Several philanthropy blogs have been carrying on a vigorous debate over how best to measure whether nonprofit groups are successful.

The debate started after a venture capitalist commented at the recent NetSquared technology conference, “Some nonprofits just suck.”

Some people thought the comment was just a statement of fact, arguing that some groups do perform poorly—and deserve to be shut down. But others thought it was inappropriate to phrase the problem that way, especially at a conference attended by nonprofit workers.

Since then, the conversation has veered in several directions, as described by Sean Stannard-Stockton, author of Tactical Philanthropy.

The bloggers have been discussing whether a nonprofit group is more “sustainable” if it earns income as opposed to relying on donations, and whether grant makers and charities should weed out underperformers by giving...

Anyone who wants to maintain control over his or her “good cause” organization should start a business, not a nonprofit group, says a consultant to nonprofit boards.

“Nonprofits are meant to be publicly funded; therefore, they need to be publicly governed as well,” writes Antonette Artiz, author of Nonprofit Connectors, a blog designed to help people who are just starting their organizations. “Boards set the mission, goals, and policies for nonprofits.”

“For-profit businesses set their goals and move full steam ahead, while nonprofits have more layers to go through when setting goals and moving forward.”

Mr. Artiz, who runs a business in Virginia that provides administrative help to nonprofit boards, says people who want to create nonprofit groups should also ask: Are there other organizations doing what you want to do? Would it be better to just join one of them? Can you give...

A contributor to The GiveWell Blog says people should remember that corporations are not people—and do not have the same obligations to give to charity.

“A corporation is a legal entity whose sole purpose is to provide particular goods or services,” writes Holden Karnofsky, a co-founder of GiveWell, a group that analyzes the effectiveness of nonprofit groups for donors.

Every penny that a corporation gives to charity is one that it could have given to shareholders, he argues.

“Those are people as capable of giving to charity as any other people”—and they are better off using their own judgment than being stuck with charities that a corporate social-responsibility committee designates, he adds.

A socially responsible company, broadly, is “a company that uses only what it pays for and charges only for what it provides,” he concludes.

Do you agree that companies should stick to ...

Trent Stamp is unhappy with the American Red Cross’s selection for the new post of ombudsman—Beverly Ortega Babers. The president of Charity Navigator writes on Trent Stamp’s Take that Ms. Babers appears to be “an impressive woman” with degrees from good schools, a long career of public service, and a working knowledge of the legal system.

So what’s the problem? She was formerly chief of staff to Mark Everson, the Red Cross’s new chief executive, when he was commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service.

Mr. Stamp says her ties to Mr. Everson will make it difficult for her to play the role of the “lone independent voice and the donor’s eyes and ears at America’s most-important nonprofit.”

“Would it have been too much to ask the the new ombudsman at the Red Cross be neither a long-time employee of the organization nor a political ally. . .of the new leader of the charity?” he...

Two medical institutions were unwise to accept gifts with strings attached by the oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens, writes Jack Siegel on his Charity Governance blog.

“The structure of these two gifts smacks of unnecessary meddling,” he writes, adding that Mr. Pickens, “like many wealthy donors, is acting in a paternalistic manner.”

The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported that Mr. Pickens gave $50-million each to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston, on the condition that the money is invested so it grows by at least 10 times.

“Several aspects of these restrictions bug us,” writes Mr....

Holden Karnofsky, a contributor to The GiveWell Blog, wants somebody to explain to him why foundations give out so little of their money.

Using figures from the Foundation Center Yearbook, he calculates that foundations spent 6.6 percent of their $510.5-billion in assets in 2005. “I will be surprised if you can convince me that a world this needy, a charitable sector this underfunded, and $500-billion sitting in savings don’t add up to a broken system and a tragedy for those in need,” he writes.

Mr. Karnofsky, who used to work for a hedge fund, helped start GiveWell, which analyzes the effectiveness of nonprofit groups to help donors decide where to give. He says he doesn’t understand why foundations stay in business any longer than 10 or 20 years.

“Why, honestly, are the Carnegie Corporation and Ford Foundation still around, long past the point where anyone can reasonably claim...

Kivi Leroux Miller, author of Nonprofit Communications, shares 10 tips for working more productively. While they are geared to people who do communications work for nonprofit groups, most apply more broadly.

Examples:

• Do similar jobs at the same time. Ms. Miller, a communications consultant, says she sometimes spends a whole day writing nothing but blog posts that she can publish throughout the week.

• File good ideas away. Ms. Miller says she records ideas for client projects, marketing angles, and blog posts in a big notebook on her desk, a tiny notebook in her purse, and a pad of paper on the bedside table.

• Get organized, but don’t obsess about it. Ms. Miller says she could spend all day, every day, cleaning up files or re-prioritizing her to-do lists, but would get nothing of substance done. “I’ve realized that when I get into hyper-organization mode, I’m...

Paul Jones, the author of Cause-Related Marketing, wonders if the proliferation of ribbons to denote charity causes has gotten out of hand.

He says he started asking questions when he noticed in an advertisement that the March of Dimes uses a pink and blue ribbon as a symbol.

“Could ribbons be overused to the point where there’s a ribbon backlash?” he asks.

Mr. Jones, a communications and marketing consultant at Alden Keene & Associates, highlights some of the uses of ribbons around the world—red for AIDS awareness, pink for the fight against breast cancer, purple for the fight against cystic fibrosis, white for the campaign to end violence against women, and so on.

Some colors denote more than one cause, he says, noting that purple ribbons also are used as a protest against horse slaughter, as a sign of Pagan solidarity, and in memory of the musician John Lennon.

“Here’s a...

Future Leaders in Philanthropy has re-posted what it calls one of its most popular items—“The Top 10 Tips for Young Fund Raisers.”

Among the suggestions: Schedule the “ask” in a comfortable environment, practice using a script, and ask the donor to consider giving a specific amount.

The fund raiser should follow up with the potential donor, no matter what the response, and cultivate those who give, says the author—Sarah Ruegger, a staff member at Changing Our World, the fund-raising consulting firm that publishes the blog.

“After a gift or pledge is made, keep the donor close. Be sure to update him or her on the project(s) they have donated to and that all tax letters are sent and received on time.”

If you have tips for young fund raisers, post them by clicking on the comments link below.

Jeff Brooks, author of Donor Power Blog, says he usually thinks it’s best to give donors plenty of ways to be involved in the causes they support. But he says he has finally found a case of too much donor power—RealityCharity, which bills itself as the first “person-to-person giving platform.”

The group allows donors to make gifts directly to people who describe their needs and make a pitch for money—an approach it says is more efficient than traditional charitable giving.

“We should cut out the middlemen and let the people decide,” Alexander Blass, the site’s founder, told the Associated Press.

But Mr. Brooks, creative director at Merkle/Domain, a fund-raising consulting firm, says the group does not deliver “the structure and vision we normally expect from a nonprofit.” Nor are the gifts tax deductible.

“RealityCharity creates an atomized, market-driven approach, not...