The push by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates to encourage the nation’s wealthiest people to give at least 50 percent of their net worth to charity is raising optimism among many fund raisers that giving to U.S. nonprofit groups will increase.

But if the effort is successful, will those donors direct their largesse to the biggest charities?

In this Chronicle video, Theresa Harris, executive director of the World Organization for Human Rights, and Toral Patel, development manager at the Equal Rights Center, both in Washington, offer their thoughts on what the Buffett-Gates effort will mean for fund-raising efforts at small charities.

What do you think? How should fund raisers at small organizations state their cases?