Haiti is such a big focus of donors' attention right now that even some charities not working in the earthquake-wracked country are trying to identify ways to help - and at the same time assist their own fund raising.

Invisible Children, a nonprofit group that works with children in Northern Uganda, is asking supporters to vote for the organization so it can win $1-million as part of JPMorgan Chase's Facebook competition.

If the group wins, it will give $100,000 to a charity providing aid to earthquake victims, Invisible Children told supporters in an e-mail today.

"A 30 second vote could give $100,000 to help Haiti and Invisible Children," the charity says on its Web site.

Have you seen other creative examples of charities trying to piggyback off of the Haiti attention? What do you think of the strategy?

Some fund raisers are privately concerned that the extraordinary outpouring of gifts to help victims of Haiti’s earthquake could depress other giving, adding another obstacle in an already difficult fund-raising environment.

But most experts say that the outpouring of generosity to Haiti will have little impact on charitable support for other causes.

“It’s a natural question but the reality is this kind of giving very seldom has any impact on other charities,” said Bob Carter, vice chairman of Changing Our World, a nonprofit group that consults with charities. “People who don’t normally give to charity will rise to a crisis and make a gift, and very few people who are generally philanthropic are going to stop giving to things they believe in.”

Melissa Brown, associate director of research at the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy, said the experience of charities after the 2004...

Mia Hamm, Lance Armstrong, Muhammad Ali, and Tony Hawk are among 55 professional athletes extending their competitive spirit to charity fund raising this holiday season.

Athletes for Hope, a nonprofit group that helps sports players get involved in charitable causes, is ginning up competition among the athletes to see who can raise the most for their charity of choice by mid-January.

The fund-raising challenge was kicked off by Heather Mitts, a player for the Philadelphia Independence soccer team, in a video on the organization’s Web site.

Athletes who attract the most money and the largest number of gifts get prize money — up to $10,000 — for their charities. UGive, a nonprofit group that encourages young people to volunteer, is putting up much of that money, along with other sponsors.

Fans can track the athletes’ fund-raising progress on a Web page created by Global Giving,...

A story about how a couple’s dance down the aisle to a Chris Brown song raised money to fight domestic violence drew more viewers than any other Prospecting article this year.

A YouTube video of the dance became an Internet sensation, helping to raise more than $15,000 for Wellstone Action, an antiviolence group in St. Paul, Minn. The newlyweds, Jill Peterson and Kevin Heinz, chose the charity after the singer Chris Brown was charged with assaulting his then-girlfriend, Rihanna.

A story published in January about the factors that could shape fund raising in 2009 was the second most-popular story on Prospecting this year. Robert F. Sharpe, a planned-giving consultant in Minneapolis, identified a reduction in estate taxes, low investment returns, and the possibility of inflation as developments that could shape how much people would give this year.

Is it OK for charities to ban...

People are buying less on eBay, but they’re donating more.

The online-auction site reports that its Giving Works program has generated $50-million for nonprofit groups this year, a 17 percent increase over 2008. Sales on the Web site, meanwhile, have dropped.

The uptick in donations is good news for charities and another sign of the continued growth in giving online.

eBay’s program works in a number of ways: Sellers can designate a charity to receive a portion of their sales; buyers can choose to give when they make a purchase; and charities can use the site to sell goods.

While the overall amount raised for charity this year was significant, individual donations made through the site tend to be tiny. The average donation this year was $2.28, a drop from $4.08 in 2008.

But a handful of charities have found ways to unlock big money on eBay’s Giving Works program.

The...

What would you pay for a tour of Bill Gates’s home?

One Microsoft employee recently plunked down $35,101 for the privilege, as part of a company auction to raise money for the United Way in Seattle.

The auction, whose other items included prime parking spaces at Microsoft, flying trapeze lessons, and “the world’s greatest bologna sandwich,” brought in more than $500,000 this year, twice what it raised in 2008.

Over all, the company expects that its employee-giving campaign will generate roughly $82-million in 2009, about $5-million shy of its 2008 total. Fifty-nine percent of employees have participated so far. (The campaign runs in October, but some employees contribute at other times of the year).

Officials at the software giant were pleasantly surprised with those figures, given that the company has about 3,500 fewer employees this year because of layoffs.

And even with ...

Ben Stiller has a new target to satirize: charity. Mr. Stiller, the actor known for spoofs like Zoolander and Tropic Thunder, offers a comedic take on his buddy Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong campaign on a new Web site designed to raise money for Save the Children.

In a video message to Mr. Armstrong that appears on the site, the actor lays out his “original” fund-raising idea: “Stillerstrong” headbands. Buy one, and the net proceeds go to help a school in Haiti that Mr. Stiller visited on a recent trip.

“I was thinking I could get some celebrities to wear them, like you, maybe you could wear one in your next bike race,” he says. “Let me know what you think. Tweet at me, bro. Let me know if we can do some good.”

So far, the campaign has raised $100,000, according to Trevor Neilson, who advises Mr. Stiller on his giving. The Web site points people to ways to give online, via...

Little-known charities again struck big in America’s Giving Challenge, a contest designed to show the power of online social networks to raise small donations.

Groups participating in the month-long challenge competed to raise the largest number of gifts using the Causes application on Facebook. At stake was $245,000 in prize money from the Case and W.K. Kellogg Foundations.

Nearly 7,900 charities brought in 105,420 donations totaling $2.1-million in the competition, which ended last week. That was 17 percent more money — but 50 percent more donations — than last year’s contest, the first of its kind. More than twice as many groups participated this year.

While final results have yet to be announced pending a review of winning charities, it’s clear that smaller organizations outperformed larger groups.

Overseas China Education Foundation, a volunteer-run charity in Houston...

Nearly all charities are experimenting with social-media tools like Facebook and Twitter to get attention for their groups, but few have found ways to measure the tools’ usefulness, according to a new survey.

The survey of 200 charity and foundation professionals, conducted by the public-relations firm Weber Shandwick, found that 88 percent of groups have tested the tools, but only 51 percent are using them regularly.

The majority (71 percent) said they would continue to use traditional forms of media (advertising, for example) while experimenting, either a little or a lot, with social media.

Just 8 percent said they were switching almost entirely to social media. Eleven percent said they would continue to exclusively pursue traditional media.

Overall, 85 percent of respondents said they would use social media more frequently in the future. For the most part, nonprofit...

Donors increasingly want to see the results of their giving. That desire has contributed to the success of Kiva, the Web site that matches lenders in the United States with small business owners in poor countries.

And it has posed challenges for groups like Doctors Without Borders, the international medical charity, which typically does not raise money for specific programs or emergencies.

Doctors Without Borders emphasizes the importance of unrestricted support because the group doesn’t want to end up with more than it needs for one disaster and not enough for another, says Jennifer Tierney, director of development.

This year, the charity developed some fund-raising approaches meant to appeal to results-focused donors while also helping to maintain the organization’s independence and emphasis on flexible support.

They include:

• Giving donors the chance to support broad...