I've been in the position, myself, of feeling I had to financially help people I cared about because I really did believe they would not be okay, if I didn't. I'm talking situations where someone dear to me faced homelessness or going to jail. As I've gotten older and wiser, I've come to understand that, in those situations, the persons I was helping really could have solved their own problems. What I was doing was promoting dependency in people who were inclined to want someone else to save them. I learned a further lesson that was kind of bitter: people who are inclined toward dependency tend to not have a great capacity for gratitude. (I haven't figured out why that is.) My efforts did not yield the kind of bonding and loyalty that I thought would naturally flow out of me being there for people during hard times. That's pretty disappointing. Not that I was looking for these individuals to go around feeling they owed me. I just thought there would be more warmth between us. Evidently - from my experience - that's just not how life works. I don't understand why. It just is what it is.

Find some worthy cause to channel your altruistic drive toward. There are plenty of worthy causes to choose from. You'll meet some nice people and have some chances at developing some friendships that aren't based on inappropriate dependency.