• Charity Navigator, a watchdog group, responds to a spate of recent criticism about the organization's effort to measure the effectiveness of nonprofit programs. On a blog of Harvard University's Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations, Ken Berger, the group's chief executive, and Robert M. Penna, a consultant helping Charity Navigator develop its new ratings system, counter arguments that charities operate in environments in which their impact is too complex to measure and that they already do a lot on their own to evaluate themselves.

• While the community organizing group Acorn was hampered by internal problems and political opponents, it was lack of support by its allies, including big foundations, that ultimately led to its demise, says Pablo Eisenberg, a senior fellow at Georgetown University and a Chronicle contributor. In the Huffington Post, Mr. Eisenberg names several...

• Matthew Bishop and Michael Green, authors of the book Philanthrocapitalism: How the Rich Can Save the World, write on their blog about three news outlets -- Global Post, Politico, and ProPublica -- that the authors say "will provide important evidence on whether social entrepreneurs can come up with business models for news that work, whether they will be self-sustaining, or whether philanthropy will be needed -- and if it is, whether that giving will be forthcoming."
• On her personal blog Nonprofit Periscope, Elizabeth Clawson, a prospect researcher at the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center, reflects on whether her monthly contributions to a handful of her favorite charities make her a "passive donor" and how she might overcome that passivity.
• Gayle Gifford, a nonprofit consultant, questions whether grant makers have focused too much on mergers as the solution to economic hard...

Criticism continues to be directed at President Obama after he compared his lackluster bowling skills to “like the Special Olympics or something” during an appearance last night on “The Tonight Show.”

The president apologized to Special Olympics chairman Tim Shriver from Air Force One for his comment before the show aired on television.

But there have been some stinging responses to his slipup.

Mr. Shriver appeared on “Good Morning America” today and said of the president’s apology, “He was very sincere, expressed an interest and an openness in being more engaged in the movement, and said he was a fan of the movement. And I think importantly he said he was ready to have some of our athletes over to the White House to bowl or play basketball or help him improve his score.”

He also added that the gaffe was “a teachable moment.”

Tod Robberson, in the opinion blog of The Dallas ...

Want to grow your charity’s e-mail list?

Katya Andresen, vice president of marketing at Network for Good, a Bethesda, Md., organization that encourages online giving, provides a few tips for signing up new folks on her Katya’s Non-Profit Marketing Blog

First, give them a good reason.

“Don’t just ask them to sign up for your e-mails,” she writes. “Instead, ask them to sign up for your e-mails to get exclusive, e-mail-only insider information (or whatever the reward might be).”

Make your appeal at the right time, she stresses. Like right after they’ve given to your group, or had some other significant interaction.

“Be sure to incorporate your ‘join now’ link and teaser into the parts of your Web site where people are most likely to jump at the chance,” Ms. Andresen writes.

Make it easy to do so as well — so don’t bog down the sign-up process with a lengthy questionnaire or...

Two outcomes of the country’s economic downturn are a proliferation of bank-owned foreclosed houses sitting empty and an increase in people lacking adequate shelter.

Joel John Roberts, chief executive of PATH Partners, a social-service charity in Los Angeles, wonders if something positive can come out of this situation.

“Why not match these people who are home-less, with homes that are people-less?” he writes on his LA’s Homeless Blog “The banks need someone to protect their homes, since vacant properties attract criminal elements. And people need temporary places to stay.”

An antipoverty activist group in Miami, he notes, has started to explore this possibility with some success.

“It’s a creative alternative to putting people into shelters,” Mr. Roberts writes. “Granted, it’s not a permanent solution. But it gives people the taste of home life, and keeps them off the streets.”...

Joe Wurzelbacher, the Springfield Township, Ohio, plumber who picked up the moniker “Joe the Plumber” after he questioned candidate Barrack Obama about his tax policies and began stumping for John McCain may soon have a new nickname: Joe the Fund Raiser.

On his Web site, Mr. Wurzelbacher announced his plans to establish a nonprofit organization at a sister site, http://www.secureourdream.org. Details are few, but he notes that as Americans, “We can help each other far better and faster than the government has ever been able to.”

Channing and Sean Rodman, siblings who work as nonprofit-communications consultants, aren’t sure Joe knows what he’s doing in this arena. On their “Social Ch@nge”:http://www.netfornonprofits.org/ blog they label his on-line effort an example of “what not to do” when looking to raise money on the internet.

His mission, audience, and call to action are...