"Charity" in 1 Corinthians 13 means giving to the poor

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:1, KJV). The underlying Greek word is agapē, the New Testament's term for selfless, willed love, the same word used for God's love toward humanity throughout the epistles. In 1611, English "charity" carried that broad sense of love; the narrower modern meaning (donating money or goods to those in need) hadn't yet become the word's dominant use.

The King James translators weren't wrong in 1611, but four centuries of English drift have left "charity" pointing mainly at almsgiving and nonprofit donation, a considerably narrower target than what Paul is actually describing across the whole chapter, which covers patience, kindness, humility, and endurance: much more than gift-giving. That drift is why modern translations almost universally render this chapter's agapē as "love" instead.