisedfunds...