The location and timing of trustee meetings may not be among charity leaders’ top concerns while assembling a board. But where and when charities hold their board meetings does matter, says Kelly Kleiman, a lawyer and nonprofit consultant who writes The Nonprofiteer.

Nonprofit executives might think they are being inclusive by not scheduling meetings too far in advance. But in fact, they’re being “unintentionally exclusive,” shutting out people whose lives require advance planning, says Ms. Kleiman. She says that simply having a regular schedule for meetings makes it more likely that current trustees will attend, and new members will join.

Also important, according to Ms. Kleiman, is to schedule meetings during “business-friendly times.” Plan meetings for weekday mornings or evenings, not weekends, she says. “Scheduling the board’s work for a weekday shows a regard for board...

Michael Kleinman, an aid worker who blogs at Change.org, is collecting a list of humanitarian emergencies that go unnoticed, or, as he puts it, “places not to be.”

Topping Mr. Kleinman’s list is Afghanistan, where 8 million people depend on food aid. A “pitiable harvest,” caused in part by a severe drought, has also raised concerns about a possible famine.

The humanitarian situation is also bleak in the Central African Republic, where an estimated 20 percent of children die before their fifth birthday.

In Congo, meanwhile, peacekeepers have drawn fire of late for failing to protect civilians from recent fighting, says Mr. Kleinman. But on the positive side, he says the ceasefire seems to be holding and aid workers have more access to people in need.

Mr. Kleinman also draws attention to the humanitarian crises in Mindanao, Phillipines; Pakistan; Somalia; northern Kenya; and...

Efforts to measure the impact of philanthropic dollars, and the success of charities, have been popping up more frequently of late. Lucy Bernholz, writing at Philanthropy 2173, has compiled a list of groups that are trying to spread information about the value of donations and the effectiveness of charities.

The problem for philanthropy, she says, is not that there is a dearth of people interested in assessing nonprofit effectiveness. It’s that there is a shortage of comprehensive ways to do so.

Among the efforts on Ms. Bernholz’s list:

-New Philanthropy Capital -GiveWell -GuideStar -Edna McConnell Clark Foundation -Social Solutions -Urban Institute Outcome Indicators -Nonprofit Reporter -University of Pennsylvania’s Center on High Impact Philanthropy -Charity Navigator -HIP Investor -Issue Lab

The full list is available on her blog. She welcomes readers to add the...

Ask a group of donors how the sour economy has affected their giving, and you’ll probably hear talk about ensuring their donations have an impact. The plummeting stock market has made philanthropists all the more concerned that every dollar produce results.

Arabella Philanthropic Investment Advisors, which advises wealthy donors on their giving, has assembled a list of seven issues where philanthropic dollars can make a big difference. The group says that the causes are pressing, yet lack attention and support.

Among the causes highlighted in this year’s report, High-Impact Giving Opportunities: Philanthropy that Makes a Difference:

• Small-scale farming in Africa. When the global food crisis began, Africa was hit the hardest. Donors can help by supporting female farmers, increasing local productivity, and increasing awareness of wealthier countries’ agricultural policies, the ...

How much of an impact do volunteers have on charities’ programs? Not much, writes Holden Karnofsky, on the GiveWell blog.

In fact, Mr. Karnofsky says that volunteers generally cost a charity more time to manage than the value they add to an organization.

“I’ve generally found that adding a new person into a work process nearly always costs a lot of time, especially up front, for training and managing,” he says.

He says that training volunteers can be worthwhile, however, if the volunteers put in enough time to eventually overcome the cost of their training, or if their projects are very well-defined.

The real value of volunteerism for most charities, says Mr. Karnofsky, is that it provides a way to get potential donors more engaged with the organization.

What do you think? Click on the comments link below to share your thoughts.

Harvard University’s mammoth endowment — which at one point totaled $36.9-billion — has, in the past few years, drawn scrutiny from members of Congress and others who said the institution should be spending more on its students.

But Jack Siegel, writing at Charity Governance, says that amid the current economic meltdown, Harvard’s decision “to accumulate for a rainy day begins to look like the prudent exercise of judgment that it has always been.”

According to The Boston Globe, Harvard may have lost as much of a third of its endowment and is now planning to reduce spending. A freeze on wages is reportedly being considered.

Mr. Siegel says he hopes that Sen. Charles Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee who has raised questions about Harvard’s large endowment, “will remember this downturn in the economy.”

“A deep pocket is a good thing in hard times,”...

It’s been less than two days since Senator Barack Obama was elected president. But animal charities may have succeeded already in influencing a decision of the future president: what kind of dog to get his family.

Senator Obama said during his election-night speech that his daughters had “earned the new puppy that is coming with us to the White House.”

But the the San Jose Mercury News is reporting that the first family’s new dog probably won’t be a puppy after all. Instead, the Obamas will adopt, rather than buy, a dog, something that animal-rights groups have been lobbying for.

The president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent Mr. Obama a letter. Best Friends Animal Society started a petition drive. And the Humane Society of the United States also made an appeal, the Mercury News reports.

What kind of dog would you like to see replacing Barney and Miss...

Want to become a go-to source for journalists?

Michael Kleinman, a former CARE employee and consultant to nonprofit groups, asked his journalist friends who cover international news to share what kind of information they look for from aid workers.

He writes about their answers at Change.org. Transport to hard-to-access places, subjects that make for compelling photographs, and jargon-free speech were among the responses.

Journalists also said they were seeking people who were sensitive to reporters’ deadlines, could “emote” when appropriate, and had access to clear and easily comprehensible statistics.

What’s been your experience working with reporters? What would you add to Mr. Kleinman’s list?

How can a charity create an online video that gets noticed? For a few ideas, nonprofit officials might want to take note of The Girl Effect, created by the Nike and Novo Foundations.

As Alix Zwane, a program manager at Google.org, writes on the group’s blog, the video has “gone viral.” Blogs such as blogher and Made to Stick have written about it, and Ms. Zwane says she’s been “gleefully contributing to the spread of the video.”

Why is Ms. Zwane so excited? She says she admires how the video defines a complex issue — how empowering and educating young women is key to breaking the cycle of poverty — in simple terms. She also likes how the video was used to kick off an announcement by the Nike and Novo Foundations of their grant-making priorities.

Dan Heath, a blogger at Made to Stick, which bills itself as a blog about “why some ideas stick and others die,” deconstructs why the ...

Lucy Bernholz, writing on Philanthropy 2173, hopes she’s wrong. While the Foundation Center and other organizations have predicted that giving will stay steady despite the economic crisis, Ms. Bernholz says she has big doubts.

“I don’t think a short-term drop in giving is all we’re facing here,” she writes. “I think we’re going to see new banking rules, new credit rules, new housing laws, new charitable giving laws, new philanthropic approaches, new tax structures, new public-service demands and possibly programs, the heads and tails of demographic and generational shifts, and lots of other things that will fundamentally restructure the business of giving as we know it.”

A drop in giving this year is just the beginning, she says. She wonders how long we’ll have to wait — 2009? 2010? beyond? — until charitable giving recovers.

Do you agree with Ms. Bernholz? How has your...