AmeriCorps alumni who marched in last week’s Inaugural parade are sharing memories, photos, and videos on a new blog, A Lifetime of Service.

“Walking past the presidential viewing booth mere feet from the Obamas?” writes one marcher, Emily Gilliland. “ I think I strained a muscle waving so hard. It’s not because I am confident that they can fix what ails the country, but I am excited because they see the potential in all of us to band together, like AmeriCorps, and get things done.”

About 150 members of AmeriCorps Alums, a group that unites former participants in the national-service program, participated in the Inaugural parade. See photos of that event—and other nonprofit activities surrounding the Inauguration—on the Chronicle‘s Flickr group.

Michael Seltzer, a philanthropy consultant, wants to start a public journal where people in the charitable world can record their hopes for what he calls “the dawning of this new era” following Barack Obama’s inauguration.

Mr. Seltzer has recorded his own thoughts on the Foundation Center’s blog, PhilanTopic, and invites others to contribute.

“Barack Obama hit a number of high notes in his sober but stirring inaugural address,” he writes. “For those of us who were drawn to a life of service in the 1960s, however, the phrase ‘reimagining America’s solutions’ had particular resonance.”

President Obama’s speech in effect serves “to reestablish the partnership between the nonprofit and public sectors,” Mr. Seltzer writes.

“In calling for a ‘new era of responsibility,’ President Obama is asking us—nonprofits, foundations, and faith-based organizations—to find new ways to engage the ...

Even Stephen Colbert, the comedy talk-show host, has now signed the “Declaration of Service,” the pledge being promoted by ServiceNation, the coalition of mostly nonprofit groups that is pushing for more civic engagement.

Of course, he used a fake name as he signed the document on Wednesday’s episode of the “Colbert Report.” In between Mr. Colbert’s jabs about why anyone would do something without getting paid, Alan Khazei, an organizer of ServiceNation, made a pitch for the national day of service that will take place on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

“You’ll have to check out www.colbertnation.com for a blow-by-blow of the conversation: I definitely can’t do it justice,” Brittny Saunders, policy counsel at Be the Change, the organization that Mr. Khazei heads, wrote on the ServiceNation blog. Ms. Saunders accompanied Mr. Khazei to the interview.

“But what I do remember is one...

How should people who are bombarded with requests during the holiday season decide which charities to support?

Nathaniel Whittemore, director of the Center for Global Engagement at Northwestern University, is inviting philanthropy and social-entrepreneurship bloggers to offer some guidance.

“Every organization and their mother has some sort of matching offer or competition they’re promoting, and it seems like every one of them knows how to get to you,” he writes on the Change.org blog. “Even for the involved giver, it makes it hard to figure out what to spend your limited resources on.”

He is asking bloggers to offer “The One Thing You Need to Know Before You Donate This Holiday Season” — and linking to their responses.

Among the answers so far: See if a current or former beneficiary is on the group’s board of directors, ask what percentage of the group’s board members donated...

People who can’t afford to give money to charity this holiday season can learn about other ways to do good at a new Web site, the Give List.

“Times are tight. We know, we know,” the site says. “We’ve all seen the scary headlines. Too many of the scary headlines. And we’re all feeling the pressure in other ways, too. But, still, we want to contribute what we can to making the world the better place.”

The site is collecting ideas from people who are offering them on their blogs and social-networking services like Twitter and Delicious – -all tagged in a way that they can be picked up.

Among the suggestions so far:

• Participate in the Whole Foods Wooden Nickel program, which gives money to charities when shoppers bring in and use their own shopping bags.

• Ask people who are attending an event you’ve organized to donate to a food drive.

• If you crochet or knit, and...

Patty Stonesifer, who stepped down earlier this year as chief executive of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has found a new calling — advice columnist.

Ms. Stonesifer’s daughter, Sandy, has announced that she and her mother plan to start a weekly column at the beginning of next year for Slate, the online news magazine, called “My Goodness.”

“Most of us — and not just recent college grads — struggle to find ways to help others without ruining our own lives,” she writes. “Given my student loans, can I really afford to work for that African aid group? Should I take a high-paying job and make larger charitable donations? Or earn less and volunteer my time?”

When the younger Ms. Stonesifer — identified as project manager of a national study of the consequences of unintended pregnancy in San Francisco — asks questions like that, she turns to her mother for help. “Sometimes I...

If you have an opinion about whether “creative capitalism” can save the world, the journalist Michael Kinsley would like to hear from you. Mr. Kinsley is looking for contributors to a book he is producing about the notion that capitalism can be reshaped to help lift people out of poverty.

Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft who is stepping down today to work full time for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, floated the term “creative capitalism” last winter at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He argued that problems in the world’s poorest countries are too big to be solved by philanthropy. Capitalism must step in, he said, but at the moment it does much better at serving the needs of the prosperous than those of the poor.

“The notion that capitalism, which is all about self-interest, can be amended somehow to be more about helping others—and still be capitalist—...

Exposing bad charities can make headlines and get the adrenaline flowing. But it’s more useful for donors to focus on which groups can convincingly document their effectiveness, says Holden Karnofsky, a program officer at GiveWell, a grant maker that publicizes its evaluations of charities.

“When I’m explaining GiveWell to someone,” he writes on the GiveWell Blog, “there often comes a moment where his/her eyes suddenly light up, and s/he says something like, ‘So you bust the bad guys, eh? Can you tell me about a really bad one you’ve nailed?’”

Mr. Karnofsky says such people are disappointed to find that GiveWell does not label charities “bad,” but says simply that it decided against giving money to certain groups because they did not provide enough evidence for an assessment.

“Trying to nail down the effects of charities that don’t have strong self-documentation is an enormous...

Donors need more help deciding where to give during big natural disasters like the cyclone that hit Myanmar, the GiveWell Blog argues.

“Google ‘Myanmar’ and you’ll see a huge list of organizations advertising for donations,” writes Holden Karnofsky, a program officer at GiveWell, a grant maker that publicizes its evaluations of nonprofit groups. “I don’t know whether they’re coordinating on the ground, but they’re certainly competing when it comes to raising money—and donors, including myself, have virtually nothing to go on in picking one.”

Mr. Karnofsky says he participated in a conference call about the Myanmar disaster hosted by Arabella Advisors, a firm that advises philanthropists. The callers were urged to consult a list of charities vetted by InterAction, the coalition of American relief groups. But that list offered 46 organizations to choose from — and the vetting...

Apparently not everyone realizes that a video circulating on the Internet that says a child has bankrupted the Make-a-Wish Foundation by asking for unlimited wishes is a spoof.

As Don’t Tell the Donor reports, the satirical Onion News Network produced the video of a fictional news program reporting that an 8-year-old Boston boy had taken advantage of a “bureaucratic loophole” to make his demands.

They included nine trips to Walt Disney World for himself and family of five, an F-14 Tomcat (which had to be decommissioned from Afghanistan), and daily hot dog lunches with the Yankee slugger Johnny Damon.

Don’t Tell the Donor’s anonymous blogger notes that the spoof has been so popular that it earned a spot on Snopes.com, a site that debunks Internet rumors.

The Make-a-Wish Foundation, in Phoenix, also posted a notice on its Web site stating that it is financially sound and does not ...