YouTube is working with See3 Communications, a company that advises charities on creating videos and other materials, and the Edelman public-relations firm to conduct a survey to measure the success rates of videos in North America. The results of that survey will be combined with data from YouTube’s nonprofit program to create a report expected for publication this May, according to See3.

That report will include information on nonprofits’ video budgets, how they distribute videos, and how effective videos are as a marketing tool.

The survey is available online now, and participants will be entered to win a $400 donation to their organization and other prizes. All survey results will be anonymous in the final report.

What questions do you have about video use in the nonprofit world?

Last month the organization announced that its founder, Lance Armstrong, was stepping away from the group’s board and that his name would no longer be part of the organization’s official identity.  That decision came after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency issued a detailed report about Mr. Armstrong’s use of performance-enhancement drugs and the Tour de France stripped him of medals he won.

Ms. McMillan says the constant storm of criticism of Mr. Armstrong meant she was spending time on social networks like Twitter and Facebook almost around the clock—largely working to nurture and protect an online community that still cared about the organization, despite its founder’s transgressions.

“We’re here to help people affected by cancer through daily challenges, and the way that we use social media is to connect people to services and share their stories,” she told The Chronicle. “When you build that kind of community, it’s not like you are going on Coca-Cola’s Web site and saying you like Coke Zero. You are there for a reason.”

While many supporters shared their best wishes and positive comments, some negative comments were posted on the organization’s blog and Facebook page. She says she removed some of those comments that attacked members of the community or that didn’t add anything constructive to the conversation.

In all cases, she tried to counter arguments about the organization’s founder by talking about the organization’s mission.

“Even in really, really difficult times—and I’m talking really difficult—the haters are going to be there, and they’re always going to be there and think it’s fun,” she said in a presentation at the Social Media for Nonprofits meeting in Austin. “But it is a really great way to pivot and share your mission.”

Below is a video showing Ms. McMillan’s conversation at the Austin meeting. In the comments section below, we hope you’ll share your thoughts about how charities can use social networks when a crisis or challenge erupts.

Gilda Radner as her character Roseanne Roseannadanna on “Saturday Night Live.”

Charities change their names for many reasons.

But when Gilda’s Club Madison, a Wisconsin chapter of the cancer-support organization created to honor the late comedian Gilda Radner, announced plans to rechristen itself the Cancer Support Community Southwest Wisconsin, people on social media howled in dismay.

The Madison chapter, which wanted to make its mission clearer to prospective clients, is the third to strip “Gilda” from its name, but its decision has sparked at least two petitions posted on Change.org (one currently with 1,500 signatures, another with 200) urging the Madison group to reverse itself.

Ms. Radner, who died of ovarian cancer in 1989, is best remembered for her 1970s heyday, when she was a beloved original cast member of TV’s “Saturday Night Live,” creating characters like Emily Litella and Roseanne Roseannadanna.

But the Madison club, whose the name change takes effect in January, found itself in the center of controversy when its leader told a local newspaper that the change was being made in part because young adults don’t remember Ms. Radner at all.

“One of the realizations we had this year is that our college students were born after Gilda Radner passed, as we are seeing younger and younger adults who are dealing with a cancer diagnosis,” Lannia Syren Stenz, the club’s executive director, told the Wisconsin State Journal. “We want to make sure that what we are is clear to them and that there’s not a lot of confusion that would cause people not to come in our doors.”

However, that’s not the real reason for the name change, says an official at the Cancer Support Community, the national organization that oversees the Madison group and 55 other chapters around the country. And the subsequent online outrage stems from that misperception as well as others, says Linda House, executive vice president for external affairs.

The Madison group, she says, changed its name to make it more apparent who it serves and what it does—provide emotional support for cancer patients, survivors, and their families.

The “Southwest Wisconsin” part of the name also heralds its recent expansion to serve 14 counties. In 2013, the Madison charity plans to reach out more aggressively to those counties.

Contrary to some media reports, Ms. House says, the national organization has not required that chapters change their names. “There are still 20 Gilda’s Clubs,” she points out.

She adds that the organization has no data to show that the young people it is seeking to serve are unfamiliar with Ms. Radner.

And, Ms. House adds, the organization has no intention of erasing the comedian’s  involvement in the charity she inspired: “Gilda has been, is, and will always be a part of the fabric of this organization. It is impossible for her to be lost.”

A Social-Media Storm

Meanwhile, a social-media firestorm rages. The charity’s Facebook page has also been inundated with irate comments. (Says one: “I keep waiting for Emily Litella to say, ‘Nevermind.’ “)

Chris Turner, a Wilmington, Del., woman who started one of the online petition drives, writes, “How about instead of denying how much Gilda did for the cause, you teach the students about who she was and what she died for? As one person said, ‘I didn’t know Mayo and I don’t know why he has a clinic, but I know what it is.’ ”

Mary Elizabeth Williams, a Salon writer and cancer survivor who is a member of the New York Gilda’s Club chapter, acknowledges in a column this week that the group’s name is “a little vague.”

But she argues that naming charities after individuals (such as Susan G. Komen for the Cure, or the Jimmy Fund) can help connect supporters to a cause.

“It makes it personal and intimate,” writes Ms. Williams. “It creates the unique and powerful and so necessary experience of identification and empathy.”

When Ms. Williams and her children began visiting the New York Gilda’s Club, she writes, they had not heard of Ms. Radner. But now they have, she writes, and “they love her. They love her because she’s real to them. She’s there smiling from a picture on the wall when they walk in. She’s there for all of us in the club, a beacon of laughter and warmth.”

Should charities named after individuals keep their names in perpetuity? Tell us what you think.

Send an e-mail to Heather Joslyn.

Subscribe to Social Good on iTunes

At many nonprofits, just one person is responsible for monitoring conversations on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and elsewhere online.

But Allyson Kapin, founder of Women Who Tech and a founding partner of the Rad Campaign, believes nonprofits should encourage everyone in the organization to play a role in watching what’s happening online.

That makes it easier to cover more ground than one person ever could, but more important, helps people throughout the organization better respond to criticism and understand challenges to its reputation.

“It’s our responsibility as executive directors, as fundraisers, as program managers, to also be in the social-media space and listening to what people are saying about our organizations,” Ms. Kapin says. ”We can’t just rely on a few people on our teams to be doing that.”

In this episode of Social Good, The Chronicle’s monthly podcast on social media for nonprofits, Ms. Kapin talks about how nonprofits should manage online crises, create guidelines for social media use, and deal with hecklers.

The photo, which depicted one of the employees holding up her middle finger at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, sparked a social-media firestorm that engulfed their employer, LIFE Cape Cod, a Massachusetts nonprofit that provides residential programs for adults with learning and intellectual disabilities.

The photo, which was posted to the personal Facebook page of former LIFE employee Lindsey Stone, was taken while she and seven other LIFE employees were accompanying residents on a trip to Washington.

Ms. Stone’s posting has since gone viral, according to the Web site Gawker.com. A Facebook page called “Fire Lindsey Stone” was created Monday to pressure the nonprofit to take action.

The protest group, which has generated more than 7,000 likes, also posted contact information for Ms. Stone, a co-worker who took the photograph, and the nonprofit’s executive director, Diane Enochs.

The Chronicle was unable to reach either Ms. Enochs nor Ms. Stone for comment.

Ms. Stone had removed the photo from her Facebook page and apologized. But the controversy nonetheless prompted the charity to fire both employees.

“We deeply regret any disrespect to members of the military and their families,” the charity said in a posting on its Facebook page that announced the firing of Ms. Stone and Ms. Enochs. “The incident and publicity has been very upsetting to the learning disabled population we serve.”

Does your nonprofit have a social-media policy for employees? How would your organization handle a situation in which one of its employees posted a controversial photo online? Post a comment to share your thoughts.

The tweets pointed to “reports” about the financial practices of the United States Fund for Unicef and the American Red Cross and have been widely shared by some of Mr. Trump’s 1.9-million followers.

The problem is that the figures are false.

Snopes, a site that checks the validity of Internet-based rumors, labeled the information included in Mr. Trump’s tweets as ”mostly outdated and inaccurate,” saying that the information may have come from a chain e-mail that was first sent in 2005.

Reports are out there that many CEO’s of charities are getting overpaid, while their causes are seeing very little…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2012

One of Mr. Trump’s tweets accused United States Fund for Unicef chief executive Caryl Stern of receiving more than $1-million a year in compensation and a Rolls-Royce, while another says her organization uses less than 5 percent of its revenue on programs.

He also tweeted that American Red Cross chief executive Gail McGovern received $951,957 in compensation in 2011.

“Where is the outrage?” Mr. Trump says in the tweet.

Since he posted the tweets on Monday, a lot of outrage has been directed at Ms. Stern, despite the fact that she drives a Toyota, not a Rolls-Royce.

.@realdonaldtrump sorry no rolls; only a prius. fire your fact checker and help us save kids lives.

— Caryl M. Stern (@CarylStern) November 19, 2012

Mr. Trump also exaggerated her salary figure. Ms. Stern received a total compensation of $511,920 in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2010, according to her organization’s Form 990 informational tax return.

The group raised $450-million that year, spending 89.9 percent of it on program services, according to The Chronicle’s Philanthropy 400 data.

Her organization routinely deals with the Rolls-Royce rumor, which started in the 2005 chain letter. The group has even set up a page on its Web site to answer the allegation.

But Ms. Stern says that Mr. Trump’s high-profile tweets are particularly dangerous as the organization heads into the important year-end giving season.

“What Donald Trump did … was let the genie out of the bottle,” Ms. Stern says. “It lives now, in cyberspace, without recourse.”

As for the Red Cross, the most recent figures in The Chronicle’s executive-compensation database show that Ms. McGovern received $501,122 in compensation and an additional $60,088 in benefits in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2010. The Red Cross had an income of almost $3.6-billion during that fiscal year, spending 91.4 percent of it on programs.

The Red Cross chose not to respond directly to Mr. Trump on Twitter but sent messages to the people retweeting his message, says Wendy Harman, director of social strategies at the American Red Cross. The organization also sent a note to Mr. Trump’s office to explain that the message was untrue.

So what charity would Mr. Trump recommend?

@surfwatcher22 @joesaluzziYes–the Eric Trump Foundation!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2012

The organization, founded and led by Mr. Trump’s son, provided almost $1.1-million in grants in 2011. The organization’s tax forms show that $1-million of those grants went to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Its only other expense that year was $1,500 for accounting services. Eric Trump was not compensated.

Representatives for Mr. Trump did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.

How would your organization respond if a celebrity posted damaging information about your operations on a social network?

Send an e-mail to Cody Switzer.

The new accounts don’t look any different from personal accounts, but people who manage the new pages will be prompted to verify their Web sites by uploading an HTML file to their server. They will also be asked to add “follow” and “pin it” buttons to their sites.

Pinterest also added two features that allow people to embed pins and boards on other sites more easily.

To learn more about the new accounts and see case studies from businesses, go to business.pinterest.com.

Will this change how your nonprofit uses the visual social network?

Send an e-mail to Cody Switzer.

As part of its new Facebook Gifts feature, Facebook users can donate directly to an organization or let their “friends make the choice” about which organization they should support.

To start, the social network is accepting donations for 11 organizations: the American Red Cross, Blue Star Families, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, DonorsChoose.org, Girls Inc., Kiva, Livestrong, Oxfam America, Rainn, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and Water.org.

The effort is separate from Causes, a Web site that allows users to donate to charity through Facebook and other social-networking sites. It has 185-million users, according Matt Mahan, the organization’s president and chief executive.

Facebook Gifts is not yet available to all Facebook users, but it is expanding, according to the company.

To learn more about the Facebook Gifts donation tool, visit Facebook’s newsroom.

When Marc Erlbaum was trying to raise $150,000 to finance a series of short films on the meaning of life, he turned to Indiegogo, a site that makes it easy for people and organization to advertise and raise money for projects.

He learned as much about what’s meaningful to people from fundraising as he has from his filming project. When people give through a site like Kickstarter or Indiegogo, “they’re contributing because they believe in something and they know it will come around, ultimately. That’s what’s really refreshing.”

But successful campaigns on mass fundraising sites aren’t easy to run. They often require building relationships with a group of dedicated supporters who are willing go beyond their donations and collaborate on a project.

In the most recent episode of Social Good, The Chronicle’s podcast about social media for nonprofits, Mr. Erlbaum shares what he’s learned from his campaign, where to start, and how to work with a large group of contributors.

More than 13 percent of all Web-page visits in August were made on a tablet or a mobile phone, according to the online measurement company comScore.

That figure is almost double the percentage of Web traffic that came from mobile devices a year ago, the company says.

Tablets accounted for 4.3 percent of all Web traffic and phones for about 9 percent. Even with the growth, desktop or laptop computers remain the most popular devices to view the Internet, providing 86.7 percent of all page views.

Dig deeper: Learn how nonprofits are redesigning their Web sites to appeal to supporters using phones and tablets in this recent Chronicle report.