• As more companies and other grant makers use online contests to pick which charities to support, Beth Kanter, a social-media expert, wonders if the "vote for me" efforts stifle innovation. Read The Chronicle's article about charity experts' concerns about the contests.

• A spate of new blogs written by theater workers in Britain may help arts groups prevent possible cuts in government support, writes Chris Wilkinson, a theater director who writes an arts blog for The Guardian, a newspaper in London.

• The 2008 earthquake in Sichuan, China, put new life into many nonprofit groups, but the nation needs better charity laws and a way to ensure that fund raising no longer heavily favors organizations connected with the government, writes Shawn Shieh, a political-science scholar who writes a blog about nonprofit groups in that country. Read The Chronicle's article about the development...

• What is the proper role of philanthropy in supporting business efforts that have a charitable purpose? Marcia Stepanek, the editor-in-chief of Contribute Media, on the JustMeans blog looks at this question, which came up at a recent New York University nonprofit conference.

• More foundations should offer program-related investments, and more charities should seek them out, says Neil Edgington, a nonprofit consultant, on her blog. The investments are low-interest loans that are usually made for construction projects but also can help groups diversify their revenue sources and improve their fund-raising abilities, she writes.

• While applauding a U.S. State Department delegation that went to Russia to discuss how Twitter and other Internet tools can be used to achieve social change, Allison Fine, a social-media expert and a Chronicle contributor, says the department should have in...

• The earthquake has turned some Haitian citizens intio civic leaders, who are helping individual neighborhoods recover, writes Coco MaCabe, a writer with Oxfam America. On the aid group's blog, she says these people should be an integral part of the country's rebuilding.

• Giving by text message to the Haiti disaster is a sign that everyday donors are embracing "Philanthropy 2.0," a faster and more technology-driven era of giving, says David O. Washington, a philanthropy consultant. On the Huffington Post he writes that mobile-phone fund raising still has some obstacles and wonders if wealthy donors and foundations are adapting to this way of operating.

• Should Melinda Gates have written an opinion article about education work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for The Washington Post, a newspaper where she sits on its parent company's board of directors? Gates Keepers, a...

Is the Obama administration pushing a bad way to measure charity efforts or is it injecting much needed rigior into such evaluations?

Two nonprofit experts disagree about the administration's Social Innovation Fund and its focus on supporting effective nonprofit programs.

In an opinion article in The Chronicle, Katya Fels Smith, founder of the Full Frame Institute, a nonprofit organization that works with innovative social-service charities, questions the fund's approach, especially it's emphasis on so-called experimental-design studies.

Such scientific studies seek to examine the cause-and-effect relationship between grant making and social outcomes. For example, a study of drug treatment would compare people who received aid to an equivalent group of people who didn't.

But Ms. Smith says this is unrealistic.

"Such studies require a very narrow definition of who is being studied, and...

The Humane Society of the United States is barking back after the start of a high-profile campaign that includes a new Web site attacking its work.

The Web site, HumaneWatch.org, was created by the Center for Consumer Freedom, a nonprofit group run by Washington lobbyist Richard Berman that advocates in behalf of restaurants and other companies.

The Center for Consumer Freedom ran a full-page advertisement in Tuesday's New York Times announcing the new Web site and saying that "the dog-watchers need a watchdog."

The advertisement attacks the Humane Society of the United States for giving only a tiny fraction of its roughly $100-million annual budget to "hands-on pet shelters." It also slams the group for putting $2.5-million toward its retirement plans for employees.

In a blog post entitled "Follow the Money," Humane Society president Wayne Pacelle criticizes the motivations of the...

• While they provide some benefit, so-called best practices can be damaging to nonprofit organizations in some instances, Jamie Notter, a consultant, writes on his blog.

• With Yele Haiti, the musician Wyclef Jean's embattled charity, getting only a small portion of the money raised by a telethon for Haiti, the gossip site Gawker applauds the move and says all the funds raised by the singer's charity should be turned over to an established aid group.

• As more nonprofit journalism efforts start in California and elsewhere, they offer new outlets for grant makers to tell the public about their work, write Dan Cohen and Brian Rice, communications consultants. On the Communications Network blog, they discuss the new online news outlets.

• Charity chief executives who are "too important, too powerful, or too relied-on for too many things" can be risks for the organizations they lead, writes John Copps, head of sector research at New Philanthropy Capital, a nonprofit group in London that evaluates charities.

• In a discussion of the Nobel Laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz, Rick Cohen, national correspondent with the Nonprofit Quarterly, says that charities have a role to play in pointing out to politicians the limitations of free markets. Writes Mr. Cohen: "As a sector that exists because of the dysfunction of the markets, nonprofits should be carrying Stiglitz's message and reminding the White House and Congress that banking on the free markets to do the right thing might be a losing investment."

• Nathaniel Whittemore, founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement, highlights the...

• To improve the oversight and coordination of aid groups working in Haiti, all donations should be sent to a pooled fund that would be controlled by the Haitian government, writes Paul Collier, an economics professor at Oxford University and a former special adviser on Haiti for the United Nations. On a Foreign Policy magazine blog, he says that before the earthquake struck, charities provided much of the health care and education in the country, "yet they have been accountable neither to users nor funders."
• Creating better teachers is key to improving America's public-school system, writes Melinda Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in an opinion article in The Washington Post. She says federal and state governments, school districts, and teachers are starting "to coalesce around the goal of having an effective teacher in every classroom."
• As states decide how...

Arts managers across the country apparently are fuming about advice offered by Michael Kaiser, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

On the Huffington Post, Mr. Kaiser writes that he has been scolded by his peers for saying that theaters, orchestras, and other arts groups should not cut programs or marketing due to the tough economic climate.

"One arts leader accused me publicly of living in a parallel universe," he says. When the angry executive was forced to trim his program budget, "he was not amused that his artists kept saying, 'Michael Kaiser says this, Michael Kaiser says that.'"

Mr. Kaiser says he is sympatheic to the concerns. "For the record, I do believe there are times when programming and marketing must be sacrificed, but I believe this should be a last resort, not a first resort," he writes. "I prefer to cut every other cost imaginable, as my...

The Corporation for National and Community Service issued its final notice this week on how it plans to spend the Social Innovation Fund, or SIF as insiders call it. And blogs are abuzz with the potential of the new program.

The corporation will provide funds to grant-making organizations, which in turn will award annual money to nonprofit groups that have shown promise in areas of economic opportunity, youth development, and healthy living.

With its focus on supporting groups that can prove their effectiveness and share ideas, "the SIF has the potential to transform how our nation tackles social challenges," writes the corporation's board chair, Stephen Goldsmith, on the White House blog.

Before issuing the final guidelines for how to apply, the corporation received more than 200 comments.

Nathaniel Whittemore, the founder of Assetmap, a San Francisco group, says the agency did a...