A former Google executive is asking for advice on where to make a donation.

On his blog, Paul Buchheit spells out the idea simply: “I’m going to donate a bunch of money, but I want random people on the Internet to decide where it goes.”

Suggestions can be submitted on Google Moderator, an online chat program, or FriendFeed, a social-networking site that Mr. Buchheit helped found.

The would-be-philanthropist places few restrictions on where the money could go. The future recipient needs to be a tax-exempt charitable group, and he reserves the right to ignore all suggestions.

As for possible charitable causes he...

Board members, fund raisers, and other nonprofit leaders need to be able to quickly convey their organization’s work and its impact to potential donors and other constituents — and a good motto or “tag line” can help, says Nancy Schwartz, a Maplewood, N.J., nonprofit marketing consultant.

If you think your charity has a good tag line, submit it as a contender for one of the 2009 Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards. The deadline for entries is July 31, and more than 300 tag lines have been entered so far.

Ms. Schwartz started the contest last year after doing an online survey about nonprofit tag lines and receiving more than 1,000 submissions. She selected 62 finalists and created an online poll in which 12 award winners were...

A new survey suggests that British people may not be terribly honest about their philanthropy.

On the Web site of Channel 4, in London, Press Association News reports that 47 percent of respondents said they have lied about having given to charity and 26 percent said they have told fund raisers that they had already made a donation when they had not.

In addition, the survey, which polled more than 2,000 people in Britain, found that 31 percent said they were giving less time and money to charity than a year ago; 12 percent said they were giving more.

The poll was sponsored by Leap Anywhere, a Web site that connects people with charitable causes.

What do you think? If the same poll were given...

The University of Colorado is looking at ways to solicit donations of $5 or so through text messages at football games or other events, the Daily Camera , a Boulder newspaper, reported today.

An announcer could ask fans to pull out their phones during a break in play and text a small donation for scholarships or other purposes. The mobile donations would be paid through the donor’s cellphone bill.

The small donations can add up. On a recent episode of American Idol, the musician Alicia Keys asked fans to text message donations to her charity that helps HIV orphans in Africa, “Keep a Child Alive.” Her request raised $450,000 from 90,000 donors, the newspaper reported.

One student who had a season pass to football games last...

B’nai B’rith Youth Organization, a century-old Jewish youth charity, is tweaking its fund-raising approach to survive the recession.

Jacob Berkman, who reported recently on how the Birthright Israel Foundation was changing its fund raising, writes on the Fundermentalist blog that the B’nai B’rith group is asking its regional chapters to raise donations.

That’s a departure for the group, which has traditionally raised its $16-million budget through the national office and from local Jewish federations.

But now the B’nai B’rith group is working with 20 chapters to set up local...

Gifts to the annual fund at Juniata College, in Huntingdon, Pa., grew this year after two recent graduates produced a YouTube parody of a popular ballad.

The video entitled Just Five Bucks features a performance by 2007 graduates Brenton Mitchell and Brandon Long, who ask others who graduated from Juniata in the last decade (in song) to donate $5 to JC, as the college is known.

The video, also posted on the college’s Facebook page, raised $73,000 from May 28 to May 31 after it was included in an e-mail appeal sent to alumni. That was an 18-percent increase over what was raised with a text-only e-mail sent during the same period last year. Young alumni who graduated in the last decade gave a total of $29,000, an 81-per-cent increase over their donations in 2008.

The JC grads’ video...

The number of people who respond to face-to-face fund raising in Britain grew 16 percent during the 12 months ending March 31.

According to the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association, a London association of charities that practice street and door-to-door fund raising, says that an estimated 680,000 people were recruited as donors, the largest number since the group began tracking such data in 2003.

Mick Aldridge, chief executive of the association, told Third Sector Online, that the report shows that asking for gifts in person works despite the recession.

Street fund raising is popular with British charities, though the...

The New York Public Library successfully used an online fund-raising and advocacy campaign to fight the city’s plan to slash its municipal support by $28-million this year — and now it has won back $23-million in subsidies.

Key to the library’s success was an urgent alert message that the institution used to replace what viewers typically see when they visit its main Web site.

Starting on May 6, the library encouraged online visitors to make a donation of $5 or more and to contact their city representatives to protest the cuts.

“Keep your library open,” the message read. “We need your help! Record numbers of New Yorkers are relying on The New York Public Library in these difficult economic times.” The city cuts, it said, would shut city libraries for an extra one or two...

It’s not yet Father’s Day, but Catholic Charities has raised nearly $10,000 and counting from hundreds of people who are downloading its new electronic Father’s Day cards from the charity’s Web site and making online donations to the organization.

Officials expect the cards to raise significantly more over the weekend as donors take advantage of the cards to send Father’s Day greetings.

Many charities have long been sending online greeting cards, but the Father’s Day cards are new to Catholic Charities, which is offering them for the first time this year, says Patricia Hvidston, senior director of development at the organization, which provides social services to the needy.

The Catholic Charities cards, which tell recipients that the donor has...

At Donor Power Blog, Jeff Brooks is less than impressed with a Charity Navigator video advising donors fed up with too many direct-mail appeals to “take matters into their own hands,” but he warns fund raisers that the sentiment is one they have to deal with head-on.

Charity Navigator’s YouTube video offers irritated donors five tips on how to stop charities from sending them unwanted mail, which include: refrain from giving small donations to many charities, and “if all else fails,” give anonymously through Web sites like Network for Good.

“It’s more than a little irresponsible for Charity Navigator to buy into the myth that fund raising is a form of harassment,” writes Mr. Brooks....