Here is a list of some of the "charitable" activities this organization is involved in:
(1) Protecting pedophiles within the ranks. Go to www.silentlambs.org and see how many people are silenced under threat of getting disfellowshipped for "slander" after having been molested by a member of the "Christian" congregation.
(2) Telling the parents to keep the children out of college. They use specious arguments to tell parents and children that college is bad news, and that the children would be better off out in the ministry full time. The result is a religion full of window washers that require food stamps and public assistance to make ends meet. They are also stagnant, since such jobs offer little to no value creation opportunities or means to move onto more lucrative careers.
(3) Usurping people's free time. They are supposed to be out in service full time. They claim this is voluntary, but the Service Meetings (held every week, usually Thursday evenings after the children are supposed to be in bed, but they are supposed to be at those meetings also) is full of guilt trips for not doing ever more in time. They have skits and "suggested" schedules in their private journal The Kingdom Ministry that guide people into giving up more time. Those who do not usually get hounded.
(4) Wasting a lot of gas in delivering this message from door to door. Very often, they head to a door and the person is not at home. As often, they knock and the person is clearly not interested. So, after a few months (and sometimes less, occasionally as little as a week), they call back on such people. The person has to start from scratch explaining that they are not interested. They often do this in spite of No Solicitors signs prominently displayed.
(5) Besides sexual abuse to children, they physically and emotionally abuse children methodically. Cutting them off from others in school is one form of abuse. They are deprived of vacations that involve anything other than going door to door; those parents that take actual vacations are hounded. Every May or June they come up with a Kingdom Ministry article about this. Physical abuse can take the form of beatings for not sitting still for hours at a time, keeping them up late on school nights to attend those evening meetings that often don't let out until after 10:00 PM, and keeping them out in service most or all the day despite hot or very cold weather. Play time is usurped by field service at ages as young as 2. Children are pressured to get baptized young--they showcase children getting baptized as young as 6; teenagers are supposed to be already baptized.
(6) The Bible is altered. Notice a famous example at John 1:1. The King James version states in the last phrase "And the Word was God". Most modern translations agree. The Jehovah's Witness Bible renders this "And the Word was a god" (note the lower-case "g"). This is an attempt to make the Trinity look like a false doctrine; there are many other instances of this throughout the Bible. Note particularly the dashes and the bracketed words; these are additions and omissions in the Bible.
THIS IS NOT A CHARITY! Any organization that abuses children as methodically as the Watchtower Society does, wastes resources, and usurps people's time and energy to teach a message as Biblical that is in fact altered does not meet my criteria of charity. If anything, it is an anticharity. Oh yes, they do sham charity works by assisting their own people out of disasters (but they do not lift a finger for anyone not also part of their organization). They helped build their almighty Kingdom Halls after Katrina so they could prey on the victims of the hurricane, but they didn't lift a finger for anyone else other than other Witnesses. The goal is transparently to get the work going as soon as possible, so they could prey on people already stunned by the hurricane before they can get the Internet back up and running and their lives back together. The whole idea of the Watchtower Society being a charity is a scam that needs to not be supported.
Here are some charities that are worth supporting: The Red Cross (which did supply emergency aid to all without distinction during disasters from local fires to Katrina), The Salvation Army (which helps the poor in local and regional areas, especially those that are poor because of reasons beyond their control like medical issues and disasters), and the local soup kitchens that help the homeless and provide shelter for those who, for reasons beyond their reasonable control, find themselves in that position. If you are going to support a religion, I would choose one of the ones linked to www.freeminds.org or one of the other apostate Web sites that offers Christian advice. Even the United Way, with all its promotion of medical "research" that is a scam, does offer some help in keeping children off drugs and out of trouble and may provide relief in times of sudden need. But, under NO circumstances should anyone support the Watchtower Society--THEY PROVIDE ABSOLUTELY NO VALUE OR RELIEF TO THE COMMUNITY AT LARGE AND THEY USURP PEOPLE'S TIME AND ENERGY FOR A BIBLE THAT HAS BEEN TAMPERED WITH TO FIT THEIR OWN NEEDS!