If you want to help someone, you pretty much have to do it directly, or at the very least at a very, VERY local level - like the early Christian church model.
I never donate to “fund raisers”.
Not all fund raisers are equal. I attended several in the past in which the money went to good use. Organizations like Pheasants Forever and Ruffed Grouse Society seem to make every dime count towards habitat restoration.
Local events like the Janesville one cited seem ripe for scam artists like Rehm. In the Chicago suburbs, various retailers are collecting for the troops; quite frankly, the collections take too long and are pitiful.
The more personal model that you highlight seems to be the ideal, which I have attempted to follow. Since the end of 2004, I have been sending packages (some in USPS flat rate containers and others in big brown boxes) to Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan. Golf clubs, Weber grills, Coolmax socks, sun block, coffee urns, and tons of coffee and candy went overseas. What has bothered me most is the gung-ho spirit of many troop supporters who turn out to do very little. One friend sent one box and continues to brag to others about it; big deal! I’m on package number 186. I guess he can brag all he wants; unlike yours truly, he was not the guest of the Marines at their Disneyland Birthday Ball nor did he receive a challenge coin from the MARSOC CO.