While the United States may be increasing its spending on foreign aid, many other countries are not.

Michael Kleinman, at Change.org, draws attention to a Reuters article summarizing some grim news for international organizations.

— Italy has cut in half its foreign-assistance budget, while Ireland reduced its budget by 17 percent. -European Union nations expect that by 2010, aid contributions could be as between $15-billion and $25-billion less than previously estimated.

Samuel A. Worthington, InterAction’s president, says in the Reuters article: “If this recession goes into 2010, we will be seeing a significant reduction in delivery of programs in the world’s poorest areas.”

(For more on how the economy could affect international groups, see this Chronicle article).

How badly do you think international organizations will be affected by the economic mess?

President Obama’s proposal to limit charitable tax deductions for wealthy people is roiling the nonprofit world.

To no surprise, right-leaning blogs are attacking the plan with vitriol. One writer calls it a “war on charity,” and another says the administration is trying to hurt churches and conservative think tanks.

Political charges aside, Charity Navigator, a nonprofit watchdog, is asking how many donors are motivated to make gifts in part because of the tax benefits.

“The data that we have seen over the years has shown a big spike in donations through our site during the last several days of the year, especially on December 31 which of course is the last day to make a qualified tax deductible charitable contribution,” it says on its blog. “This data indicates to us that the tax benefits really do motivate people to donate.”

But John D. Colombo, a law professor at the...

What can corporate philanthropy teach individual donors?

The Wallet, a Wall Street Journal blog about personal finance, asked that question to three corporate leaders — Christina Gold, chief executive of the Western Union Company; Steve Case, co-founder of America Online and chairman of the Case Foundation; and Sidney Taurel, chairman emeritus of Eli Lilly & Company.

Mr. Case suggested that donors have a personal connection to the causes they support. For example, he has contributed to cancer research in part because his brother died of the disease.

Ms. Gold suggested donors do thorough vetting of charities, and Mr. Taurel said that with the tight economy hurting household budgets, Americans should consider volunteering more.

Journal reporter Mike Spector and Dow Jones Newswires reporter Shelly Banjo spoke with the three leaders during the annual meeting of the Committee...

The reopening this week of Iraq’s National Museum, which was looted of its prized antiquities following the invasion by American forces in 2003, has prompted Dana Variano to argue on the PhilanthroMedia blog for a greater appreciation of culture and the arts in the face of war and recession.

“For ages, people have argued that art comes secondary to other pillars of society,” writes Ms. Variano. But this is a false choice, she says, and art and culture is more important than ever during times of upheaval.

“Art is similar to religion, in that it connects people to a higher, deeper, more universal power than they can find in themselves,” she writes. “And this, I think, is why Iraq’s National Museum has opened, despite the rickety foundation that still exists in the country.”

Such a sign of hope from war-torn Iraq, she says, should inspire Americans to step up to the challenge of...

Post-inauguration talk about a “post-racial” America — and recent news items that have provoked racial tensions — have prompted Rosetta Thurman to explore on her self-titled blog the need for the nonprofit world to be more candid on the subject of race.

Pointing to the New York Post‘s controversial cartoon depicting President Obama as a dead monkey, and Attorney General Eric Holder’s declaration that Americans are “a nation of cowards” when it comes to race, Ms. Thurman says she has found the commentary on these events disappointing.

“The idea that we are moving ‘past race’ in any way because we have a black President has only served to bring to light the reality of just how marginalized people of color are in this country, and even in our very own nonprofit sector,” she writes. “I’ll be interested to see how many nonprofit conferences this year take diversity off the agenda, now...

Larry Brilliant’s announcement on Monday that he will be stepping down as executive director of Google.org to become “chief philanthropy evangelist,” and that the philanthropic arm will be aligning its giving more closely with the company’s expertise on technology and information has generated a lot of discussion among bloggers.

Writing at Change.org, Nathaniel Whittemore calls the move a good one. Mr. Whittemore says that when other philanthropists have given in ways that reflected their business approach (think Pierre Omidyar and Jeff Skoll, both of eBay), social entrepreneurship has made big leaps.

He calls Google.org’s “core competencies” in technology and information “real” and “valuable.”

“It’s not hard to understand how that core capacity could be the driving force behind their entire philanthropic strategy,” he said. “Google should be investing in and scaling tools like...

During his speech last night to a joint session of Congress, President Obama praised the generosity of Leonard Abess Jr., a Miami banker who gave a $60-million bonus to his 399 workers and 72 former workers.

The president said Mr. Abess represented the “responsibility” Americans want to see from executives at financial institutions. Philanthropy experts are also calling on bankers to be more charitable as a way to quell public anger.

Matthew Bishop and Michael Green, the authors of Philanthrocapitalism, write, “Bankers keep telling us how sorry they are for getting the world into the current economic mess, but the public doesn’t seem to want to accept their apology. To show they mean it, the rich need to discover philanthrocapitalism and start to give back to society — for their sakes and ours.”

In an opinion article published by Reuters, the authors call on corporate leaders to ...

Sean Stannard-Stockton, a financial analyst and philanthropy blogger, doesn’t have a very kind view of the way the news media covers the nonprofit world.

“Philanthropy is full of exciting stories about innovation and impact, but too many media reports focus on big gifts without exploring the context or impact,” Mr. Stannard-Stockton writes on the blog Tactical Philanthropy.

That view is shared by Lisa Endlich, who wrote in a comment that news reports tend to focus too much on the rich and famous — and not enough on philanthropy’s efforts to attack social issues.

“The media often makes bold philanthropic efforts look like the purview of only the very richest and famous,” Ms. Endlich writes. “I know that the celebrity element makes for good copy, but it misses the point.”

Do you agree with these sentiments? Does the news media give enough attention to the world of philanthropy? If...

Finding a stable job at an international aid group is never simple. The economic meltdown has made it even harder.

Change.org’s blog on humanitarian relief is running a series of posts by a woman who has spent the past half-decade interning, volunteering, and working for humanitarian and human-rights groups.

Her first step? An internship. While entry-level jobs are being eliminated more quickly than created, she says, charities seem to be hiring interns more often than before.

While landing an internship will not guarantee you a paying job at the organization, she writes, it can still help your career. It’s good for your resume, and for making connections.

According to the blogger, you’ll also be getting experience doing the kind of work you want—or at least think you want—to spend your career doing. And you will learn very quickly if you’re on the wrong track.

What is...

Sparing no punches, Heather Mac Donald, a conservative thinker, takes on the growing effort to push foundations to give more to minority organizations and to be more diverse in their hiring.

In City Journal, published by the Manhattan Institute, a right-leaning think tank in New York, she criticizes the Greenlining Institute, in Berkeley, Calif., which has been requesting that grant makers provide information about the racial make-up of their employees and how many charities led by minorities benefit from their philanthropy. The group has asked state and federal lawmakers to make such disclosures mandatory.

But Ms. Mac Donald argues that foundation support for the arts, disease research, and other efforts that at first blush seem not be focused on benefiting minorities, help blacks, Latinos, and minority populations.

She also chastises the Council on Foundations and others for ...