Can you duplicate Barack Obama’s fund-raising success?

While there may be tactics that charities can learn from the way the Obama campaign has garnered an unprecedented amount of money, the main reason behind the windfall is the “ultra-compelling ‘offer,’” writes Jeff Brooks, a fund-raising consultant, on his Donor Power blog.

“It’s about an historic candidate who’s running during a time of national crisis, whose message is utterly compelling (to his audience), and who delivers the goods whenever he speaks. Without that, all the cool techniques in the world can only make an incremental impact on revenue,” he writes.

To figure out if your organization has a compelling appeal like the candidate, he asks:

“Are you unlike all the others, or are you one of several similar organizations — distinguishable only by experts and insiders? Is there urgency built in to everything you say?...

Kjerstin Erickson’s charity is in financial trouble — and she’s telling the world about it.

On a blog, Ms. Erickson is disclosing the money woes facing Forge, an African aid organization she started in 2003.

Due in part to a failed direct-mail campaign, Forge is facing a $100,000 budget shortfall, she writes on Social Edge, a Web site run by the Skoll Foundation.

“The pressure can sometimes feel overwhelming, especially as people are making the sacrifices now for hopes of the future. Through it all, I find myself taking solace in what I’ve always taken solace in with tough decisions: that the pain now is for the best in the long run,” she writes.

Sean Stannard-Stockton, author of the Tactical Philanthropy blog, and others are discussing Forge’s “radical transparency,” questioning whether it will appeal to donors.

What do you think of Ms. Erickson’s approach? Does such...

One way that charities can navigate through rough economic seas is to tap younger workers’ leadership skills more often, writes Rosetta Thurman on her Perspectives from the Pipeline blog.

“What the economic crisis is showing the nonprofit sector is that we can no longer rely on corporate social responsibility, ongoing government funding, or stable donations from even our most loyal donors,” Ms. Thurman writes. In such an unpredictable climate, she adds, “it’s clear that the old top-down hierarchy isn’t the best model for what needs to happen in organizations today.”

What might help charities survive, she says, is turning to Generation Y workers.

“Right now is an opportunity for young nonprofit professionals to bring fresh, innovative ideas for how we do the work of social change,” she writes. By dint of their advanced education (many, she notes, hold master’s degrees and have...

Sasha Dichter, a fund raiser, wants the world to know: “I’m sick of apologizing for being in charge of raising money.”

Mr. Dichter, director of business development for the Acumen Fund, a nonprofit group that provides loans to small businesses in developing countries, has posted on his blog a “manifesto” about the vital role fund raisers play in creating social change.

But despite the critical function, he asks himself, “Why are you so scared to ask people for money? Why do you feel afraid to say: ‘This problem is so important and so urgent that it is worth your time and your money to fix it. I’m devoting my whole life to fixing this problem. I’m asking you to devote some of your resources to my life’s work, too.’”

Fund raising can be daunting, he writes, because of the fear of rejection; too often the focus is on seeking dollars, when it is really about sharing a vision and...

A Canadian charity is raising money by adopting Wall Street terms, offering “shares” for $100, and giving donors share certificates and a prospectus. But is the effort simply a gimmick?

According to The Ottawa Citizen, the Toronto-based Canadian Women’s Foundation is offering an “IPO” for its new fund that will help girls develop leadership skills.

On Tactical Philanthropy, a blog written by Sean Stannard-Stockton, who works for an investment-management company in Burlingame, Calif., several people are debating the idea.

“Part of me reads about the ‘IPO certificate’ and the ‘prospectus’ and is annoyed that what appears to be a typical fund-raising effort is being dressed up as a new sort of ‘investment,’” writes Mr. Stannard-Stockton. “On the other hand I see the excitement the offer generates” and “it validates my belief that people want to give in a financially sophisticated ...

As American charities suffer from the sour economy, nonprofit groups in Britain are arguably in worse shape, with charity leaders calling for the government to set up a roughly $788-million emergency fund to help struggling organizations.

Like others in Britain, a large number of charities were hit hard by the near collapse of the Icelandic banking system. Potential nonprofit losses due to the Icelandic problems are estimated at $189-million, reports The Guardian, a British newspaper.

However, so far the newspaper reports that the government minister who oversees nonprofit groups has rejected throwing them a lifeline.

Indeed, Patrick Butler, an editor for The Guardian, writes that charities need to be more forthcoming about financial losses if they want public support.

On the newspaper’s Joe Public Blog, he writes that only 13 charities have stepped forward to discuss their ...

A reality TV series about the party lives of socialites at charity fund-raising events in the nation’s capital is under fire — and the show hasn’t even hit the airwaves yet.

Lifetime Television’s Blonde Charity Mafia will debut next year and follows three 20-somethings as they navigate the charity gala scene.

But Andrea Rodgers, a Washingtonian who organizes fund-raising events, is upset with the show for, among other things, featuring women she does not consider to be very philanthropic at heart, reports The Washington Post.

On her blog, Ask Miss A she writes that the show includes women that “did little if any charity work. In my mind, attending parties which happen to be for charity isn’t real charity work.”

Katherine Kennedy, who is one of the women in the series, called the statements “outlandish” and said, “I thought the moral of charity work was to treat others as...

How can a charity create an online video that gets noticed? For a few ideas, nonprofit officials might want to take note of The Girl Effect, created by the Nike and Novo Foundations.

As Alix Zwane, a program manager at Google.org, writes on the group’s blog, the video has “gone viral.” Blogs such as blogher and Made to Stick have written about it, and Ms. Zwane says she’s been “gleefully contributing to the spread of the video.”

Why is Ms. Zwane so excited? She says she admires how the video defines a complex issue — how empowering and educating young women is key to breaking the cycle of poverty — in simple terms. She also likes how the video was used to kick off an announcement by the Nike and Novo Foundations of their grant-making priorities.

Dan Heath, a blogger at Made to Stick, which bills itself as a blog about “why some ideas stick and others die,” deconstructs why the ...

While the current financial crisis has hurt fund raising, it may trigger bigger problems for social enterprise, meaning nonprofit groups that adopt business tactics or for-profit operations to further their charitable goals, writes Jeff Trexler, a professor of social entrepreneurship at Pace University.

On his blog, Uncivilsociety, Mr. Trexler writes that the social enterprise “movement has yet to grasp the extent to which it is as much a product of the bubble as subprime loans and credit-default swaps—it’s not just a coincidence that do-gooders started talking business when business was good.”

“At the peak of the bubble this gave the movement a rhetorical advantage, but as the economy tanks, this same language can make the social entrepreneur seem untrustworthy, defined by profit, self-interest, and the very business practices that created the problems charity now has to solve,”...

In Philadelphia, charity discontent with the United Way for changing how it doles out money has turned ugly.

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, last week the Salvation Army of Greater Philadelphia, the YMCA of Philadelphia and Vicinity, and seven other groups bought a full-page ad in the newspaper to ask donors to make contributions directly to them.

The organizations have historically received funds from the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania, but under a new plan United Ways nationwide have shifted their priorities, leaving some long-time partners out in the cold.

United Ways now focus on specific problems, such as fighting poverty, improving Americans’ health, and keeping kids in school, and reward charities that demonstrate progress in achieving those aims.

Mike Burns, a nonprofit consultant, writes that he thinks the United Way change “is a good move on United ...