A new report on fraud in the nonprofit sector estimates that charities lose roughly $40-billion annually to fraud and embezzlement.

That number is based on an estimate by the study’s authors that 13 percent of the nonprofit sector’s revenues are stolen by employees, volunteers, and board members.

And it is sparking debate on the popular blog Freakonomics about its accuracy.

The former auditor for a nonprofit organization, for instance, says the number is likely inflated.

“To the extent that fraud occurs, its fairly minor (compared to the stock options backdating schemes, and other frauds committed at for profits),” the commenter writes. “That said, many non-profits are smaller organizations without the internal controls to properly identify fraud risks and detect fraud in a timely manner.”

Others claim it is likely too low — though some observers say it might not be worth the ...

The Chronicle of Philanthropy and The Chronicle of Higher Education have joined forces to start Prospecting a new blog dedicated to fund raising.

Journalists from both publications will be contributing regularly to this blog to offer a wide array of perspectives about fund-raising trends and techniques that are working for nonprofit organizations in the United States and around the world.

We’ll also examine what’s on the minds of the tens of thousands of people who raise money — as professionals, board members, and volunteers — for charitable causes of all kinds. And we’ll make sure you keep up to date with important fund-raising news.

DoGooder TV — a YouTube-like portal of online videos for charities — has selected the finalists for its 2008 video awards.

The site has chosen eight videos that are vying for honors in three categories — best public service announcement, best short video, and best long video.

Greenpeace International in Washington is responsible for three of the finalists. The Humane Society of the United States in Washington, the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, and MOUSE Inc. in New York are among the other finalists.

Nancy Schwartz, a marketing consultant, writes on Getting Attention! that nonprofit leaders should be checking out the entries to learn new ways to communicate their message online.

“These are models of what your organization can do; representing various production values (and so cost points), issue focus and style,” Ms. Schwartz writes. “Contact the orgs who’ve...

Should foundations exist forever?

The answer to that question is yes for many foundations. But Paul Shoemaker, executive director of Social Venture Partners, in Seattle, says wealthy people who create foundations should think about this question more critically.

“Some causes and nonprofits might deliver more positive good in the world if they had the same amount of money sooner vs. spreading it over a longer period of time,” Mr. Shoemaker writes on the Social Venture Partners blog. “Again, this certainly is not a ‘mandatory,’ but it is worth your strong consideration if you are creating a family foundation or some kind of permanent corpus.”

He cites the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as an organization that plans to distribute all of its assets within 50 to 100 years, rather than operating in perpetuity.

What do you think? Should more foundations spend their assets quickly to ...

A chief financial officer of a charity in San Francisco was fired this week after the organization found that he had taken $3.6-million to play the stock market.

And some observers say the board of directors of the Music Community Concourse Partnership also needs to take responsibility for the situation.

“I must ask, where’s the board and the good systems and policies? For that matter, where was the exec?” wrote Michael Burns, a Connecticut strategic-planning consultant, on Nonprofit Board Crisis. “I mean, $3.6-million lost in the stock market — just how does anyone even get to play with that much money without it being noticed? Bad governance and bad management.”

The anonymous author of the blog Don’t Tell the Donor is also taking aim at the organization’s board of directors.

“In situations like these, you have to ask how the hell the board of directors allowed this much money...

Kiva.org, the San Francisco charity that helps provide small loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries, has been getting significant attention recently because it has been unable to find enough entrepreneurs to keep up with its pool of lenders.

That mismatch has prompted some observers to suggest solutions to this problem.

But one overlooked solution comes from an unwillingness to raise money to pay for operational support.

So says Jeff Brooks, the creative director for Merkle, a Seattle marketing consulting firm.

Mr. Brooks, writing on the Donor Power Blog, says Kiva would probably satisfy its donors if it approached them asking for money to help underwrite its operations. In turn, it would have more resources to find entrepreneurs who needed loans.

He suggests Kiva needs to ask two questions as it determines how to deal with its supply-demand gap:

• Would Kiva...

Lawmakers have been praising major universities that have recently outlined plans to reduce tuition for students from low- and middle-income families.

But are these plans mere window dressing to distract Congress from putting new rules on endowment spending?

Mike Burns, a Connecticut strategic-planning consultant, thinks so. Writing on his blog, Nonprofit Board Crisis, he says the incentives will do little to make college more affordable for the masses.

“These offerings look good on paper but what will this really cost the schools — even 1/2 percent annually from the endowments? I think we must applaud the appearance but let’s look closer at the real impact,” Mr. Burns writes. “Have the colleges just found a clever way to stave off regulation and continue to amass wealth — just like their graduates?”

Other critics, meanwhile, say colleges and universities should manage their...

The Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain isn’t letting a recent New York Times expose about his ties to a lobbyist interfere with his fund-raising operations, and that approach offers a lesson for nonprofit leaders, says one commentator.

Tom Durso, a public-relations consultant, says on the 501c Files. that Mr. McCain is using some smart tactics to raise money in the face of the controversial story — he is denying the allegations, he is rallying his most ardent supporters, and he is playing the victim.

“Poor Senator McCain, minding his own business, running his campaign, was completely ambushed by those bullies in New York. Please give to help him fight back,” is one of the key messages from Mr. McCain’s campaign in recent days, Mr. Durso writes.

“It almost makes you want to go out and do something improper so that the press will notice and report on it, doesn’t it...

Those who use the popular social-networking site Twitter have a new way of following Give & Take.

Links to the latest Give & Take posts, as well as to breaking news stories from The Chronicle of Philanthropy, are now available through the Chronicle’s new Twitter page.

The shaky economy has many charity leaders worried about how their organizations will carry out their missions and pay their bills. Some individual and corporate donors are already scaling back or canceling their gifts at a time when many charities are seeing increased demand for their services.

How can your organization weather the storm?

The Chronicle has invited two fund-raising and management experts to take your questions on this crucial issue during a live discussion today at noon Eastern time.

Answering your questions will be Michael Seltzer, author of Securing Your Organization’s Future, a book about how nonprofit groups can survive hard time, and Robert Sharpe, a planed-giving expert and consultant.

To improve the chances your questions will be answered, readers are welcome to post questions and comments before the conversation begins. And if you can’t join us for the ...