Charlotte has so many good charities (Urban Ministry Center, the Shelter for Battered Women, etc.) that this was a hard winner to choose. But we ended up going with Crisis Assistance Ministry, whose volunteers and paid staff do the Lord’s work on a daily basis. Simply put, they keep the babies fed, the old people warm and the rent paid for thousands of struggling people. The organization is efficient, too: Charity Navigator, an independent charity evaluator, gives the ministry its highest rating of four stars.