The King of Pop was crowned Give and Take’s biggest attention-grabber of 2009, with a blog post on Michael Jackson’s philanthropy generating more views this year than any other item.

A debate about how much money board members should be required to give was the second most-popular item. Virginia Ikkanda-Suddith, a fund-raising consultant in Los Angeles, suggested that giving or raising at least $2,500 should be a requirement of board service, but some readers posted comments suggesting that a financial requirement undervalued the nonfinancial ways in which some trustees contribute.

Dan Pallotta, a former fund-raising consultant and author of a blog about nonprofit groups that appears on Harvard Business Publishing’s Web site, was responsible for 2009’s third most-popular post, in which he argued that poor salaries keep the charitable world from making sufficient progress in...

As we approach 2010, nonprofit blog writers are taking a look back at the previous decade and asking: What were the biggest moment for the nonprofit world?

Gene Takagi and Emily Chan, a nonprofit lawyer and a law student respectively, created a list on their blog of the top 10 nonprofit events of the last 10 years. They include the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Warren Buffett’s decision to pledge his fortune to several foundations, Hurricane Katrina, and the Senate Finance Committee’s investigations of charity work.

On Change.org, Nathaniel Whittemore, the founder of Assetmap, lists the key developments in social entrepreneurship, including the creation of the White House Office of Social Innovation, the creation of the iPhone, and the successful public offering of eBay, which generated billions for businessmen-turned-donors Pierre Omidyar and Jeff Skoll.

Other major...

As Christmas approaches, it seems there’s one gift the philanthropy world would like: to replace the word “nonprofit.”

“Anyone who has thought about it for more than a nanosecond agrees that ‘nonprofit’ is about the worst possible summary we could give of ourselves and our work,” writes Dan Pallotta, a former fund raiser and author of Uncharitable, who is the latest person to suggest a substitute for the word.

On his Harvard Business Review blog, Mr. Pallotta floats the phrase “humanity sector.”

“What brings us to this work is our humanity,” he writes. “And what makes the work happen is the generosity of countless people from all socioeconomic levels, who make donations out of their humanity.”

In recent years other ideas have been tossed around. They include:

• Social-profit groups — suggested by Claire Gaudiani, a philanthropy professor at New York University.

• While Google’s decision to donate $20-million for the holidays is generous, it’s also “lazy,” says Brian Reich, a social-media expert, on his Fast Company blog. He would have preferred if the company had offered to help charities work better with information technology.

• A.J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically, writes about the challenge of tithing, especially in lean times, in Oprah Magazine. “The key is to make it concrete,” he writes. “Try thinking in terms of time. Every 10 minutes of work, you are essentially doing one minute of volunteering for the needy.”

• When business people are considering switching careers and joining the nonprofit world, they should closely examine their motivations, says Wayne Luke, a partner with the Bridgespan Group, on a Harvard Business Review blog.

• To reflect on the spirit of giving during the holiday season,...

• JPMorgan Chase & Company damaged its brand by not being more open about its $5-million Facebook contest for charities, Nathaniel Whittemore, founder of Assetmap, a start-up Web company in San Francisco, writes on Change.org.

• In light of such criticism of JPMorgan, Beth Kanter, a social-media expert, offers some suggestions on her blog for how companies and others can improve such competitions for philanthropic money.

• How much value does Justin Timberlake or Paris Hilton actually generate for charity? The Daily Beast looks at how much money and news-media attention 50 celebrities bring in as champions for their favorite causes.

• While the Obama administration has pursued several prominent nonprofit programs, the efforts largely ignore the needs of small charities — those with annual revenues less than $1-million, writes Rick Cohen, a national correspondent for...

With social and environmental problems emerging worldwide and with more Americans facing foreclosure and lacking adequate food, a difficult issue is being raised: Is it better to give at home or abroad this year?

While it is a question philanthropy has grappled with for decades, the bad economy has put it in sharp relief. And giving experts are debating it.

In her Slate column on giving, Sandy Stonesifer, a charity worker in Washington and the daughter of Patty Stonesifer, the former head of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, says there are good reasons to support charities at home this year.

But “if you subscribe to the belief that all lives are created equally—and your giving is aimed at saving human lives or reducing suffering—your donations will almost always yield greater returns when given (to reputable organizations) internationally.”

Others may disagree.

In a

• The nonprofit world “suffers from a chronic self-esteem deficiency,” writes Jonathan Spack, executive director of Third Sector New England, on the Blue Avocado blog. He argues that nonprofit organizations are too often perceived as less important than business.

• The United Kingdom plans to phase out checks by 2018, prompting Tom Belford, a fund-raising consultant, to wonder how such a decision in the United States might affect nonprofit fund raising.

Beware the “dark side” of online contests for charitable dollars, says Kjerstin Erickson, a charity leader.

In recent years, the number of corporations offering contests, in which people vote online for their favorite charity to win money, has grown. Chase Manhattan Bank’s $5-million competition is perhaps the most recent example.

While these events offer financial reward for cash-strapped charities, Ms. Erickson, who runs Forge, an antipoverty that works in Africa, cautions that organizations should consider how much effort they put into these contests.

For example, she writes on the Social Edge blog that “each request for a vote (whether fulfilled or not) represents an opportunity cost to the organization doing the asking.”

She suggests that corporations can improve the contests by showing how many votes the nonprofit groups have garnered during the competition and...

• While some charities avoid seeking donations from people under 40 because they lack sizable financial assets, cultivating younger donors is key to the long-term success of nonprofit groups, says Derrick Feldman, a fund-raising consultant, on the Case Foundation’s Social Citizens blog.

• Setting long-term priorities and living within your means are among several fiscal rules in Governing Magazine that Mike Burns, a consultant to nonprofit groups, says charity officials should pay attention to.

• Should the government allow tax deductions solely for donations to charities that can prove their ability to solve social and environmental problems? Lucy Heady, director of measurement for New Philanthropy Capital, a nonprofit research organization, raises this question on the British group’s blog.

• “Fund raising in its current form just doesn’t work anymore,” says Nell...

• Charity accounting can be so “easily manipulated that donors may be disastrously misled,” writes Kathy Kristof, a personal finance columnist, in a column for CBS MoneyWatch about how Americans should donate their money.

• As government ministers debate climate change in Copenhagen, the “best lessons” are happening outside the conference hall, writes Clare Oliver, a volunteer at Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, on the group’s blog. While in Denmark, she says she has learned that the news media drums up controversy to sell newspapers and while many activists agree global warming is occurring, they differ wildly on the solutions.

• Milton Murray, a veteran fund raiser who died this month at age 87, was a trailblazer in philanthropy, writes Paulette Maehara, president of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, on her blog. Among his accomplishments was getting ...