Where Most Needed

WSJ Slams CVS Charity Golf Classic

An investigative report suggests that the high-profile charity event, a favorite of its golf-addicted CEO Thomas Ryan, provides a way for suppliers to skirt ethics rules against expensive favors to company employees.  Meanwhile, the charity itself spends most of its income putting on the event rather than giving.

Boring Bus Ride Nets over $20,000 for Video Game Charity

A marathon online event using a mind-numbing simulation of a bus driving across the desert gets enough buzz to fuel four days of fundraising.  But your results may vary. 

Fewer Donors Could Be Better

Newspapers are cutting out marginal circulation due to the rising cost of solicitation and delivery.  Charities should take note.

Doonesbury Plugs DonorsChoose

Product placement in a comic strip puts the focus on a well-promoted online charity venture.  But a look at the financial statements suggests that there may be bottlenecks ahead as the organization tries to scale up. 

Jerry Lewis & Don Imus: The Downside of Charity-Celebrity Co-Dependency

Hitching a charity's reputation to a single individual is a high-risk strategy that pays off—until it doesn't.

Diversity in Funding Sources More Talked About Than Practiced

A study of more than fifty organizations in Baltimore with income from $1 million to $50 million shows that close to 90% rely on just one line on the Form 990 for more than half their income.  Even more notable: the lion's share of private contributions go to organizations that make private contributions their primary source of income.

US S-l-o-w to Complete 2-1-1 Information Network

Social service charities still struggle with a spotty system of  referral networks for social service needs and inconsistent adoption of the 2-1-1 phone number.  But United Way is pushing for a major increase in funding for the system.    

National Night Out Founder Thinks He's Worth a Quarter Million

About a third of the organization's budget goes to pay the president's salary, approved by a five-person board that includes his brother.   And we track down the source of its funding. 

Blogathon Demonstrates Long Tail (Up to a Point)

Shared vision is largely absent from a twenty-four-hour blogging event to raise money for charity, which could be why it wasn't more successful.  And the winner was online editor for a newspaper in Midland, Texas, who blogged from a 30-foot Genie scissors lift in a grocery store parking lot (isn't that cheating?)

Carnegie Mellon Buys Into Product Placement in Films

University agreed to filming on campus in return for prominent use of the college name throughout the movie.  Could be a symptom of the transformation of universities into corporate Educational Maintenance Organizations.