There’s a lot of confusion among international aid workers about what constitutes corruption, according to a new study cited by Ruth Gidley on ReutersAlertnet.

The study by Transparency International, Tufts University, and the Overseas Development Institute, found that foreign employees with seven large aid groups saw corruption primarily as stealing money, not abusing power.

Many staff members surveyed didn’t consider demanding sexual favors or getting a friend a job corruption. Some, in fact, saw nepotism as a positive thing — ensuring that family members and friends they brought to the job would be honest.

The study also found that many charities abandon strict accounting practices in times of crises. One nonprofit group reported that it lost track of 39 of its 50 satellite phones in the midst of an emergency.

Many large charities fail to end a relationship with a...

If you purchase Barbara Ehrenreich’s book Nickel and Dimed through Amazon.com chances are the Web site will suggest you try reading other books on poverty in America, along with similar nonfiction works such as Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation.

Music sites such as Pandora work similarly, providing users with recommendations for new music based on artists they have chosen in the past.

Lucy Bernholz, writing on Philanthropy 2173, wonders whether philanthropy could benefit from such an online recommendation service. Ms. Bernholz says she knows of two organizations that are looking into developing such sites.

But how would such a service work? Ms. Bernholz contemplates the options — and whether such a site makes sense at all.

“Do you base such algorithms on where money goes (the Amazon approach)? Or would you, as Pandora does, attempt to deconstruct nonprofit organizations into...

Fund raising in a small town offers some advantages over scouting for donations in larger cities, writes Holly Lillis, a fund raiser in Sarasota, Fla., on the Future Leaders in Philanthropy blog.

“It can be a real challenge creating that elevator pitch when your town only has a handful of buildings more than 10 stories high,” writes Ms. Lillis, who nevertheless enumerates several aspects of small-town environments that can bring worthy causes together with generous donors.

For examples, she writes, local news media and lawmakers are more easily accessible than in a big metropolis, helping charities spread the word and garner public support

In addition, Ms. Lillis suggests, “Small towns are known as places where everyone actually says hello to each other. Though this doesn’t mean you should solicit random strangers to donate to your capital campaign, the welcoming nature of...

Advocates of increased civic involvement by young people would do well to expand the definition of the word “volunteer,” writes Janis Foster of Grassroots Grantmakers, in a posting on her Big Thinking on Small Grants blog.

Ms. Foster, writing in response to a post by Robert Thalhimer on the blog PhilanthroMedia, comments that “the word ‘volunteer’ has become somewhat of a trigger for me.”

Volunteering, she says, has come to be laden with feelings of guilt (“that I’m not volunteering enough or I’m not willing to volunteer whenever I’m asked or that I have not enjoyed some volunteering that I have done) and has become synonymous with the concept of work without pay.

“To men, volunteering also suggests a selfless quality; when you are volunteering, you are working without pay and without personal benefit or gain except the good feeling that comes with doing good,” she writes....

Is it wrong to use social-networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter to help promote your nonprofit group?

A debate on that topic is brewing among nonprofit experts, as some people express concern that marketers show a lack of respect for the purpose of social networks by intruding with messages about their causes.

Michael Gilbert, a nonprofit consultant, recently expressed concern on his blog Nonprofit Online News, that “instead of being a platform for the organization’s support and participation in communities of practice, instead of being a tool for empowering the connections and voices of their stakeholders, to many nonprofits an online social network is just another mailing list.”

But Kivi Leroux Miller, author of the blog Nonprofit Marketing Guide. says she thinks charities have the kind of material people want to learn about through social networks.

“I strongly...

Charities spend considerable time pursuing foundation grants and searching for non-traditional gifts through planned and corporate giving.

But Sean Stannard-Stockton, who works for an investment management company in Burlingame, Calif., says charities often ignore the low-hanging fruit — donations from individuals.

If charities can be more effective in reaching out to individuals, he argues they would probably be able to raise substantially more money with very little extra effort.

To illustrate the point, Mr. Stannard-Stockton points to a recent blog post by the marketing expert Seth Godin.

“As marketers, we’re tempted to tweak the already tweaked, to turn the 100 to 101, to optimize for the peak performances,” Mr. Godin writes. “That long tail is very long, though, and if there’s a way you can raise the floor (instead of just focusing on the ceiling) you may be surprised to...

“When you can’t do it alone” “Make the most of your giving.” “All building starts with a foundation.”

Those are among the charity tag lines that won prizes in a contest for the best nonprofit tag line held by Nancy Schwartz, a nonprofit marketing consultant and author of the blog, Getting Attention.

More than 1,000 tag lines of eight words or less were submitted in a survey. Once Ms. Schwartz had narrowed down the 62 best taglines, the 12 winners were picked by more than 3,000 nonprofit officials in an online poll.

Groups using tag lines with an emotional appeal did the best, such as the Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Sarasota-Manatee, in Florida., which uses the “you can’t do it alone” tag line. The phrase “tells the story succinctly and powerfully: It’s all about getting help when life becomes overwhelming. It makes a strong emotional connection,” writes Ms. Schwartz. ...

Reuters AlertNet is inviting a debate on its blog about the implications for humanitarian workers of Colombia’s rescue this month of hostages held by the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

On Wednesday, Alvaro Uribe, the president of Colombia, apologized for misusing the International Committee of the Red Cross emblem, amid reports that a Colombian intelligence officer who took part in the rescue mission wore clothing with the charity’s logo.

Mr. Uribe admitted that in using the emblem, the government may have violated international law. The Geneva Conventions forbid military personnel from falsely portraying themselves as Red Cross workers, which could put humanitarian workers in war zones at risk.

“When aid workers bear their agencies’ logos on their caps and trucks, it’s not just about publicity – it’s also a badge to say they’re unarmed civilians who aren’...

The newest member of the board of directors at the Frick Collection, in New York, is vice chairman at Sotheby’s auction house, and the writer Lee Rosenbaum raises concerns about the appointment in her CultureGrrl blog.

“Museums need to participate in the market as acquirers and sometimes as sellers, yet they must maintain their proper position of being a scholarly step removed from the commercial fray,” Ms. Rosenbaum writes.

The Sotheby’s official, George Wachter, specializes in old master paintings, which are central in the Frick’s collection. Ms. Rosenbaum says the appointment constitutes a conflict of interest -– one that has to be “vigilantly” monitored.

But, Ms. Rosenbaum also adds that a person such as Mr. Wachter would bring useful expertise to the oversight of the museum.

The Frick’s appointment of Mr. Wachter may prove more of a boost to Sotheby’s image than the...

The Future Leaders on Philanthropy blog is publishing a new series to give young people a clearer sense of what nonprofit jobs are like — so they can avoid learning too late that their supposed dream job isn’t all they’d expected.

In the first post of the series, Elizabeth Miller, a senior program associate at the Overbrook Foundation, describes one of the most time-consuming responsibilities of her job: preparing for and participating in meetings.

Her “crash course,” Meetings 101, discusses the types of meetings foundation employees can expect to attend. First, there are board meetings, which provide “a formal arena in which to discuss program priorities and interests, as well as governance issues,” she says.

Many foundations also hold committee meetings in addition to board gatherings. They may focus on programs, governance, planning, or other issues, says Ms. Miller. ...