As Virginia voters decide today who will be their next governor, nonprofit workers in the state have been pushing the candidates to speak up on charity issues.

The V3 Campaign, an advocacy group in Washington, asked the 350,000 people who work at nonprofit organizations in Virginia to sign an online petition asking the candidates to appoint a “senior official” in the state capital who would encourage volunteering, identify partnerships between local government and charities, and in general advocate for nonprofit interests.

The group has made its pitch on economic grounds, saying that nonprofit efforts generate $8-billion in wages and $461-million in tax revenue for Virginia.

While neither of the candidates — Republican Bob McDonnell or Democrat Creigh Deeds — have endorsed the plan so far, there are signs that the idea is gaining traction elsewhere.

In Connecticut, for...

A new ruling from the Internal Revenue Service may get more community foundations involved in supporting advocacy efforts.

According to the Alliance for Justice, a Washington group that advises nonprofit groups about lobbying issues, the IRS has clarified the rules that govern how community funds and other grant-making charities can provide support for nonprofit organizations that lobby lawmakers.

“We hope this clarification will give more grant makers the confidence they need to fund aggressive advocacy,” the alliance’s president, Nan Aaron, said in a statement.

The IRS gave its opinion in a Private Letter Ruling issued to the Alliance for Justice, which is a charity. Such government rulings on complex legal issues apply only to the organizations that asked and paid for them; however, the rulings give other groups insights into the IRS’s thinking.

Federal law prohibits...

President Obama needs to revamp foreign assistance programs and should look at the work of foundations and other institutions to do so, argue two scholars at conservative think tanks in Washington.

In The Weekly Standard, Carol Adelman of the Hudson Institute and Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute write that they examined grant makers, corporations, the World Bank, and the U.S. Agency for International Development to come up with nine principles of successful foreign aid.

They include making sure that local people have a say in aid efforts, that programs are flexible and can adapt to new problems, and that there is “a tolerance for risk and a willingness to recognize failure.”

The American aid agency must also do more to consult with foundations, charities, religious organizations, and companies, they say.

“U.S. AID must not only be aware of but also work ...

President Obama this week appointed Helene Gayle, chief executive of CARE, to be chairwoman of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.

The council serves in an advisory role to the president and secretary of health and human services, making recommendations on polices to prevent the spread of HIV, disease research, and how to assist people who have HIV/AIDS.

The role is voluntary and part time, and Ms. Gayle will continue to serve as head of the charity, according to a press statement by CARE, an antipoverty group in Atlanta.

Ms. Gayle previously worked on fighting HIV/AIDS for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As the economy worsens, there are signs that state and local governments will seek money from tax-exempt groups to help close budget gaps — and New Hampshire is becoming a prime example.

According to the Associated Press, Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat, is seeking $85-million in surplus money from the Joint Underwriting Association, a tax-exempt medical malpractice insurance fund.

The association had planned to use part of the surplus to pay dividends to its member doctors. But the governor argues that the money belongs to New Hampshire because the state created the fund and because it is exempt from paying taxes.

The association is fighting the effort in court.

An editorial in the Union Leader, a newspaper in Manchester, N.H., says that while the malpractice fund is an unusual organization, lawmakers could make similar arguments against other tax-exempt organizations.

“If...

A New York Times editorial is urging lawmakers to allocate more money to the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal organization that oversees national-service programs.

In particular, the editorial argues that members of Congress should not “shortchange” the Social Innovation Fund, a program designed to help innovative charities. President Obama requested $50-million for the fund, but the House of Representatives allocated $35-million for it.

“That seems particularly unwise, given the need for fresh approaches and the willingness of foundations and philanthropists to match the federal investment,” says the editorial.

In all, the House budget for the corporation is $90-million less than what Mr. Obama had sought. The focus now turns to the Senate, which is set to deliberate over the federal budget.

The former inspector general for the Corporation for National and Community Service who was fired last month is suing the organization in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

In the lawsuit, Gerald Walpin seeks to be reinstated and says that his firing was illegal, reports ABC News. In a statement, Mr. Walpin says he is suing the corporation, which oversees AmeriCorps and other national-service efforts, to protect the system of federal inspectors general.

A White House spokesman told ABC that the Obama administration stands by its decision and that it followed the official rules required to dismiss an inspector general.

In an opinion article in the latest edition of The Chronicle, Pablo Eisenberg writes that the firing of Mr. Walpin and other moves raise questions about the governance of the national-service agency.

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In a sign of the growing popularity of contest-like grant making, the Tory political party in Britain is proposing that everyday citizens be allowed to vote on how part of the government’s foreign aid budget is spent.

Under the proposal, Britain’s Department for International Development would set aside about $65-million that the public would control by voting online between 10 aid projects in Africa and elsewhere, reports The Independent, a newspaper in London.

Several international aid charities are objecting to the idea, saying that people would probably vote for projects involving well-know nonprofit organizations. What’s more, they said projects that benefit needy children, for example, would likely be chosen over complex ones, like projects that seek to build democracy and good governance.

One political observer called the idea “popular gimmickry.” A Tory official said it ...

Six months into his administration, President Obama has yet to name people to senior positions at the U.S. Agency for International Development.

In The Washington Post, Al Kamen, a columnist, wonders why the vacancies persist despite Mr. Obama’s pledge to make foreign aid a priority.

“There was much talk by the Obama team during the campaign about how international development was so important to national security and how it needed to be a priority,” he writes. “But six months into the Obama administration, the Agency for International Development, though deeply troubled and adrift, now finds itself without a single top job filled by an Obama appointee.”

He writes that even if the White House were to name someone immediately, he or she would not take office until the fall.

The names of several prominent charity leaders, like Paul Farmer of Partners in Health, have been...

The nonprofit world is applauding President Obama’s Social-Innovation Fund, which he officially announced the creation of yesterday.

But even proponents of the $50-million effort are raising questions about how it should operate.

Matthew Bishop and Michael Green, the authors of Philanthrocapitalism, write on their blog that “implementation is going to be challenging, to say the least. There is not much of a track record of scaling up nonprofits to draw on for guidance. And $50-million is a drop in the ocean compared to the scale of the problems.”

Betsy Fuchs, a philanthropy consultant, agrees. On her new blog, Modern Giving, she also wonders how the fund will pick the “best” charitable programs to support.

“With countless private foundations around the country squabbling to define the ideal due-diligence process, how does Washington know exactly how to build one? How will we ...