In the next few weeks, major networks and cable channels, such as CNN and NBC, will be running a $2-million television and radio advertising campaign by the American Red Cross – but it won’t mention the name of a major disaster. Instead, it’ll simply ask for your donation.

“In the past, we’ve really initiated our fund-raising during a disaster based upon the anticipated needs of that disaster or series of disasters,” says Laura Howe, an American Red Cross spokeswoman. “This is a little bit different in that we decided to step back and really initiate our fund-raising efforts prior to great disasters.”

The new effort by the Washington organization to raise money preemptively stems from warnings of a busy and severe hurricane season from the National Weather Service. It also anticipates the needs of its disaster-preparedness teams, which respond to about 70,000 disasters each year, and...

By most measures, Jill A. Warren (left) isn't wealthy.

She and her husband, the Rev. Robert D. Schoenhals, a United Methodist minister, together have never earned more than $112,000 per year. In some years, their combined income has totaled less than $40,000.

But they are diligent givers—they donate as much as 60 percent of their annual income to charity.

They're big givers, for sure. But they often aren't treated that way, especially by organizations that use database-screening tools to find wealthy donors.

"We’re the folks that fly under the radar, so we don’t fit the usual prospecting assumptions," Ms. Warren said in a live discussion today with Chronicle readers. "The most important thing—just thank us. Send an acknowledgment after each gift. A small gift might represent a significant proportion of someone’s income or assets—we’re not the one-time big-gift givers, but we give a...

Editor's note: The following article has been corrected from the version that was posted on July 28. The previous version misstated the types of compensation the Internal Revenue Service is scrutinizing.

The Internal Revenue Service is now gathering and reviewing information about the compensation of professional fund-raising companies that charities hire to solicit for them, a tax agency official told a gathering of nonprofit development and marketing executives on Tuesday.

The official, Judith Kindell, noted that the newly redesigned informational tax return seeks out information about professional fund-raising companies and their ties to the top executives and board members who run a charity. Charities are now starting to file the new form, she said, and the tax agency's research unit is in the middle of culling trends from the filings, the results of which may or may not be...

How you promote planned gifts is just as important as identifying and cultivating people who want to make a charitable bequest in their wills.

The result can be extraordinary, as the Nature Conservancy, the big environmental group in Arlington, Va., has learned.

Simon Williams, who managed gift-planning strategy and stewardship at the Nature Conservancy before he became a consultant to charities, explained what worked this week at the Bridge to Integrated Marketing and Fundraising Conference, held just outside Washington.

His three tips:

*  Develop a content-rich page about planned gifts for your Web site, and promote the link all over your site and printed materials. Also make sure you have an easy-to-remember address in print pieces (www.Webname/bequest) as well as contact information prominently displayed everywhere. Thanks to the Nature Conservancy's planned-giving page, its Web...

Most fund raisers and other nonprofit executives have an elevator pitch—a short speech about their organization that they give whenever they meet people on an elevator, at a social event, or at a conference.

But every pitch can be improved. To offer inspiration, The Chronicle has invited some charity veterans to share...

The philanthropist Ronald Lauder once said there are three categories of art: "Oh," "Oh my," and "Oh my God." He only collects the latter.

And that's the "OMG" prospect researchers should pay attention to, says Linlin Chen, a research analyst at the University of Chicago, in a presentation at the annual meeting of the Association of Prospect Researchers for Advancement, which is under way in Anaheim, Calif.

When trying to identify potential donors, it couldn't hurt to do a bit of digging about what art they're collecting. It's an important indication of wealth and provides insight to a prospective donor's interest, useful when starting a conversation and engaging donors at the cultivation stage. Such prospects tend to give to research programs, exhibitions, lectures, or institutions that house or show their art collections.

While there aren't easy ways to track and determine the value...

Fund raisers who conduct research on potential donors are seeking to improve their images after The Wall Street Journal published an article raising questions about whether nonprofit groups were invading the privacy of affluent people. Some fear that the article could lead to a government crackdown on what information fund raisers can glean.

At the annual meeting of the Association of Prospect Researchers for Advancement, held this week in Anaheim, Calif., fund raisers expessed concerns about the article, "Is Your Favorite Charity Spying on You?"

Some worry that the article,  which details how some hospitals immediately screen admissions records to find wealthy patients who have checked in, portrayed their profession in a negative light.

"We're not spying on people, for goodness' sakes," says Elizabeth Crabtree, who served as a previous president of the research association. She...

Giving USA, the widely cited measure of giving, is re-examining the approach it uses to determine how much Americans donate.

In a presentation to fund-raising consultants who belong to the Giving Institute, Patrick Rooney, director of research at the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy, acknowledged that Giving USA's finding that individuals gave just as much last year as they did in 2008 has generated much skepticism. The Giving Institute finances the research done by Mr. Rooney and his colleagues and makes the key findings available free.

Among the reasons questions are growing about the data: Last week the Internal Revenue Service noted that the amount Americans deducted for charitable gifts fell by 11 percent in 2008, the first year of the recession. That was a far steeper sum than Giving USA had estimated. It said donations dropped by 2.7 percent that year.

And as The Chronicle

Many fund raisers seem to think they will get a corporate or foundation grant simply because they wrote a proposal or made a phone call, says Richard K. Davis, chairman of U.S. Bancorp, a Minneapolis company that donates $40-million a year to charities.

But charity officials could do better if they first asked some simple questions that could lead to a more meaningful relationship with the foundation or corporation they are soliciting, he says.

Mr. Davis, who spoke at a Park City, Utah, meeting of fund-raising consultants over the past weekend, said that he would be delighted if a nonprofit organization or a fund raiser opened a meeting with him by asking two simple questions:

* What does he already know about the organization seeking a donation?

* And what he would like to see it accomplish?

But that never happens, he said.

Mr. Davis urged charities to "just come back once without a...

For Julie Whyte, the most effective way to motivate potential donors is to put them in touch with the people who will benefit from their philanthropy.

But connecting donors with a cause isn't always easy—especially when the cause is an all-girls school in Kenya.

Video, however, can bridge the gap.

Ms. Whyte, development director at the Carr Educational Foundation, in San Rafael, Calif., recently worked with Out of the Blue Films, a nonprofit documentary maker, to create a video to raise money for Daraja Academy, a school it supports in Kenya.

The Girls of Daraja, shown above, was screened as part of a recent fund-raising event in San Francisco—an event that raised more than $50,000. Nobody had to pay to come to the screening, but many people were so moved by seeing the video they made a gift after they saw the film.

"What we have learned is that having the girls and the ...