Readers of Give and Take are encouraged to join an online discussion on Tuesday, at noon Eastern time, with philanthropy experts who will share their predictions for what nonprofit organizations can expect during the next 12 months — and beyond — in terms of economic trends, the federal budget, donor demographics, and other key issues.

This discussion is open to everyone, not just Chronicle of Philanthropy subscribers. People who ask questions in advance have a better chance of receiving answers during the online discussion.

Plus: Read what experts say are the biggest issues of 2008 and add your thoughts to the discussion unfolding with readers of our Web site.

Are small donors better than one big one?

The anonymous author of Don’t Tell the Donor thinks so. “Low-dollar donors provide an important endorsement that the nonprofit’s work matters. On the other side, all too often it can seem as if major donors are more interested in using their gift to avoid taxes on their wealth or to advance their own social status,” the fund raisier writes.

But Jeremy Gregg, author of The Raiser’s Razor, points out difficulties with small gifts, too.

Mr. Gregg, director of development at Central Dallas Ministries, agrees that relying too much on wealthy philanthropists and their sometimes fickle whims — “the tyranny of the donors,” as he calls it — can be a problem.

But given the administrative burden of sending receipts, processing, and depositing a lot of small gifts, he writes that receiving 2,000 $50 donations can cost at least $6,000.

“If I had to...

To mark Worlds AIDS Day, President Bush last week visited the Calvary United Methodist Church, in Mount Airy, Md., to praise its partnership with an orphanage and school in Namibia for children who lost their parents to the disease, reports the Associated Press.

But Mr. Bush’s emphasis on the role of religious, especially Christian, groups drew mixed reviews.

Last week, 44 AIDS activists were arrested outside the White House as they protested abstinence-only education, which is often stressed by evangelical Christians, and other policies, the Associated Press reports.

But Charles W. Colson, founder of the Prison Fellowships Ministries, points out on his charity’s blog, Breakpoint, that it was an evangelical Christian member of Mr. Bush’s inner circle that pushed him to fight AIDS.

Adam Taylor, director of campaigns and organizing for Sojourners, a Christian charity in Washington...

A Chilean prostitute’s donation of about $4,000 — raised by auctioning off her professional services — for a charity that assists needy children has raised questions about whether such a gift should be rejected.

Prostitution is legal in Chile, but the intended recipient, the Teleton charity, probably should think twice before accepting Maria Carolina’s gift, writes Emil Steiner, author of The Washington Post’s OFF/Beat blog.

“Carolina points out that ‘there are people who are going to be donating money that’s a lot more questionable than mine’ — they just don’t publicize it. That’s difficult to prove or disprove. But is Teleton accepting money from a source antithetical to its mission?” he writes.

It is unclear whether Teleton will take the money. Agence Francaise de Presse reported that the administrator of Teleton, Mario Kreutzberger, a Chilean television broadcaster, said...

The unfolding scandal at the American Red Cross has triggered a wide range of criticism — but not all observers see it as a black eye for the relief organization.

On Tuesday the charity’s Board of Governors announced that it asked for — and received — the resignation of Mark W. Everson, executive director of the Red Cross National Headquarters, in Washington. The board said it removed Mr. Everson after it learned that he had “engaged in a personal relationship with a subordinate employee.”

While the incident is expected to damage the group’s already beleaguered reputation, Jack Siegel, a Chicago lawyer who specializes in nonprofit law, writes that the board should be applauded for its move.

“The board took decisive action, saying that we are an organization that is not dependent on one individual. To us, this looks like a board that has chosen to govern. That’s a good sign,” he...

Should judges donate leftover money from class-action lawsuits to charity?

For example, a New York Times article writes that a federal judge in New York gave $1-million to an eating-disorder program and $500,000 to a substance-abuse program from unclaimed money in an antitrust class-action settlement. The judge reasoned that the case involved fashion models, and these programs were likely to assist needy people in the profession.

While supporting charitable causes, such moves have triggered a debate in the legal world about the potential conflicts-of-interest for judges. In some cases, the newspaper writes that charities have lobbied judges for the money and contributions have gone to support nonprofit groups only tangentially related to the lawsuits where the money originated.

Deven Desai, an assistant law professor at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, in San Diego, writes that...

Where is India’s Warren Buffett?

Shantanu Dutta, who raises money for Viva India, a charity in New Delhi, laments that despite increasing wealth in his country, rich Indians prefer to spend their money on private jets, lavish birthday parties, or BMWs.

“The passion for philanthropy is missing,” he writes on Mutiny.in, a blog that discusses Indian society.

“Even as we read about Indian industrialists getting wealthier and wealthier, and also read in the same vein about Warren Buffett giving away 85 percent of his fortune, the topmost question on my mind is whether we can expect to have in our amidst a man of the generosity of Buffett anytime soon,” he writes.

While the number and effectiveness of nonprofit groups have grown in India, Mr. Dutta writes that the scarcity of homegrown philanthropists makes fund raising difficult.

“It is not a pleasant job; at times one can feel a...

While not a pretty topic, the world needs to do more about improving sanitation, hygiene, and access to clean toilets in poor regions, writes Peter Newborne, a senior research associate at the Overseas Development Institute, in London.

Writing on the think tank’s blog, Mr. Newborne says he hopes efforts like the United Nations Year of Sanitation, which started this week, and World Toilet Day, which was Monday, will raise the profile of such issues despite a stigma about discussing toilets.

He writes that “development practitioners around the world can expect to witness a renewed and more determined effort to make the case that providing better sanitation & hygiene facilities for poor households is a development priority – especially for the benefit of all the people who are currently without basic means to carry out a basic daily function. We all do it – even if we are coy at...

Is Charity Navigator the National Enquirer of nonprofit watchdog groups?

Michael Soper, a nonprofit consultant, charges that Charity Navigator, Mahwah, N.J., is similar to the infamous tabloid because its uses flawed reporting to make sensationalistic reports, such as “10 charities routinely in the red.”

“In my view, Charity Navigator, its ratings, and its top ten lists are nothing more than great merchandising of a weak underlying product,” Mr. Soper writes on Tactical Philanthropy.

Specifically, Mr. Soper writes that the watchdog’s methods are flawed because:

• It only examines the financial health of a charity, not how effective it is at meeting its mission.

• It relies too heavily on the Internal Revenue Service’s 990 informational tax return, which charities often interpret differently.

• Its ratings could be skewed depending on a charity’s mission or the year...

Bill Gates discusses his foundation’s effort to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS in China on The Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog. But one nonprofit observer says Mr. Gates may be playing down the challenges of working there.

In a question-and-answer format, Mr. Gates says that the China program will focus primarily on preventing the disease among people most likely to be at risk. For example, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has paid for a television ad produced by the China AIDS Media Project that features the movie star Jackie Chan promoting safe sex.

Mr. Gates also said his fund would work closely with the Chinese government, despite its mistrust of charities, and acknowledged that it may be difficult to find nonprofit groups in China that will be able to carry out the foundation’s goals.

A frequent critic of the foundation, the author of the Gates Keepers blog, says Mr. Gates...