Musicians and their songs have always reflected and influenced social, political, and cultural concerns, whether it’s Marvin Gaye crooning about air pollution in his 1971 hit “Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)” or the marching beat of U2’s anti-sectarian violence song “Sunday Bloody Sunday.”

Echoing Green, a New York nonprofit group that supports social entrepreneurship, is holding a contest asking readers of its blog to name their top favorite songs that inspire them to work on making the world a better place.

Contestants can create a “mixtape” of their songs and submit them by September 12. Entries will be judged on their creativity and theme by a panel of Echoing Green staffers, and the winner of the contest will receive an iPod.

So what would be on your mix tape? Which songs do you find most inspirational or relevant to the work you do?

Would your charity eagerly hire someone with a criminal history of embezzlement or bank fraud to a managerial position?

Gary Snyder, a nonprofit consultant, lists a half-dozen charities—including an affordable housing group and a Christian school—that unwittingly hired people with just such background blemishes. And most of the groups only found out after they, too, became victims of financial misconduct.

Writing on the blog maintained by the the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, a watchdog group in Washington, Mr. Snyder stresses, is the importance of checking references.

For senior-level job candidates, he recommends contacting as many as five or six references. Getting the most from a conversation with a reference is an art, he writes.

“Drilling down below the surface of initial comments will make a reference truly useful,” Mr. Snyder says. “Listen not just ...

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, has been busy vetting candidates to succeed Philippe de Montebello as leader of the institution, and may end up selecting Max Hollein, director of Frankfurt’s Städel Museum and the Schirn Kunsthalle, speculates Lee Rosenbaum , an arts writer, in her CultureGrrl blog.

Ms. Rosenbaum says that Mr. Hollein, a native of Vienna, is near the top of the list of candidates, according to sources familiar with the search. A candidate may be selected at a meeting of the board of trustees on September 9, after which a contract would be negotiated.

The fact that Mr. Hollein is young (he’s in his 30’s) but experienced, and holds degrees in business administration and art history, may be among the reasons why the museum may be interested in Mr. Hollein, Ms. Rosenbaum writes. From 1996 to 2000 he worked at the Guggenheim Museum, and is one of many proté...

Twitter — mini-blogs updated via text message — can raise money fast from the technologically savvy.

Beth Kanter and 250 bloggers, podcasters, and other technology enthusiasts at a Seattle conference raised $2,657 to pay for Leng Sopharath, an orphan in Cambodia, to go to college this year, using the new technology — and by passing the hat at the session — in just 90 minutes. By the end of the conference, the total had climbed to $3,774.

Writing on her blog, Ms. Kanter compared the experience to her earlier efforts on Ms. Sopharath’s behalf. In November 2006, it took three weeks to raise $800, and at the same conference last year, it took about 24 hours to raise the money for her tuition.

But not everyone was convinced that Twitter’s potential as a fund-raising tool was the most important lesson to take away.

“What stands out to me is stories,” wrote one conference participant...

What really irks potential donors about their contact with charities?

Marc A. Pitman, a fund-raising consultant, decided to use the popular social-networking site LinkedIn to pose that question to real-life donors.

At the top of the list for many donors: the freebies that are included in many direct-mail solicitations.

“Don’t send me junk in the mail like address labels, notepads, and pennies,” writes one donor. “I have an understanding of the costs of printing and mailing and including these items with a solicitation letter [and it] makes me wonder exactly how much of my donation will be used for the core mission.”

Other donors griped that charities had given their contact information to other organizations, so donors were overwhelmed with telemarketing calls and direct-mail appeals.

“Every nonprofit should thank their donors with no strings attached, no additional asks or...

How can charities win government support for their group or cause?

Courtney Powers, a former Capitol Hill aide who now works for the consulting group Changing Our World, offers some advice on the Future Leaders in Philanthropy blog.

She says that charity leaders should first appeal to the House or Senate member who represents their district. Contact the “scheduler,” whose job it is to coordinate meetings. Be patient, she says, because it can take some time to hear back. Ms. Powers advises charities to follow up only if more than two business weeks have passed without a response.

When you do get a meeting, “keep it brief,” she says. Most meetings take half an hour or less. Whether you’re asking for money, support for a piece of legislation, or a public endorsement of your group, be concise. Ms. Powers recommends following up with a thank-you note.

If you’re seeking a...

A newly-minted lawyer writes in to Stephen J. Dubner’s blog Freakonomics, on The New York Times site, with this query:

“I recently passed the bar and am currently applying for jobs. My main concern is bringing out the most charitable result. Should I work in the nonprofit section where my services are passed directly along to the most needy, or should I get the high-paying firm job and donate the difference in my salary to charity?”

Mr. Dubner says he’s not convinced that working with a nonprofit organization is the best way to effect change, in part because of the high incidence of fraud at charities. (See this post).

One reader of Mr. Dubner’s blog advises the lawyer, Anthony DiClaudio, to “get as rich as possible and then give out your money as you see fit.”

Another tells Mr. DiClaudio: “My wife struggled with the same question. She now works for a large law firm that also ...

The decision by Special Olympics to boycott the new movie ‘Tropic Thunder’ because it uses the word “retard” was a “big tactical communications mistake,” says Kivi Leroux Miller.

Writing on her Nonprofit Communications Blog, Ms. Miller says that the boycott overshadows a Special Olympics’ campaign, announced simultaneously, to convince people to stop using the word “retard.”

The “Stop Using the R-Word” campaign is a great idea, says Ms. Miller. But “by linking the campaign to a movie boycott, Special Olympics comes off as a bunch of humorless finger waggers, which makes them very easy for the public to ignore.”

Tropic Thunder is a satire of the movie industry, writes Ms. Miller. By using the term “retard,” its characters aren’t mocking people with mental disabilities, but distasteful people in Hollywood who throw around the word.

So what could Special Olympics have done...

More donors today consider their charitable gifts to be “investments.” What are the implications of this new mindset for charities?

Sean Stannard-Stockton, a financial adviser to wealthy donors, describes a few of the implications on his blog Tactical Philanthropy. Among his observations on why it matters that donors are seeing giving as investing, rather than spending:

• Donors may start thinking about philanthropy as a percentage of their assets, rather than of their income. This could translate into a big jump in giving among wealthy donors, many of whom have assets that are far larger than their incomes.

• Donors take a longer-term approach. They are “‘investing’ in the continued success” of a charity, rather than “‘buying’ the right to feel” as though they’ve helped someone.

• Corporate donors see “corporate social responsibility” as an investment in a community...

Nonprofit organizations that want to tell the public more about their work— and solidify the trust they have earned from donors, clients, and others — should include more information about their inner workings on their Web sites, writes Ken Goldstein on the Nonprofit Consultant Blog.

“I’m not just talking about your programs and the great deeds that your organization performs,” writes Mr. Goldstein. “I’m talking about your finances, your governance, and your management of the public trust. Because that’s what a nonprofit is: A public trust.”

In exchange for the tax-exempt status charities have been granted by the Internal Revenue Service, he writes, they owe the public a certain amount of information.

“Lack of trust in nonprofits leads to lack of donations, and restrictions on what we can ultimately accomplish,” he writes.

Among Mr. Goldstein’s suggestions for what should ...