We donate to the local family homeless shelter. About every 3 months we bring in all our aluminum cans to them, I go through our closets several times a year and donate clothes. They need decent looking clothes so they can look and fell good going to or looking for work. We also give them gift cards from Wal Mart, so they can buy paper goods, trash bags etc. It's not much in the grand scheme of things but every bit helps.
We get a tax deduction and a good feeling we help several folks who are on hard times.
The shelter turns in all the cans it gets and uses the money to pay the utility bills.