Hurricane Sandy left destruction in its path from the Caribbean to Canada. Hardest hit within the United States are areas along the Coast in New Jersey and New York: Lower Manhattan, N.Y., Staten Island, N.Y, Atlantic City, N.J. Bay Head, N.J., Jersey Shore, N.J., Hoboken, N.J., the list goes on.
You want to help but you don’t know how. I was in the same situation. The easiest solution for me was to enter “Hurricane Sandy, Relief”. The first charities I found were the American Red Cross, AmeriCares and the Salvation Army. Finding fewer charities than I expected I next easily determined that organizations such as Save the Children, the Jewish Federations of North America and OxFam (at least in Haiti) have already identified themselves as organizations also committed to providing assistance to the victims of Hurricane Sandy. There are others I have not been able to research. Many will also be excellent choices, including a number of charities within the states and cities impacted.
The easiest way to contribute is to go to any of the above web sites or find your favorite charity, that has agreed to fund relief to hurricane victims in the U.S. or the Caribbean. Most of these organizations make it easy to contribute without writing a checking or addressing and stamping an envelope. Just follow their directions, indicate the amount you wish to contribute and answer the simple questions in the contribution request (including providing your credit card information). It is easy, it provides charities virtually instant access to your contribution so that storm victims have access to resources they urgently need.
It is easy, fast, effective. It is life saving!
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Shifting the Balance 
I asked a good friend who works for Oxfam if a contribution to Oxfam would benefit the good people of the northeastern United States. She said their efforts were focused on Haiti, so the American Red Cross was the way to go for national relief. Since I had already donated to Oxfam, I made my current donation to the Red Cross.
Thanks, Ann, for this great information.
I believe there are a wide variety of excellent charities providing assistance to hurricane victims. American Red Cross is certainly one of the most recognized for its high quality. I have given money to each of the organizations I have identified and always felt good about those contributions. It is unfortunate that few of us are able to identify all of the organizations that contribute money and volunteers to help those in need. We can only try to do our part, individually and collectively.