It is written in the Bible that you can give all your possessions away to the poor but without love it counts for nothing, as Paul stated in the Epistles. So we must first learn to love others, and from love, be charitable and give alms. Alms can be things like education and/or material possessions given freely. The Bible states that we should not give alms in front of others, or let others know of our deeds, but to give in secret, and the Lord will reward openly. The Bible also states in Corinthians that we should not give reluctantly but should be a cheerful giver. The Book of John states that if we have many possessions and we see a brother in need, and hold back from giving the brother what he needs, the love of God doesn’t abide in us. So we mustn’t let a brother be in need if we can help him out. Our number one and most important possession should be our Faith, and our relationship with Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit, and the rest of our worldly possessions should be tools used to advance the Kingdom of God.
The Bible also states that we should lend money without expecting the money back in return, and without interest. As the Word of God states, whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, the Lord will repay him for his deed. As you can see there are many sections in the Bible discussing charity and alms giving, and as a practising Christian we should be cheerful givers and willingly give to the poor and brothers in need. This is hard when you place your worth and faith in worldly possessions, as with the young rich man whom Jesus told he lacked one thing, to sell all he had and give to the poor, and follow Him, which he couldn’t do at that instant. We should see our possessions as tools to help advance the Kingdom of God, and see them as God’s, and God bestowed them upon us to use in our ministry.
When seeking a charity to donate to, the advice is to pray over it and get a witness that God wants you to donate to that particular charity, not just to give money away. As a Christian you should expect that the charity and its works are God honoring, as all glory belongs to Him.