Does it really make the world a better place when people donate money to charity?

First, you should define what is charity to you. For me, its not just donating money for some cause. Whatever things I do will be charity if it help someone who really needs it. It may be a financial help, a physical support, a mental support, or any such things. So what I wanted to say is, if you feel donating money is not worth and it results in more corruption, just buy some necessary items and donate - may be food, clothes, notebooks, medicines etc. I don't know if you've read Mr. Mohamed Yunus, the brain behind Grameen bank in Bangladesh. His book, 'Creating a World without Poverty' is a nice read. Referring the same, take the total population. Divide it as 40 and 60. The 94% of the world income goes to 40% of the total population, where the rest 60% people live with just 6% of global income. - Money matters ! Coming to the next thought, if you buy products made in Africa, do you believe it will save the lives of them? The lion's share of the money you spend on those will fill the pockets of intermediaries and the producers continue to get the cheapest rate. So, from my side, the best part for you is to provide facilities or materials to under privileged if you have double mind about donating money, corruption etc.