"Tax me," writes Abigail Disney, a philanthropist and heiress to the Walt Disney fortune, in an opinion piece in USA Today supporting the reinstatement of the estate tax.

"The estate tax incentivizes people like me to do good with our wealth because there is no estate tax on donations to charity," writes Ms. Disney, who founded the Daphne Foundation, which makes grants to fight poverty in New York City, and a charity called Peace Is Loud, to encourage women around the world to find nonviolent ways to end conflict.

Her charitable activities, she says, "rely on a tax code that supports a vigorous nonprofit sector, a vital part of our society that is bigger and stronger because of the many millions of dollars that flow into it as a result of the estate tax and other tax provisions."

Ms. Disney joins Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and other wealthy Americans who believe Congress was wrong to let...

One of the most fascinating things about Wednesday's announcement that 40 billionaires have promised to give away at least half of their fortunes to charity is their pledge letters, writes Sean Stannard-Stockton, a Chronicle columnist, in his blog. The letters, now posted online, "offer an amazing insight into the philanthropic impulse and will certainly become a standard part of philanthropy education efforts."

To Mr. Stannard-Stockton, the terse pledge of Larry Ellison, head of the technology company Oracle, is the most compelling. He says Mr. Ellison is usually portrayed as a freewheeling big spender in the press but has been very private about his philanthropy (until now).

Mr. Ellison's letter makes it clear that he's going public only because fellow billionaire Warren Buffett asked him to set an example that would influence others to give. Mr. Stannard-Stockton hopes those others ...

Charities — just like companies marketing products and services — should never forget that listening is the key to success, writes Katya Andresen in Katya’s Non-Profit Marketing Blog.

Marketers can only get people to do things they believe are in their own best interests, so charities must remember to listen to find out what people think they want and need, Ms. Andresen writes.

She cites five red flags developed by the marketing expert Alan R. Andreasen to help charities determine if they have “drifted too far” from listening in their efforts to promote their causes and get people to support them.

For example, “you’re in trouble if you see your product (or your cause) as inherently desireable. It’s not,” he writes. And “you’re in trouble if you think that marketing is the same thing as communications. If you do, you’ll think that information alone will prompt action. It won’t.”...

Advertising agencies and other marketing companies that work with charities often miss the mark in coming up with effective messages, writes Paul Jones in his Cause-Related Marketing blog.

Many companies care more about coming up with catchy taglines and winning communications awards than they do about the nonprofit group’s mission and goals, Mr. Jones writes.

As an example, he points to a public-safety campaign called “Zero Fatalities” in Utah, which aims to prevent highway deaths. The tagline of the campaign: “It’s a goal we can all live with.”

“Does a campaign like this really call for puns?” Mr. Jones writes. “The job of the agency isn’t to be clever for the sake of being clever. The agency’s job is to help create a campaign that works.”

What do you think? Do some charity marketing efforts go too far? Click on the comments box below to share your thoughts.

Writing in The Integrator, Eve Fox describes how the Save Darfur Coalition changed the way it conducts its online fund-raising campaigns — and surpassed its goal of raising $400,000 in less than two weeks.

The charity used to refrain from sending recipients of any e-mail alerts about how to participate in its advocacy work to people who already received fund-raising appeals online. Officials thought donors would be distracted by the alerts and not give to the campaign, writes Ms. Fox, a fund-raising consultant.

But Save Darfur decided to test sending an e-email alert about its advocacy work to the same people who had received online campaign solicitations a few days earlier. That alert, which included a request to support the campaign, raised $45,134. A second alert to to the same recipients produced another $36,848.

The two e-mail alerts were the primary reason the online...

It’s time for Jerry Lewis, the longrunning host of the annual Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon, to move on, writes Paul Jones, a marketing consultant, in his blog, Cause Marketing:http://causerelatedmarketing.blogspot.com/.

The 81-year-old comedian’s recent comment slurring gay men on the Labor Day telethon is not the only reason he should be replaced, Mr. Jones writes. “Jerry is showing signs of wear.”

Mr. Jones has a replacement in mind: Jerry Seinfeld, another comedian who is “on the record for saying that he pretty much never misses the MDA Telethon.” Mr. Seinfeld and his wealthy and powerful friends “have the gifts to reimagine the MDA Telethon for a younger audience,” Mr. Jones writes.

Should the board of the Muscular Dystrophy Association take any action in response to the flap over Mr. Lewis’s on-air comment? Let us know what you think by using the comment section ...

Good slogans — or taglines, as they are called in the advertising business — lend instant name recognition to charities, writes Michael DiFrisco, a marketing consultant, in The Integrator, a blog produced by the Direct Marketing Association’s Nonprofit Federation.

Memorable taglines, writes Mr. DiFrisco, include the United Negro College Fund’s “A mind is a terrible thing to waste” and “Take a bite out of crime,” by the National Crime Prevention Council.

He offers the following tagline test. Use it to gauge the power of your charity’s slogan.

• Is it memorable?
• Is it original, and does it make a confident statement?
• Is it easy to say?
• Does it allow your prospects to recall your name?
• Does it communicate your position?
• Will it help your organization achieve its mission?

A Yes answer to all six questions indicates a winning tagline.

Answering three or more in...