My honest opinion is to not donate money to the organizations. Most of them are worthless. I will actually be going on tour later this year, explaining this is one of my mainpoints- I'll post videos here. If you choose to go that route- research the org well. Find out where your donation REALLY goes. If you choose to donate to people, I agree cash is best. It is very degrading having to beg on the side of the street. If you do not feel comfortable donating cash, then gift cards are the way to go. Make sure it's to a store that's easily accessible to where you find the person. There will be many who disagree with me, about how donating to local charities is best because that way you know the money is being used for something "good", but unfortunately the money rarely goes to what a person actually needs. With that being said, yes, there are a few honorable charities out there, it's just difficult to find with the sheer amount of scam 501c3's that pay themselves under the guise of helping people in need :(