A charity leader in Seattle has assembled a short video laying out the impact of the nonprofit world, a film that he believes can help other nonprofit executives spread the word about philanthropy’s economic value.

The three-minute, 40-second video, “Know Your Sector,” has been posted on YouTube. Among the nuggets of information it contains: the fact that about one in 10 American workers is a nonprofit employee (compared with the one in 57 workers who waits tables).

“My hope is that it will be a free resource, for donors, for board members, for nonprofit employees, and volunteers to understand the power of our sector,” says Ben Klasky, executive director of IslandWood, a nonprofit outdoor learning center on Bainbridge Island, Wash., who created the video for a class he teaches on nonprofit management “My hope is that it’ll go viral and that people will realize that,...

“Paraskilling,” the practice of breaking down skilled services such as education and health care into simplified tasks that can easily be completed by unskilled workers, may help charities and government organizations bring those services to needy people in developing countries, writes Adrienne Villani at the online publication Beyond Profit. But Ms. Villani wonders if something is lost when jobs like teaching are broken up in this fashion.

To Ms. Villani, who encountered paraskilling via a new report on serving emerging markets by the Monitor, consulting group, “I thought it a savior, that which we had all been waiting for. It could easily be applicable to health care, education, financial services.”

The Monitor report, she writes, spotlights the example of Gyan Shala, a charity in Ahmedabad, India, that provides elementary education to poor children. Its one-room schools...

The New York Foundation for the Arts is offering some help to recession-plagued arts groups in the city: a chance to claim some discounted office space, according to Dana Variano on the PhilanthroMedia blog.

Citing a report in the Philanthropy News Digest, Ms. Variano says the foundation is now soliciting proposals from groups and artists affiliated with it.

Those artists and charities selected for the program will be eligible for discounted rent – -$200 per month — on work space in the foundation’s office, which will include Internet access, discounted scanning and printing services, meeting rooms, and other amenities.

Ms. Variano praises the program and suggests it might be a model for helping arts groups and artists — and even small for-profit entities — in other cities weather the recession. “Have an extra office or building area in your workplace?” she writes. “Why not try...

The advocacy group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is fending off swats from critics after it suggested that President Obama might have found a more humane way to dispatch a pesky fly that interrupted a television interview earlier this week, according to Alisa Mullins in a post on the charity’s blog.

Video clips of the commander-in-chief’s cold-blooded insect slaying during an interview with CNBC’s John Harwood quickly flew through the World Wide Web, inspiring comment and parody (such as this segment from Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report).

In response to the executive action, the animal-protection group sent Mr. Obama a “humane bug catcher” (which it sells for $8 on its Web site.) It has also, writes Ms. Mullins, responded to reporters’ inquiries about how it views the incident.

In response, several news-media outlets, including The Christian Science Monitor,...

The creation by President Obama of a $50-million Social Innovation Fund to nurture nonprofit-driven creativity has Susan Herr of the PhlianthroMedia blog wondering who should pick the grantees supported by the new agency, which is housed at the Corporation for National and Community Service.

“Recognizing that this effort will only be as good as the grantees selected to receive funds, how about appointing an All-Star Federal Philanthropy Team to guide it,” she asks

Ms. Herr considers the criteria that might be used to pick the members of such a team. “Should experienced funders, who have seen and made their fair share of mistakes top the list?” she asks. “Should it, first and foremost, be representative of the populations being served? Does it matter if folks have served on grant-making boards?”

Who do you think should pick grantees for the Social Innovation Fund? Click on the...

Should all charities tweet? The question of whether or not to join the popular social media service Twitter is what Ken Goldstein is pondering this week on his Nonprofit Consultant Blog.

Twitter, which allows people to post very short messages of 140 characters or less (commonly called “tweets”) is rapidly gaining popularity among nonprofit organizations, who see it as a way to reach new groups of potential supporters.

Mr. Goldstein airs the common criticism of Twitter — its potential for vapidity — but notes that it is useful in spreading news more rapidly than traditional forms of communication.

While attesting to his personal enjoyment of Twitter, he cautions, “I have to say that it may not be the best choice for smaller organizations who don’t have staff dedicated to either outreach or public relations. This is because the best use of Twitter requires listening, as well as...

The announcement of a worldwide arts competition that plans to award a first prize of $250,000 — and, in the process, shine a spotlight on city of Grand Rapids, Mich. — has shaken Diana R. Sieger, president of the Grand Rapids Community Foundation, out of her wariness and skepticism, she reports on her blog.

On April 23, Rick DeVos announced that the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation, in Grand Rapids, will sponsor a contest called ArtPrize. Open to artists around the world, the contest will award nearly $500,000 in prizes, including $250,000 to a first prize winner, with the selections being determined by a public vote, in the vein of the popular television contest American Idol.

“The ArtPrize will help bring attention to our area to inspire innovation,” writes Ms. Sieger, who has often alluded on her blog to the difficult state of the Michigan economy. She adds, “We are building a ...

As the recession dampens giving from private sources and local governments, more charities are looking to the federal stimulus package as a possible source of desperately needed support. But before sticking their hands in the federal cookie jar, grass-roots group should make sure they are not reaching for more than they can chew, writes Ken Goldstein on his Nonprofit Consultant Blog.

Mr. Goldstein urges charities to weigh not only the short-term but the long-term impact on their revenue, and whether they are big enough to handle the project they propose.

“Most of these stimulus programs are not designed for grass-roots organizations; they pretty much require large structures, with already large budgets, and the capacity to take on new projects without much additional overhead,” he write. “Seriously, if you have an annual budget of only $500,000 you should not be looking at a grant...

As charities see donations dip and needs spike during the recession, a giving circle in New York made up of professionals from the business and nonprofit worlds has created a fund to combine cash with other forms of support, according to the Future Leaders in Philanthropy blog.

The New York City Venture Philanthropy Fund, created in early 2008, seeks to help charities grow into “stable and sustainable” organizations, according to Maya Iwata, a founding member of the group. It accomplishes this goal by giving each grantee a three-part grant: an unrestricted cash award, free management support through a fund committee, and professional connections via the networks of its membership and Advisory Council.

The fund’s first grant, announced last fall, went to Concrete Safaris, a charity in New York’s East Harlem neighborhood that promotes “green exercise” programs for youth.

Should...

With the recession sparking greater human need, grant makers should do more than simply give the 5 percent of assets they are required to distribute by law, writes Ken Goldstein on his Nonprofit Consultant Blog.

The current proposal in Congress to collapse the two-tiered excise tax system into one flat rate, he writes, should not be a factor in foundations’ decision to open up their purse strings during hard times.

The excise tax, which grant makers pay on their investment earnings, is usually a 2-percent levy, Mr. Goldstein notes. However, during a year when a foundation gives charities more than its five-year average, it is lowered to 1 percent.

“This was meant to be an incentive for higher payouts in times of need,” Mr. Goldstein writes. However, because this is only intended as a one-year incentive for higher payouts, “the tax rate goes back to 2 percent unless grant amounts...