Causes of Giving to Causes
On the topic of philanthropy, there are a few approaches that I see taken by those around me. One is to simply give to whatever cause makes you feel good. Sometimes it's just a matter of some cause that strikes a chord, and just like that you open your wallet. Other times, people try to give to causes that benefit those in the most extreme life circumstances. They donate in order to provide clean water to people in remote villages, or to provide food and medicine to those affected by the horrors of war.
Sometimes though, I find that I like to give to causes that simply provide an interesting or unique presence in the world. This is why I give to Wikipedia, or soma fm, or the Internet Archive, or even govtrack. I might not use these services very often (they're listed in roughly decreasing order of my activity), but I'm glad they exist and I want them to be around for others in the future. I like the idea of these causes, even if they're not the most “boots on the ground” organizations providing the absolute most good to the most people.
I don't really have much to comment on beyond that, and providing a list of some of the causes that I find worthwhile.