I disagree.
The actions by Sleeping Giants are an good example. With real results. And yet you were quite dismissive of them. The online petition you reference in response is just Yet Another Online Petition.
I give $30 each paycheque to cancer research. Which may not sound like much, but it's steady and adds up over the years. With the Canada Revenue Agency (our IRS) seeing it and adding it to their stats, it's like signing a petition AND backing it with money, when the government looks at what its citizens consider to be priorities.
And I give to other causes. Like the scouts collecting for veterans' PTSD in front of the grocery store last week. I gave $200 to help fight Techdirt's legal battle. I give a buck to the EFF each time I renew EasyNews. (Also for fighting IP battles. Sell a man a fish and the fee will feed you for a day. Declare ownership of the lake, and he'll be feeding you for a lifetime. Fighting against that process may be the single most important way to help the poor in this age.)
Not to mention little details like helping to put my step-daughter through university. Over $40,000 so far.
Sure, it's not physical help. As a programmer with very little spare time and no car, the money is my most efficient contribution possible. For others it's different, whether it's Sleeping Giants style actions or something more physical. All are better than Yet Another Online Petition.
BTW, one problem with modern media, at least here in Winnipeg: There are marches that I'd happily join. Events that I'd happily attend. They get reported AFTER the fact and ONLY after the fact. It seems that if you're not part of the university crowd, you'll never find out about them.
I run off posters by the thousands for a friend who runs goth events. Apparently they get posted around the universities and various hip, trendy places. I've never seen one posted, because they're not where I go.