I donate about 15% of my income to various organizations, all focused on animal advocacy. If you prefer to focus on humans, I'd suggest donating to Givewell (https://www.givewell.org/) or to some of the charities they recommend.

If you're a software engineer in the US, you're earning _way_ more than most people in the world, and you can comfortable donate a large chunk of your income to help people (including non-human people) who are much worse off than you.