Did Bernard Madoff love charities, or hate them?

The Wall Street Journal writer Robert Frank suggests a little of both in his Wealth Report blog. At the very least, philanthropy could sometimes annoy the man who engendered a financial Ponzi scheme that costs foundations and charities billions of dollars in lost assets. (See a new Chronicle article on the effects of the losses on foundations.)

The blog prints a snippet from the transcript of a 2005 phone conversation between Mr. Madoff and Fairfield Greenwich Group, one of the financial firms that steered investors into his bogus fund. (Fairfield was under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Mr. Madoff was dispensing some dodgy advice on how the firm should handle things.)

Apparently, during this conversation another of Mr. Madoff’s lines kept ringing, drawing the fraud financier away from the business at...

During President Obama’s press conference last week, a reporter mentioned that 1 in 50 children are homeless in America. He then went on to ask the president what message he had for families, “sleeping under bridges and in tents” across the country.

“This is one of those statistical assertions that you know is BS before you even set out to show it’s BS,” writes commentator Mickey Kaus at his Kausfiles blog at the Web magazine Slate.

The numbers come from a recent study by the National Center on Family Homelessness, in Newton, Mass., which Mr. Kaus refers to as an, “anti-homelessness advocacy group with every incentive to maximize the estimate of the problem.”

He takes issue with the charity’s figures for a number of reasons, including its counting as homeless someone who had one incident of homelessness over the past year. The study also counted as homeless families that,...

Has you charity been offered some free radio airtime, billboard space, or other marketing availabilities usually out of reach for most nonprofit groups?

Free might sound like a good deal, but it isn’t always, says Jeff Brooks, creative director at Merkle, a direct-marketing agency that serve charities.

“Donated media can be fine, but here’s a precaution: Don’t take something free that you wouldn’t pay for,” he cautions on his Donor Power Blog.

One problem is that the promotional time or space being given away might be, in Mr. Brooks’ words “garbage,” (or more gently, “media they haven’t been able to sell because it has little or no value in the marketplace.”)

Then you have to factor in that that while it’s free to get your message, it’s not free when charity employees have to spend time on a new project.

“Every moment you spend creating and managing campaigns for free media...

Tag lines—pithy phrases that distills an organization’s mission down to a few words—are much beloved by the nonprofit marketing consultant Nancy Schwartz, who recently held a contest for charity tag lines on her Getting Attention blog.

Taking a contrarian view of tags is Jeff Brooks, creative director at the Merkle marketing firm, who calls them “catchy little phrases that no mentally healthy human would use in conversation” on his Donor Power Blog.

Tag lines, Mr. Brooks writes, are too often just another form of sloganeering. He links to an article in Fast Company magazine offering “the anti-slogan argument”. The magazine says: “People don’t speak slogan-language today unless they’re trying to put one over on you. So when you hear one, you immediately become cynical.”

“The solution: Just start telling stories,” Mr. Brooks writes. “The way you do with your friends. Slogans, tag...

In these tough economic times, the fund-raising consultant Roger Craver says it’s all the more important for charities to succinctly and powerfully make the fund-raising case for their cause- -a process he calls “messaging.”

In his The Agitator blog, however, Mr. Carver and a guest writer Bob Levy, a creative consultant and copywriter, point out the “structural barriers” that have sprung up in many nonprofit organizations that can dilute this “messaging” process.

“Creative consultants and copywriters once had access to the leaders of nonprofits and were viewed as ‘channelers’ for the organization’s message to key constituents,” Mr. Craver writes. “This is no longer the case. The ‘professionalization’ of nonprofits has resulted in isolating fund raisers and copywriters from those who determine mission and message.”

The job of crafting a charities “message,” is now spread across...

“Some nonprofits just shouldn’t be allowed to have ad budgets,” writes Jeff Brooks, on his Donor Power Blog.

Mr. Brooks, creative director at a marketing firm that serves nonprofit groups, takes issue with what he calls “two more stupid nonprofit ads.”

His first target is a pair of print ads for Goodwill Industries, the social-services charity know for its thrift stores. One ad reads: “Dear Sarah Palin, We eagerly await your $150,000 clothing donation on Nov. 5. Thanks in advance.”

It refers to the pricey wardrobe the Republican vice presidential candidate was provided during the campaign (and the bit of controversy the shopping spree stirred up.) Campaign officials have said the clothing is to be donated to charity.

In a companion ad, the charity directed a request at Barack Obama. It says, in a nutshell, that the charity would “appreciate” it if he were to donate any of his...

In these rough economic times, many nonprofit groups are looking to cut costs wherever and however they can. But Nancy Schwartz, a nonprofit marketing consultant, urges charities to spare their marketing budgets from deep reductions.

“When a nonprofit cuts marketing, it severs one of the hands that feed it,” she writes on her Getting Attention blog. “Nothing’s more important now than ensuring that your organization’s leaders get that cutting marketing back now is a bad move.”

Ms. Schwartz argues that marketing is a chief provider of a charity’s lifeblood— donors and volunteers—and this is true in good times and bad.

She advises nonprofit officials in charge of marketing to avoid getting defensive and instead make suggestions about ways to spend money more efficiently and productively. For example, a marketing official might promise to increase revenue over a designated period of...

The Clorox brand’s foray into environmentally friendly cleaning products appears to be mopping up sales. But the Sierra Club’s decision to endorse Clorox’s new “Green Works” line of consumer products for an undisclosed fee has left some associated with the environmental charity feeling a little dirty.

“Since I’ve been in the sector, there has been an unwritten rule that endorsements for money are off-limits due to the risk of sullying the brand,” writes Carla Dearing, president of GivingNet, a charity consulting organization in Lexington, Ky, on the blog PhilanthroMedia

Ms. Dearing refers to an article in the latest issue of Fast Company magazine detailing months of controversy that have ensued since Sierra Club started placing its logo on the Green Works line back in January.

Some Sierra Club chapter leaders resigned in protest over a deal they felt was rushed through, the...

During a recent vacation at a rental house on Cape Cod, the nonprofit consultant Nancy Schwartz was reminded of the value of “right place, right time” marketing.

Ms. Schwartz writes in her blog Getting Attention about a magnet on the refrigerator in her rented beach house that read: “Vacation over? Got extra food? Donate to Pantry Partners for Cape Cod Families in Need.”

Pantry Partners, a three-year-old hunger charity that supplies 12 area food banks, has found that vacationers cleaning out the icebox before trekking home can be a good source of donations. The well-placed magnet simply “feeds” this idea.

“Putting your call to action on the spot, when and where people are doing something related, works,” Ms Schwartz writes. “I registered Pantry Partner’s request every time I opened the fridge, and you know where our remaining groceries went when we headed home.”

She concludes by...

Would your charity eagerly hire someone with a criminal history of embezzlement or bank fraud to a managerial position?

Gary Snyder, a nonprofit consultant, lists a half-dozen charities—including an affordable housing group and a Christian school—that unwittingly hired people with just such background blemishes. And most of the groups only found out after they, too, became victims of financial misconduct.

Writing on the blog maintained by the the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, a watchdog group in Washington, Mr. Snyder stresses, is the importance of checking references.

For senior-level job candidates, he recommends contacting as many as five or six references. Getting the most from a conversation with a reference is an art, he writes.

“Drilling down below the surface of initial comments will make a reference truly useful,” Mr. Snyder says. “Listen not just ...