What is charity?

Charity can mean alot of things to certain people. My definition of charity is where someone does an act of kindness without anyone telling them to do it, for free. For example, a person who could do an act of charity is volunteer at a homeless shelter. The person could clean up the place, donate clothes, or just give their time to talk to the people who have lost everything really. Thats my definition of charity, at least to me.