So, does philanthropy not really care about black people?

Rosetta Thurman, director of development and finance at the Nonprofit Roundtable in Washington, casts a cold, hard look at this question on the Stanford Social Innovation Review’s blog. Ms. Thurman, who is black (and usually blogs at her own Perspectives from the Pipeline site), is reacting to the Chronicle’s" recent look at diversity in the nonprofit world.

She calls it a ”cop out” when “diversity” is defined to include gender, religion, sexual orientation, and other demographics that allow charities to “avoid the topic of race.”

That 82 percent of nonprofit CEO’s and 94 percent of foundation presidents are white, she says, highlights “the enormous disparity between what our clients and communities look like in comparison to our leaders.”

She adds: “The nonprofit sector needs to recognize that people of color are of...

When the homeless population began to spike in the United States some 20 years ago, scores of caring people stepped up to open some of the first shelters, soup kitchens, and other charity programs to help these troubled people.

Joel John Roberts, chief executive officer at Partners and People Assisting the Homeless, a social-services charity in Los Angeles, calls these care-giving pioneers “heroes” in his LA’s Homeless Blog However, Mr. Roberts continues, now that homelessness in Los Angeles has more than tripled since 1985, some citizens turn jaundiced eyes towards the people who initially stepped up to help

“So now, rather than being called heroes, those running homeless shelters and feeding programs are quietly being blamed for the failure,” he says. “After two decades, the perception of these people has turned from hero to villain.”

The thing to keep in mind, Mr. Roberts...

A decision by Verizon Wireless — later reversed — to restrict a text-messaging advocacy campaign by Naral Pro Choice America is being called “astonishing” by Nancy E. Schwartz, a nonprofit marketing consultant, in her blog, Getting Attention.

“Over the past few years, text messaging has become a core organizing tool for advocacy organizations,” she writes.

Yet Verizon Wireless rejected the abortion-rights advocacy group’s request to allow its supporters to participate in a Verizon text-messaging program that provides a simplified method for Verizon users to voluntarily sign up to receive text messages from organizations. The reason for the rebuff: a company policy that forbids organizations from participating if they “promote an agenda” that’s “controversial” or “unsavory,” according to an article in The New York Times.

“Seems that because NARAL makes Verizon Wireless cringe,...

Does your nonprofit group have online videos on its Web site? Tom Bradford, a charity consultant, thinks all charities should post videos, and on his Agitator site he posts some new statistics to back up his position.

According to Comscore, an international Internet research company, more than 133 million Americans watched online video during the month of July—that’s just about three quarters of all Internet users in the United States. That added up to more than 9 billion videos watched. The average viewer watched 68 videos in July, adding up to some three hours spent watching.

All those hours and all those online videos have convinced Mr. Bradford that it’s, “crucial for nonprofits to master this medium for conducting your fund raising, advocacy and educational efforts.”

“Every nonprofit can get in this game, not just the biggies,” he adds “Do you have a videographer on your...

“Important information regarding,” “visit our Web site,” “click here,” — seemingly harmless phrases that share a common link. If included in an e-mail to potential donors, the appeals may wind up in a junk file, unopened and unread, according to Jeff Brooks, creative director at marketing agency serving nonprofit organizations who discusses a whole list of spam-filter fodder at his Donor Power Blog.

These phrases, along with words such as “amazing” and “opportunity,” are some of the things spam-filter software programs scan for when deciding which incoming e-mail messages are valid — and which are bogus solicitations for Viagra and other nonsense.

Writes Mr. Brooks: “The spammers are taking everything that’s effective and ruining it.”

Organizations are advised to keep current with the growing lists of spam trigger words and keep them out of their e-mail appeals. “Our only option...

Is the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals spending enough time and money to investigate animal-abuse complaints?

The veteran charity consultants Tom Bradford and Roger Craver discuss the organization’s activities on their blog, The Agitator in response to a New York Times article on Animal Precinct, the six-year-old show on the Animal Planet cable television channel chronicling the charity’s efforts to investigate allegation of cruelty to animals.

The newspaper article says that only about 6 percent of the ASPCA’s $58-million annual budget (about $3.6-million) goes towards the charity’s team of animal-abuse investigators—the “cruelty cops” profiled on Animal Precinct. The group’s marketing and communications arm, meanwhile, receives around $6.5-million a year.

Those numbers caused some people quoted in the article—and apparently at least on person, who...

One person’s trash, it is said, may be another’s treasure. But sometimes trash is just trash.

Ken Goldstein, a consultant to charities, ruminates on the topic of trash at The Nonprofit Consultant Blog Specifically, he relates how some of his past charity clients have accepted donations of used clothing, household goods, and furniture. But what they often really received was refuse.

“Do you ever get tired of people trying to dump their old, useless garbage at your door and expecting you to thank them (as well as give them a receipt for their tax deduction)?” Mr. Goldstein writes.

He links to a letter to the editor published by a Muskogee, Okla., newspaper describing the garbage left alongside the boxes a local charity uses to collect would-be usable donations. Those boxes serve as magnets for old tires, dead Christmas trees, and “stuff for stray dogs to pilfer through.”

How...

In the brave new world of online fund raising, getting prospective donors to open and read e-mail messages from an organization is a victory—but only partially so.

Usually the next step is for these prospects to take action and click on a link that that takes them to a Web page where they learn more about a cause or campaign and make a donation.

This first page that people view after clicking on an e-mail message is called the “landing page” in marketing tech circles, and it’s a real window of opportunity. And one that can shut all too quickly.

At his Donor Power Blog Jeff Brooks, creative director at a marketing agency that serves nonprofit organizations, discuses a study that says “landing pages” have eight seconds to rope readers in before they abandon them and move on.

The study he cites examined-profit businesses, but Mr. Brooks says the picture would be even more dismal ...

The old saying “it’s a zoo out there” might be taking on extra meaning when applied to world of charity ethics, or so thinks Rosetta Thurman.

Ms. Thurman, director of development and finance at the Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington, writes on her Perspectives from the Pipeline that she is outraged over recent doings at the Detroit Zoo she read via Tuesday’s Philanthropy Today

After the zoo’s board discovered that executive director Ron Kagan falsified his resume—listing a doctoral degree in zoology he did not possess—the trustees decided to keep him at his post and dock him a month’s pay as punishment.

That did not sit well with Ms. Thurman, who said the board seemed to be saying: “Hey, we like him so much that we don’t care if he’s a liar. Let’s keep him at the helm of the Detroit Zoo and keep trusting him with the public’s dollars.”

She says nonprofit groups need to ...

While online fund raising gets all the buzz these days, it’s far too soon to proclaim the death of fund raising via the telephone, say the veteran fund-raising consultants Roger Carver and Tom Belford, who manage The Agitator blog.

To make their point, he Agitator’s authors posted a lengthy commentary from Matthew Guerin, a veteran telemarketer. He defends his profession while acknowledging that it has changed significantly over the past two decades. The amount of fund raising done over the phone may be way down, but it has also “grown up,” Mr. Guerin says.

The telephone fund raisers on the job today tend to be seasoned veterans who have the “ability to speak to mid- and high-level donors with confidence” while demonstrating a “true sense of the organization’s mission,” Mr. Guerin says.

What’s more, they tend to focus mainly on cultivating and recruiting major donors and...