You donate canned goods to the local food bank so that a hungry family can eat well tonight, or volunteer at the rescue mission spooning corn onto the plate of a woman who lost her home.

Some people call this “God’s work.”

Sometimes, however, you may wonder if these acts of charity really make a difference. Will the man by the freeway use your coins to buy food, or a can of beer? Will that poor orphan on the other side of the world really get the help she needs?

Charity has been an integral part of humanity for thousands of years. But does it really make a difference?

Last month, I took part in a gathering of social entrepreneurs called the !deation Conference. Most participants were in their 20s and 30s, what CBS News called the Lost Generation, who countered any accusation of being “lost” by starting the next generation of charities and social-good business endeavors.

Instead, I would call them the Generation of Change.

These innovators provide clean water to children in orphanages (A Child’s Right), build schools in impoverished slums (The Supply), and protect the feet of people in the developing world (TOMS Shoes). This new generation of change-makers is redefining today’s acts of charity.

When we look back 30 years from now, will we feel that they succeeded?

If my own story is any indication, these new acts of charity can change people’s lives forever. I have experienced it first hand.

I asked the !deation community to hit “fast forward” and picture the future. Could they see where that orphaned child, hungry and barefoot, would be in 30 years?

I can. Because I am that child.

I was that impoverished orphan with a bleak future. My early years were spent in an orphanage funded, in part, by a charitable organization that was known as the Christian Children’s Fund, now called Child Fund.

An American family saved me from that hopeless life by adopting me. That was the first day of the rest of my dramatically changed life.

Today, I am paying forward this simple act of charity in my own life by leading an effort to house people living on the streets of America. This is my way of continuing the charitable legacy.

Now, when I encounter a person holding a cardboard sign of hopelessness or when I write my own checks to charitable organizations, my reason for giving is not because of some sense of “luck.”

No, it’s because I imagine the future. I see my act of charity as the first step of a person’s new life.

When you toss those coins into a can or click the donate button on an organization’s website, you may not realize what a world of difference your contribution could make.

I do.

Does the charity world need a similar hero?

A recent UCLA study revealed the urgent need for some sort of rescue effort for charities in Southern California. While trying to follow up with the nonprofit groups they had surveyed 10 years ago, UCLA found that 15% had gone out of business. And, of the housing and homelessness charities, nearly a quarter had disappeared.

It’s a sad fact: Charities are going out of business.

A Southern California funders collaborative hosted a sustainability summit for charities to explore the viability of nonprofits merging together in order to survive. More than 700 charity leaders showed up.

I have seen several charities go out of business just in the last year. From a nonprofit that helped homeless youth to an advocacy group that fought to feed hungry Americans. This fragile economy is not only hurting American families, but also the agencies that help them.

In the for-profit business world, many would say this is just Darwinism in action. Only the strong survive. Let the weak charities die.

But I disagree. There are amazing American philanthropists with the passion and ability to transform hurting people. Some of these leaders have the uncanny ability to help a teenaged gang member walk a new path, protect a woman from an abusive husband, or house a person who has been homeless for decades.

Unfortunately, these caring people don’t always have the skills to market their programs as well as Charity: Water does, or to balance their books like Deloitte & Touche. Being good at empowering hurting people doesn’t mean someone has an MBA from Harvard and knows how to make money. Marketing a cell phone to the masses is different than convincing a jaded American public to donate $20 per month to a good cause.

The nonprofit world needs help. Companies like Twitter need to help our struggling charities learn how to market their cause on social media. Companies like Apple, that are raking in more money than most nations, need to help social good organizations create their own crowd of fanboys (or fangirls).

The charities that know how to transform America’s hurting people need to be taught how to attract the eye of America’s donors.

We need the Robert Irvine of charities to make over the way we present ourselves in this changing world.

Otherwise, the most effective social good organizations will be forced to close their doors because more experienced marketers have shut them down.

Photo Credit: Marius Watz