The Nature Conservancy’s Plant a Billion campaign, to raise $1 donations—each dollar covering the cost of planting a tree in Brazil’s rainforest—has been among the most successful online fund-raising efforts to date, raising more than $830,000 in its first year.

Now the campaign has just received a big lift from an arrangement with Disney Studios, which has produced $2.7-million, enough to plant 2.7 million more trees.

The charity got the money after Disney offered to pay the Nature Conservancy a portion of the ticket price for every moviegoer who saw its new nature documentary, Earth in its first week.

Because theaters report ticket sales, not the number of moviegoers, back to filmmakers, Disney officials based the company’s donation on a figure they obtained by dividing the film’s gross profit in its first week—$16.1-million—by an average ticket price.

The turbulent economy is very much on the minds of nonprofit organizations as they think about their online fund raising.

Nick Allen — chief executive of Donordigital, a consulting company in San Francisco that specializes in online fund raising, and a speaker at the Nonprofit Technology Conference — spoke to The Chronicle about what he has heard from his nonprofit clients.

As the recession continues to squeeze donations to nonprofit organizations, fund raisers are feeling increased pressure to refer to their economic hardships in their written appeals to donors.

But is it really a smart idea to mention the recession in fund-raising letters?

Two prominent direct-mail fund raising experts answer that question with a resounding “no”.

“I strongly recommend that you do not complain about how hard the recession is impacting your organization,” said Mal Warwick, a consultant and author of the new book Fundraising When Money Is Tight: A Strategic and Practical Guide to Surviving Tough Times and Thriving in the Future.

Instead, Mr. Warwick told participants in today’s t Chronicle live discussion on direct-mail appeals to focus their letters on what they’re doing to adapt to the tough times.

“Tell your donors what steps you’re taking to tighten your...

For years, charities in the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe have successfully used street fund raising — or face-to-face fund raising, as it’s also called – -to recruit new donors who agree to have monthly gifts automatically deducted from their checking accounts.

But now, instead of recruiting donors from among pedestrians on the street, in shopping centers, or at other public spaces, charities in Britain are increasingly turning to door-to-door fund raising, according to Third Sector, a British publication.

That article cites figures released by the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association, which regulates street and door-to-door fund raising in Britain. and tracks the results of member organizations that conduct such solicitations for charities.

For the 12 months ending in March, the number of donors recruited by both types of fund raising increased to 580,000, up...

This morning’s Washington Post took some shots at Facebook’s Causes application, reporting that the tool isn’t a good way for charities to raise money. Allison Fine, a social-media expert and a Chronicle contributor, hits back on her blog.

True, Facebook’s Causes tool hasn’t raised big money for charity, she says. But that’s hardly new news. Nor does it mean that Causes is “largely ineffective,” as the Post article puts it.

“The bottom line here is that Causes isn’t just about raising money, it’s also about raising friends and awareness, and in the long run turning loose social ties into stronger ones for a cause may be more important than one-time donations of $10 and $20 dollars right now,” she says. “Our rush to judge this application effective of ineffective over a very short time period with a primary user base of very young people is off base.”

What do you think?

Charities that serve rural areas often have a hard time raising money, but some of those groups could take a lesson from IHC, a New Zealand charity that helps people with mental disabilities.

IHC now raises more than $560,000 annually with a fund-raising approach called the Calf Scheme, which takes advantage of the nation’s thriving livestock industry.

Under the plan, farmers are asked to donate one or more calves that would normally be sold at auction after they are weaned. The charity arranges for the livestock to be picked up and delivered to PGG Watson, a livestock trading company that donates its services. The company sells the animals at its regular livestock auctions and delivers 100 percent of the proceeds to IHC.

When the young animals are transported to auction, they are given a numbered ear tag. The number is recorded and serves as the donating farmer’s entry into a...

At 2:13 am on Friday, the actor Ashton Kutcher beat out CNN to become the first Twitter user with more than 1 million followers. A notable achievement in the Twitterverse, perhaps, but an event relevant to the charity world?

Well, actually, yes. If he won, Mr. Kutcher had pledged to donate 10,000 anti-malaria bed nets as part of World Malaria Day, writes Nathaniel Whittemore on Change.org’s social entrepreneurship blog.

Mr. Whittemore wonders: Did the actor’s pledge have much to do with his victory? If his 18-year old brother is any indication, then yes.

“I’m following him. Why? He pledged 10,000 mosquito nets if he won,” wrote Mr. Whittemore’s brother.

But even more exciting than the actor’s pledge was what happened next, writes Mr. Whittemore: Mr. Kutcher started to persuade others to give. Demi Moore, Oprah, Ryan Seacrest, and CNN pledged to donate as many as 20,000 nets....

A recent e-mail appeal from Mercy Corps uses a headline-grabbing event to focus donors’ attention on its work.

“There’s more to Somalia than piracy,” reads e-mail’s subject line.

“You’ve probably been following the recent news of the pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia,” Mercy Corps says. “Nearly everyone agrees that the root of the problem isn’t at sea, but on shore.”

The charity briefly summarizes its work fighting poverty in Somalia. To support that work, readers can click on a donation button beneath an image of two young children carrying infant siblings on their backs.

What do you think of the solicitation?

Breaking up, as the saying goes, is hard to do. And it’s not so different in philanthropy.

In a mock video on You Tube, a donor and fund raiser squabble over their relationship like two lovers on the fritz.

“Hey there. I was starting to worry,” says the vapid fund raiser/boyfriend. “You haven’t returned my last six direct-mail solicitations.”

“Let’s just keep it simple,” responds the donor/girlfriend. “I’m breaking up with you.”

“I give and I give and I give, and I don’t hear anything from you,” she complains.

“I sent you a plain-text e-mail receipt. It had your name on it, for God’s sake!” he counters.

The video was produced by Network for Good, an organization in Bethesda, Md., that helps charities raise money on the Internet and runs an online giving portal.

What do you think? Does the video make good points about how fund raisers should communicate with donors?...

Henry Krinkle is a self-described addict of National Public Radio, but he has some pet peeves about his “bad habit” — including how it raises money.

On the blog of WFMU, an independent radio station in Jersey City, N.J., Mr. Krinkle lists 10 things he hates about public radio.

Number five is a small rant against a common fund-raising practice.

“Matching-gift periods. A more dishonest (albeit legal) fund-raising scam was never devised,” he writes. “How often does it happen that the needed total for a fund-raising match period is not met, and the original match is then withdrawn? Try: never.”

To be sure, the rest of the NPR missive is aimed at programming.

For example, number two on the list: “Any NPR story about hip-hop. Maybe it’s the perfectly enunciated rap terms, or maybe it’s leads like this: ‘Hip-hop, maybe more than any other kind of music, is a melding of genres....