What's a good San Francisco charity for poor or homeless people?

The Coalition on Homelessness does a lot of good work.

There are a lot of cool orgs that feed the homeless like Glide and I think there is another one called Under One Roof. Def better to give to them than to folks in the neighborhood who probably will buy drugs with it.

I dont know if you are looking for something less specific, but my uncle works for a homeless veteran’s charity, Swords to Plowshares, which is based in SF,

Swords to Plowshares

I know that they do good work.

Hey Ben, I’m glad you’re asking this. I’ve been reading some random business book from the founder of Salesforce about how he built community service time into his company. Everyone in the company is allowed to take a few days off for community service. It was kind of inspiring. So I’m trying to organize a big community service day for the people I know who are starting companies (you, twitter, a few others). Based on my experience with charities, your time is a lot more valuable than your money. Let me know if you find any charities that could take a big group.

San Francisco Food Bank can always use money and volunteers. It’s also an amazing place to check out if you’ve never been there.

i understand not wanting to give money to every person who asks on the street, but i do want to point out that for people whose survival is happening on the street sometimes drugs or alcohol are a part of that survival, i.e. literally keep them from dying or killing themselves. it’s not a happy reality to think about, but it is not to be discounted. just wanted to say that. more power to you, i’m glad you care enough to give to something.

Ben, I know you asked this a long time ago, and you got some great responses such as Swords to Plowshares (I work at the VA in SF, they do great work). I would add Project Open Hand, which has literally saved the lives of several of my HIV patients, The San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and the AIDS Emergency Fund.