When Susan Herr ran a struggling charity, she was sometimes tempted to reward her fund raisers financially for their success, not just for their effort.

“My (desperate) thinking: I’ve got no money to hire someone and if this gal can bring in some funds, why not give her a big chunk of money I don’t think I can access anyway?,” she writes on the Philanthropomedia blog.

But Ms. Herr says that, in hindsight, she’s glad that most ethics codes prohibit fund raisers from being paid based on a percentage of the money they bring in. She encourages readers to take a look at an essay by Paulette V. Maehara, the president of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, on what she calls “the percentage problem.”

In a background paper on the issue, the association cites several reasons why percentage-based pay is a poor idea:

• The mission and long-term interests of the charity could...

In bad economic times, some charities cut spending on fund-raising and other efforts not directly related to providing charitable programs.

But a new study by an organization that represents hospital fund raisers shows that spending more on fund raising produces a significant increase in revenue. And trying a diversity of fund-raising approaches works better than sticking to just one or two fund-raising techniques, researchers say.

The analysis by the Association of Healthcare Philanthropy found that for every $1 a hospital spends to raise money, it receives a median $4.45 in return — meaning that half do better and half do worse.

The return on investment for each organization studied ranged from $1.63 per dollar spent to $23.80 per dollar spent, according to William McGinly, the association’s chief executive.

Among the other association’s findings:

• Investment in new fund-...

In an effort to reassure donors after a fund-raising controversy, the German arm of Unicef last week elected a new eight-member executive committee.

The chairman of the new committee, Juergen Heraeus, a German businessman, pledged to “reform” the children’s charity, according to a statement in German on the group’s Web site.

In February, the German Central Institute for Social Issues, a nonprofit watchdog, criticized the organization for what it described as a secret practice of paying exorbitant commissions to fund raisers. For example. it said the group awarded a $45,000 bonus to a fund raiser, but failed to show that it received “any demonstrable service in return.”

As a result of the bonuses and other concerns, the watchdog removed its seal of approval for the charity.

“Unicef Germany has violated the principle of the economical and careful use of funds,” the institute...

Charity marketing deals with credit-card companies aren’t new, but Advanta — one of the largest credit-card issuers in the small-business market — hopes that its new partnership with Kiva will help both the charity and Advanta’s customers.

Kiva is a San Francisco charity, founded in October 2005, that allows people to make loans directly to entrepreneurs in developing countries. Loans made through the organization’s Web site now total more than $27-million.

As part of the Kiva Business-for-Business Project, Advanta will match the loans that their customers make to entrepreneurs through Kiva using their business credit cards, up to $200 per month.

The company will also provide materials that their customers can use to publicize their business’s support of the charity, such as a KivaB4B button to place on their Web site, stickers for their storefront, or postcards to send to...

Tax time prompts many donors to review their charitable contributions — and what persuaded them to make the gifts that enabled them to take tax deductions.

Bob Levey, a Chronicle of Philanthropy columnist who has worked as a journalist and fund raiser, used his tax-time paperwork to reflect on what made him donate more than once during the year to a few of his favorite causes.

His alma mater got a second $100 gift after Mr. Levey learned that an alumnus had donated $150-million to provide scholarships to students. Mr. Levey says he wanted to show the institution that even modest donors care about giving needy students’ access to college.

Another repeat gift went to promote voting rights for residents of the District of Columbia — a cause that came closer to reality last year. Mr. Levey wanted to reinforce with his second gift that his support for the cause was not “occasional or...

Too many charity appeals and follow-up correspondence are filled with careless and insensitive mistakes, writes Charles Longsworth, former president of Hampshire College and a veteran fund raiser and board member, in an opinion piece in The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Mr. Longsworth says that in recent months, he and his wife, whom he describes as “generous and easy marks,” have made several donations to charities that were completely ignored or responded to with form letters, thank-you notes misspelling their names, and other mistakes.

In one case, soon after he left the board of a charity, he received a solicitation letter from another trustee there addressed to “Mr. and Mrs. Longsworth” that the board member didn’t even bother to sign.

“If it had been personally addressed, actually signed, and perhaps, had included a personal note like ‘We miss seeing you,’ even if not true,...

All those empty offices in the fund-raising department are costing organizations millions of dollars.

With demand for fund raisers at an all-time high, turnover has become a major concern for many organizations

One example of how costly it can be to lose too many fund raisers at one time comes from the University of California at Irvine.

After several years of steadily increasing contributions, the university reached a record, raising $88-million in 2000.

But the following year, the university’s vice chancellor for advancement resigned, followed six months later by the associate vice chancellor. And in 2002, three other senior fund raisers left. The positions remained vacant for more than a year.

The effect on fund-raising operations was immediate and stark: In 2001 and 2002, donations plunged, declining to $52-million in 2001 and reaching a new low of $35-million in 2002.

...

To take advantage of tonight’s fund-raising event on American Idol, the Children’s Defense Fund is encouraging its supporters to gather friends and families to watch the show together and discuss the social problems facing kids today.

The group has prepared a discussion guide for the gatherings. The “tool kit” poses three questions — and answers— about the state of children’s welfare:

1) How many American children live without health coverage? 2) How many are impoverished? 3) What can people do to alleviate these problems?

In addition, the charity has created a page on its Web site describing its relation with the television show and how people can donate to the fund directly.

The Idol event will generate money for the Children’s Defense Fund and five other charities.

What do you think? How else can the Children’s Defense Fund take advantage of the publicity?

The signs that the economy is starting to hurt charity fund-raising appeals are growing stronger. A new study shows that direct-marketing appeals failed to produce strong results for many charities last year.

Charities did not come close to raising enough to keep up with the 4-percent inflation rate. And in yet another indication that direct mail is not producing the results it once did, the number of new donors attracted by nonprofit solicitations dropped by 5 percent, on top of a 10-percent drop last year.

The economy is a key issue for all fund-raising efforts, but certainly not the only problem facing direct mail in an age of Internet appeals.

Even so, most groups say online appeals and other efforts still don’t bring in anything close to the amount of money direct mail produces. As a result, many groups are spending heavily both on direct mail and new experiments with...

Words that seem outdated or carry with them uncomfortable baggage might be best avoided in fund-raising efforts.

But Jeff Brooks, says in his Donor Power Blog that such loaded terms might be just the tools a charity needs to spark donors.

Early on in his fund-raising career, Mr. Brooks, who is now creative director at Merkle, a company that helps nonprofit groups raise money, worked for a charity battling Hansen’s disease. Never heard of it? Well you probably know the affliction by its other name: Leprosy.

“Leprosy is an ugly word, with an ancient and ugly history, “ Mr. Brooks writes. “Hansen,” is a harmless-sounding surname, while “leprosy” conjures up images of a disfiguring and damnable disease. But, Mr. Brooks asks, “Which one is more likely to stir donors to action?”

Alas, he doesn’t say how his Hansen/leprosy situation worked out in the long run, but he does caution...