Another charity. Another letter from the U.S. Senate. And again, coast-to-coast press coverage raising significant questions, this time about the recent Senate inquiry into pay practices at Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Many charity executives will say a small prayer of thanks that the mailman didn’t stop at their doors with a Senate-franked envelope.

Notwithstanding the power of prayer, leaders in the charitable community seeking to avoid letters from senators would do well to take a hard look at their organizations and ask fundamental questions.

The paramount question for the leaders of a charity to ask: What is our organization’s charitable goal and mission and how do we accomplish that mission?

To go further, is the mission (and are the related accomplishments) of our organization something that can be understood by a grandmother, and do our accomplishments justify the tax breaks …

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Welcome to The Watchdog, a new Chronicle blog written by Dean Zerbe, a lawyer in the Washington office of alliant Group and the former senior counsel to Sen. Charles E. Grassley.

Mr. Zerbe is best known in the nonprofit world as a top adviser to Mr. Grassley when he chaired the powerful Senate Finance Committee. In that role, Mr. Zerbe was a key player in Congressional efforts to fight charity abuses.

In addition to helping to pass the Pension Protection Act in 2006 — which instituted new curbs on nonprofit activities as well as new giving incentives — Mr. Zerbe also helped Mr. Grassley undertake numerous investigations of charity abuses.

More recently, Mr. Zerbe has fought back attempts to weaken provisions in the Pension Protection Act that were designed to fight nonprofit abuses.

His new blog will discuss the intersection between the charity world and government — with a particular…

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