• The recent controversy about an effort to evaluate aid charities working in Haiti is a sign that some charity information services are off base, writes David Henderson, chief executive of a technology organization that works with social-service groups, on his blog.

• While Causes, the application that helps charities raise money on Facebook, announced this week that it's processed more than $20-million since 2007, social media is still more about engaging people than it is raising money, writes Amy Sample Ward, global community development manager at NetSquared.

• Writing on a blog for The Financial Times from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Melinda Gates, the co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is promoting philanthropic efforts to help women and children in poverty-stricken countries.

• As relief efforts in Haiti continue, are religious aid org...

• As California and other states face widening budget gaps, foundations and charities need to push for changes in state fiscal policies and defend important programs that face cuts, writes Peter Manzo, chief executive of the United Ways of California. His views appear on the Stanford Social Innovation Review blog.

• On the blog of Charity Navigator, a nonprofit watchdog, Kamran Razvan, the chief executive of Click & Pledge, responds to questions about how his company is processing gifts made to the embattled Yele Haiti Foundation.

• Jim Hopkins, a former Gannett reporter, examines on his blog the giving of the Gannett Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the news media company, asking why its 2008 giving seems to have supported groups not located in areas where the corporation does business.

• On his blog, William Easterly, an economics professor at New York...

• With America's attention already shifting away from the disaster in Haiti, Katya Andresen, chief operating officer at Network for Good, suggests that relief groups keep donors interested by signing them up for monthly gifts and asking for new donations at the six-month or one-year anniversary of the earthquake. Her views appear on her personal blog.

• Some people are questioning whether the Huffington Post Investigative Fund is a legitimate charity venture given its close relationship with the for-profit Huffington Post, writes John Cook, a reporter for Gawker. In response to his article, the Huffington Post says it provides money and pro-bono public-relations assistance to the investigative fund but that the fund is a separate entity.

• To develop a good cause-marketing campaign, in which a company and nonprofit group work together to raise money for a charitable effort,...

Are foundations like that know-it-all friend who judges people too quickly and follows trends too closely?

Nancy Lublin thinks so. In a mock letter to foundation leaders, the chief executive of Do Something lays out her problems with how grant makers treat charities.

"Dear Foundation People: We've been ‘friends' for a long time. We call. You return our call a few weeks later. We hang on to your every word," she writes on her Fast Company blog. "But the truth is, we don't really talk."

She says their "relationship is fraught" for four reasons.

Foundation officials often act like they know more than charity leaders; they are too quick to dismiss the need for marketing and other overhead costs; they support organizations that have the same mission; and grant makers start too many new projects.

To be sure, Ms. Lublin acknowledges that improving the relationship requires work by both...

• Americans should be applauded for their generous response to the recent disaster in Haiti, but they should also remember the quiet emergencies facing the world's poor, says Bill Gates in an interview with The Daily Beast. "Haiti should remind us all that there is an immediate need to invest in and promote long-term development projects that are sustainable, scalable, and proven to work," he says.

• Given his policies toward Haiti while he was president, Bill Clinton should not play a large role in leading relief and recovery efforts for the island nation, says Mary Anastasia O'Grady, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal.

• The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to lift restrictions on corporate and labor-union political campaign spending means nonprofit groups, which continue to face limitations on electioneering, need to band together to make sure political candidates...

• Allyson Kapin, an editor at Care2, an online community devoted to social change, discusses how charities can develop effective mobile giving campaigns. Her post includes tips for setting up and marketing such efforts, as well as a description of some of the downsides of mobile giving.

• Trevor Neilson, president of the Global Philanthropy Group, writes on Huffington Post that the slowness of the Hope for Haiti telethon's online and phone system may have deterred some giving. The telethon had raised $58-million as of Saturday, according to a spokesman for MTV.

• While donors should scrutinize the expenses of the charities they support, they should not focus too closely on nonprofit salaries without the context of the groups' overall costs and revenues, advises Betsy Brill, a donor consultant, in Forbes magazine.

• Writing about the new book The Power of Half, about an Atlanta...

As disaster-relief charities assist survivors of Haiti's earthquake, an editorial in a leading public-health journal slams them for seeking the news-media spotlight and too often being moire concerned with raising money than helping needy people.

In an editorial published last week in The Lancet, a noted British medical journal, says that in Haiti and other impoverished countries charities do "exceptional work in difficult circumstances."

But after years of observing the "aid industry," it's clear the groups are highly competitive with each other for financial support, it says.

"Polluted by the internal power politics and the unsavory characteristics seen in many big corporations, large aid agencies can be obsessed with raising money through their own appeal efforts," the editorial says.

It goes on to say: "It seems increasingly obvious that many aid agencies sometimes act according ...

While there is tremendous work being done by charities, the United Nations, and governments, their coordination "remains unclear," writes Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, who this week traveled to Haiti as part of the relief effort. Mr. Brin writes about his experience on his personal blog. "It is critical to have top level command and control across the entire breadth of efforts in order to maximize effectiveness," he says.

The majority of donors would not text gifts for non-disaster causes, according to the early results of an online poll by Charity Navigator, a charity watchdog group. The poll is asking donors how they supported Haiti earthquake relief groups and their views on text messaging.

Bill Gates: Software mogul, philanthropist, blogger?

Indeed, to discuss his charitable work, the world's wealthiest man has started a new Web site known as Gates Notes.

It includes discussions about public education, climate change, and even a travel diary.

What's more, he is sending messages through the popular social-networking site Twitter.

People can see his messages at http://twitter.com/BillGates. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation confirmed that it is indeed the real Bill Gates.

So far, he has not said much. He thanked the American Idol host Ryan Seacrest for his efforts to help Haiti and thanked actor Aston Kutcher for welcoming him to Twitter. (Mr. Kutcher responded: "I'm happy to give you a tutorial, but I charge by the hour. We can discuss rates offline.")

Celebrity chit-chat aside, Mr. Gates said he will use Twitter to discuss his foundation's work. In his inaugural ...

• Scrutiny of the musician Wyclef Jean's Haiti charity should be a "cautionary tale" for the nonprofit world and a reminder to get annual audits, follow proper accounting procedures, and avoid conflicts of interest on boards, writes Alice Korngold, a nonprofit consultant, on her Fast Company blog.

• Alison Fine, a Chronicle contributor who writes about social change in the digital age, says it's time for a "Nonprofit National Disaster Game Plan," namely a list of the best charities to contribute to when a disaster strikes.

• The response to the Haiti earthquake suggests that the proliferation of charities isn't necessarily a bad thing, writes Mike Burns, an expert on nonprofit boards, on his blog. Many new nonprofit groups have been developing innovative solutions to aid and development challenges that are assisting relief efforts in Haiti, he says.

• Can corporate giving...