The Humane Society of the United States is barking back after the start of a high-profile campaign that includes a new Web site attacking its work.

The Web site, HumaneWatch.org, was created by the Center for Consumer Freedom, a nonprofit group run by Washington lobbyist Richard Berman that advocates in behalf of restaurants and other companies.

The Center for Consumer Freedom ran a full-page advertisement in Tuesday's New York Times announcing the new Web site and saying that "the dog-watchers need a watchdog."

The advertisement attacks the Humane Society of the United States for giving only a tiny fraction of its roughly $100-million annual budget to "hands-on pet shelters." It also slams the group for putting $2.5-million toward its retirement plans for employees.

In a

* As residents of Washington and other East Coast cities dig out from a massive snowfall, Terri Lee Freeman, president of the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, urges them to support social-service groups, which are busy helping homeless people and others who could be at-risk in the cold and snow. Her views appear on the Web site of the Washington public-radio station.

* While there is much discussion about social-justice philanthropy, which seeks to reduce economic disparities and racial inequality, "far too many philanthropic organizations don't get much beyond the exploratory, let's-have-a-discussion stage," says Steven E. Mayer, a nonprofit...

* Is having a good chief executive even more important at a charity than at a business? The blog of New Philanthropy Capital, a nonprofit group in London that evaluates charities, discusses that question.

* Bob Ottenhoff, chief executive of Guidestar, a Web site that provides information on charities, says that nonprofit organizations need to get comfortable with the fact that they will not return to a period where their investments grow at the rates they did during the 1990s and until 2007.

* Tactical Philanthropy, a blog by the donor advisor and Chronicle contributor Sean Stannard-Stockton, is hosting a debate about Idealist's recent...

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...

• 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?

• “Volunteers are neither saints nor teddy bears,” says Jayne Cravens, a nonprofit consultant, on her blog. They are people motivated to donate their time for their own selfish reasons but are still a valuable resource nonetheless, she says.

• Why not use social media — Facebook, Twitter, and similar sites — to help nonprofit boards run their organizations? asks Beth Kanter, a blogger who writes about online trends.

• 2010 will see the rise of “niche” online networks designed to raise money...

Charity Navigator, poking holes in the value of overhead ratio? Actually, yes.

The watchdog group, which gives charities good scores for spending little on overhead in comparison to their program expenses, is one of five organizations trying to get Americans to pay less attention to administrative and fund-raising costs when they think about which groups to support. (See this press release from the five groups.)

Along with the nonprofit groups GuideStar, GiveWell, GreatNonprofits, and Philanthropedia, Charity Navigator is pressing bloggers and journalists to write this holiday season about why low overhead isn’t a good indicator of charity success.

They say the administration-to-program ratio tells donors nothing about the impact of a charity’s programs. A preoccupation with keeping down administrative...

A new study may refute charges that Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks promote “slacktivism,” writes Kristin Ivie on the blog Social Citizens.

The study by the National Conference on Citizenship found that young people who discussed civic causes on Facebook and other online networks were more likely to donate money or volunteer their time than those who were not.

Ms. Ivie, social-innovation program associate at the Case Foundation, says this “seems to refute arguments that social media is just encouraging slacktivism by allowing people to edit their avatar or join a Facebook group without really having engaged.”

She adds that, because “social citizens can be all ages,” “perhaps encouraging the use of social media for good by other...

Should Americans be able to take deductions for products and services they buy from businesses whose work creates social good?

Dan Pallotta, writing on his Free the Nonprofits blog, says such a move would “break the 501©3 monopoly on charity” and foster all sorts of for-profit efforts to pursue social good. Mr. Pallotta has long been a promoter of business-oriented efforts to promote social causes: He founded Pallotta TeamWorks, a company that organized fund-raising events to benefit cancer charities and other causes.

Mr. Pallotta says his idea would bring a more entrepreneurial spirit to solving social problems, a spirit Mr. Pallotta says is stifled by risk-averse boards, poor pay, no stock options, and the inability of nonprofit entrepreneurs...

A charity’s campaign to fight obesity among youngsters is drawing controversy, according to Politico, a news site that covers Washington.

The advocacy effort by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine features these words from 8-year-old Jasmine Messiah: “President Obama’s daughters get healthy school lunches. Why don’t I?”

Eye-grabbing, yes, but is the campaign in poor taste?

Politico suggests the campaign may anger the White House. “This is not the way to win the heart of the president,” Darrell West, director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, told the news organization.

The advocacy effort also includes a letter from Ms. Messiah to Sasha and Malia Obama, in which she urges them to sign the group’s...