Perhaps no tool is better for learning about a foundation's priorities and spending capacity as its informational tax return, the 990-PF, says Pamela Grow, a fund-raising consultant, in her blog about grant writing.

She advises grant seekers about six parts of the 990 that often reveal nuggets of useful information. For example, Part 1 of the form summarizes revenue and expenses, and it's worth checking to see if big contributions have been made during the year in question, she writes. If so, a founder or trustee may have recently died, and the foundation may be on the verge of giving away more money.

Ms. Grow also advises grant seekers to scrutinize Part IX-A, the summary of direct charitable activities to get a sense of how large the foundation's average grant is.

"If the foundation you're researching tends to give many grants in the $2,500 to $10,000 range (as opposed to a few...

Las Vegas has one of the worst job markets in the nation. More than 10 percent of the city residents have been out of work for 17 straight months, and the unemployment rate was 14.1 percent in May. But that didn't stop the YMCA of Southern Nevada from achieving record fund-raising returns last year.

In an interview with the Las Vegas Sun, the Y's president, Mike Lubbe, describes how the charity was able to serve more people and raise more money in 2009 by making what some might call a counterintuitive move: At a time when most organizations are struggling for every penny, the Y lowered its membership dues by 15 percent.

That has attracted more members and lowered the number of people who drop out. As a result, the organization didn't lose money by reducing dues.

"We're retaining them because it's a little more affordable," Mr. Lubbe told the Sun. "That's our business model. Charge...

Observations that donors are not giving much money to provide relief for efforts to clean up the gulf oil spill appear to be borne out by the meager amount given in response to a telethon aired on CNN this week.

The two-hour star-studded broadcast featuring talk-show host Larry King on Monday night generated $1.8-million. By contrast, a similar broadcast with Mr. King raised $10-million following the Haiti earthquake in January.

Fund-raising experts and charity leaders have speculated that the sluggish pace of donations is because Americans expect BP, as the company responsible for the spill, to pay for the damage it has caused.

Donations in response to this week's telethon are going to the National Wildlife Federation, Nature Conservancy, and United Way Worldwide. CNN says it selected those groups as a way to highlight three areas of need: saving animals, restoring natural habitats, ...

Sometimes a little creativity is all it takes to get donors' attention.

At Juniata College, in Huntingdon, Pa., a video called “I Give a Latté”—featuring the college’s president and its students—raised $29,000 for the college in just five days.

The video, shown above, relied on student actors and carried a simple message.

It won't be confused with a big-budget television commercial, but it proved remarkably effective in connecting with donors, says Maria Di Mento, an assistant editor at The Chronicle, in an article about giving to education charities.

"In the video, Thomas R. Kepple Jr., Juniata’s president, is shown in his office crafting an e-mail appeal asking alumni to give the college the $5 they would normally spend to buy a cup of coffee," Ms. Di Mento writes. "Viewers then see student actors playing people in cafes and coffee stands handing their tall,...

British nonprofit groups are hoping that a new video-sharing Web site called See the Difference, which went live this week, will meets it goal to raise $700-million for charity by 2015.

Using the site, donors can watch videos and contribute to projects depicted on film by more than 100 registered charities in the UK. In return, they receive feedback from the organization by e-mail. The site encourages donors to send the videos to their friends and to post them on blogs and social-networking sites.

See the Difference has drawn an impressive array of corporate backers, including Microsoft, McCann Erickson, and other big companies.

But some observers doubt that See the Difference will spur much giving. One of them is Mark Phillips, the founder of Bluefrog, a London fund-raising consulting company. "I've had a good look around the site and watched a fair number of videos," Mr. Phillips...

The push by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates to encourage the nation's wealthiest people to give at least 50 percent of their net worth to charity is raising optimism among many fund raisers that giving to U.S. nonprofit groups will increase.

But if the effort is successful, will those donors direct their...

Geoffrey Canada has turned the Harlem Children's Zone into what many see as a model charity by taking innovative approaches to traditional problems.

It turns out Mr. Canada approaches fund raising with the same mindset.

Mr. Canada, speaking at a recent meeting of the Association of Fundraising Professionals in New York, said the biggest challenge nonprofit leaders face today is understanding that traditional fund-raising techniques, like writing appeals, are no longer enough to bring in donations.

In a world of ideas where everyone is competing against one another, foundations and charities must have a product that will distinguish itself from the rest, he said.

Mr. Canada is president of the Harlem Children’s Zone, an antipoverty group that provides a comprehensive set of educational, medical, and social services in a 100-block area of Harlem. President Obama has proposed...

Jewish organizations are stuck in antiquated fund-raising practices dating from the 1970s, and that's why they are losing donors and contributions, according to Robert P. Aronson, president of the Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life, in New York.

Mr. Aronson offers four lessons in a new essay picked up by The Fundermentalist, a blog about Jewish philanthropy. The essay is one of a dozen pieces about Jewish fund raising to appear in the spring issue of Contact, a quarterly journal published by the Steinhardt Foundation.

Recalling his early days as a fund raiser 35 years ago, Mr. Aronson describes how Israel was the trigger for giving, and fund raisers believed that the cause was so important that they were entitled to their donors' money -- an attitude he says continues to this day. Which brings us to Lesson No. 1: "Just because they have the money doesn't mean you're going to get it,...

When it comes to fund raising, nonprofit organizations need to think more strategically about how they can use data and analysis to tell compelling stories about their organization, a panel said at the annual meeting of the Association of Fundraising Professionals in New York.

Nonprofit leaders are not in business simply to collect measurements but also to find a way to use the information to articulate what their mission is and market it to have the strongest impact, said Lisa Mueller, director of development and communications, at Sanctuary for Families.

Julia Jean-Francois, co-director of the Center for Family Life, said that it is the responsibility of nonprofit organizations to provide their donors with a coherent path to reaching their intended goals. Donors will always be supportive of a nonprofit organization's willingness to take raw data and translate them into credible...

The cause of the drilling disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is the reason why giving in response to the catastrophe has been modest, say philanthropy experts. So far, donors have contributed more than $4-million.

"This is by all accounts a man-made disaster," says Gene Tempel, a professor of philanthropic studies and higher education at Indiana University. "People expect BP and others to step up and take care of this damage."

The International Bird Rescue Research Center, whose employees are helping to clean oiled seabirds, shares the view that BP should bear the cost of clean-up efforts.

On its Web site, the Los Angeles organization says that it welcomes donations for its continuing programs but will not accept contributions earmarked for its work on the Gulf Coast. 

Charities typically are able to raise more money to deal with natural disasters than emergencies caused or exacerbated...