What are your favorite charities, and why?
Two of mine:
Camfed tackles poverty in Africa by educating girls. Their philosophy is that women in general are marginalised, and further, that by improving the education and welfare of girls, overall family poverty and AIDS will be reduced.
I'm a big supporter of 'teach a person to fish,' and educating girls not only teaches rather than giving, but does so with a marginalised group which has the potential to significantly improve the economy of their countries.
charity: water is also primarily in Africa. They work to deliver clean water to communities. While arguably 'giving,' not 'teaching,' clean water is a prerequisite to sustainable economy. A phenomenal percentage of deaths and diseases can be traced back to unclean water. Further, people can't go to school or work when they have to walk twenty kilometres to get water every single day.
I see clean water as a necessary first step to elevating a community or country out of poverty.