Several charity experts are discussing the need for nonprofit workers to be better paid and for donors to support management training, technology upgrades, and related administrative costs.

The discussions were prompted by Dan Pallotta, a former fund raiser, and his new book, Uncharitable: How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential. In the book, Mr. Pallotta argues in part that the charity world will not achieve real progress unless it matches the salaries provided by businesses and invests more in advertising.

Writing on a New York Times blog, On the Ground, Charlie MacCormack, chief executive of Save the Children, an international aid group, agrees somewhat with Mr. Pallotta.

“I think Pallotta goes too far in his recommendations. However, I am convinced that humanitarian organizations such as Save the Children are too far over in the opposite direction — our...

Two big foundations have teamed up to assist civil-rights groups and legal-aid organizations that have lost donors due to the alleged financial scheme of Bernard Madoff.

The Atlantic Philanthropies and Open Society Institute have pledged to match as much as $300,000 in donations to the Brennen Center for Justice, Human Rights Watch, the Advancement Project, and the Center for Constitutional Rights. The foundations’ offer was good until yesterday.

MoveOn.Org, the liberal activist group, is organizing the fund-raising effort. It sent an e-mail message to its 5 million members yesterday asking them to contribute.

“If these groups can’t replace the funding that came from investment accounts that Madoff stole, they may be forced to start cutting important projects or, in some cases, even lay off staff,” it says.

In a related topic, the founder of another effort to raise funds for...

A new report’s criticism of how the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation fights diseases is being debated.

Global Health Watch 2, a report published by four international health advocacy groups, questions Bill Gates and his foundation’s efforts on several levels. The charges include that the foundation for many years ignored the importance of improving the basic health infrastructure of developing countries; it invests in unethical corporations; and that philanthropy puts too much power in the wealthy to improve the lives of the global poor.

But the authors of Philanthrocapitalism defend the Microsoft tycoon and his charitable work.

On their Values blog, Michael Green and Matthew Bishop write that the report is off-base with its concerns.

For example, the report complains that the Gates foundation “is not accountable to developing governments or the World Health Organization,” ...

Should donors help the nonprofit victims of Bernard Madoff’s alleged Ponzi scheme?

A new Web site, titled They Need Us Now, has been set up to raise money for charities that have been hurt financially because donors who supported them lost major investments with Mr. Madoff.

Lucy Bernholz, a philanthropy consultant, praises the effort, though she cautions that it’s unclear who is operating it.

“It is a great idea, I hope it is legit. It was also put together fast – the Madoff scandal only came to light 10 days ago,” she writes on her blog, Philanthropy 2173.

About three dozen large Jewish foundations have also joined together to aid Mr. Madoff’s victims, many whom were Jewish nonprofit groups, reports The Washington Post.

But Bob McInnis, executive director of an anti-hunger group in Calgary, Canada, questions whether the nonprofit world should be rushing to aid the nonprofit ...

The financial fraud allegedly perpetrated by the philanthropist and financier Bernard Madoff exposes an uncomfortable double-standard in the nonprofit world, writes Tom Belford, a fund-raising consultant.

While in recent years charities have faced increased scrutiny, in the case of Mr. Madoff, it was a donor — and how he invested the money of other donors — that should have been examined, he writes on his blog, The Agitator.

“Who’s supposed to be protecting the charities from the unscrupulous donors?!” Mr. Belford writes.

And while the Securities and Exchange Commission failed to investigate Mr. Madoff, “let one nonprofit emit an errant fart and grandstanding members of Congress and the IRS would be all over it (the nonprofit, that is) like ticks on a hound,” he says.

Read The Chronicle’s article about how Mr. Madoff’s alleged scam is threatening nonprofit groups. Read other ...

As foundations and philanthropists struggle to figure how to best respond to the economic crisis, one philanthropy adviser says, “keep your powder dry.”

Richard Marker, a donor consultant in New York, says donors can play an immediate role, but should also consider taking a slow approach to the financial meltdown.

“We have learned from the experience with ‘disaster funding’ that there is merit in not being the first funding responders. Many unanticipated needs arise, or needs which are more fine tuned, 6 months, 1 year, even 2 years after,” he writes on his blog, Wise Philanthropy. “After all, no funder alone can solve this financial and societal mess so one needn’t feel guilty if one waits.”

He suggests that donors continue to support innovative ideas; consider assisting arts and cultural institutions and other non-social services; examine your missions during the crisis, but do...

Several Jewish nonprofit groups have lost millions of dollars, and one has shut down, because they fell victim to the investment scheme allegedly put together by the financier Bernard L. Madoff, former chairman of the Nasdaq.

Charity experts say that his fraud will reverberate across the nonprofit world and serves as a reminder to charities that they need to keep a close watch on their investments and the people who are controlling them.

Mr. Madoff was arrested last week for operating a hedge fund that essentially worked as a $50-billion Ponzi scheme. His nonprofit victims include the Robert I. Lappin Foundation, in Salem, Mass., which announced on its Web site that its has been forced to close due to the incident.

“The money needed to fund the programs of the Lappin Foundations is gone. The foundation staff has been terminated today,” says the note from the group, which used...

Nonprofit observers are debating who is the winner of the dispute between Princeton University and the Robertson family now that the two have agreed to end a closely watched lawsuit that raised questions about how nonprofit groups adhere to donor demands.

Under the agreement, Princeton will pay $50-million, plus $40-million in legal fees, to charitable funds controlled by heirs of Charles and Marie Robertson, a couple who in 1961 gave money to start an endowment that supports the university’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. In 2002, William S. Robertson, their son, and other family members sued the university, claiming that it had violated the terms of the gift.

The endowment, worth more than $700-million, will be dissolved as part of the settlement, which still requires approval of a New Jersey Superior Court judge. Princeton will retain most of the money...

The allegations that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich sought to benefit politically and financially in schemes involving nonprofit groups is unfortunately a well-worn tactic, writes Jeff Trexler, a professor of social entrepreneurship at Pace University, in New York.

Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat, was charged this week with corruption and graft. A lawyer for Mr. Blagojevich said the governor is innocent.

Among the allegations is that the governor wanted a $50,000 political contribution from the head of the nonprofit Children’s Memorial Hospital in exchange for $8-million in state support. According to the Chicago Tribune, Children’s Memorial has said none of its employees, including its chief executive, participated in the alleged scheme.

Mr. Trexler, who used to work as a lawyer in Chicago, says dirty deals of this type are “sadly familiar.”

Allegations that Mr. Blagojevich...

The decision by the Weingart Foundation to award emergency grants to pay for administrative costs and other operating expenses is being hailed by several people in the nonprofit world.

In response to the economic recession, the foundation, in Los Angeles, will offer a new “core support” program to assist well-run social-service groups in Southern California, the organization says on its Web site.

Sasha Dichter, director of business development at the Acumen Fund, writes that the move deserves the headline: “Nation Stunned: LA-based Weingart Foundation Places Trust in Nonprofit Grantees.”

“This is absolutely, positively not meant to be a dig on the Weingart Foundation. To the contrary, they deserve praise,” he adds.

On his blog, Mr. Dichter writes that Weingart’s decision — and the fact that it made news in the Los Angeles Business Journal — is a sign that foundations too often...