The Wall Street Journal

The Clinton Foundation accepted millions of dollars from seven foreign governments during Hillary Rodham Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, including one donation that violated its ethics agreement with the Obama administration, foundation officials disclosed Wednesday. Most of the contributions were possible because of exceptions written into the foundation’s 2008 agreement, which included limits on foreign-government donations.

Bitcoin and other virtual currencies, such as Ripple and Litecoin, represent a total market capitalization of nearly $6 billion. Many large charities are eager to tap in to this market or have already received virtual donations, such as United Way Worldwide, which recently began accepting donations of Bitcoins. Smaller nonprofits have begun accepting the currency as well. This article discusses charitable donations of virtual currencies, including tax, appraisal, legal and processing considerations.

Do thank-you gifts actually increase contributions? Two Yale University researchers tried to answer this question in a recent study of charitable behavior. They looked at how external incentives influence a person's willingness to engage in charitable behavior, to be precise — and found that when you offer a thank-you gift as part of an initial donation request — such as a pen, tote bag or mug — people end up donating less than if you just asked them how much they'd be willing to donate.

Yes, your nonprofit absolutely positively needs a drone. Of course, that’s a few years away. But that doesn’t mean you can’t — TODAY — start thinking like an organization that plans to use a new, radical technology. In Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal, Bret Stephens provided a road map of sorts for learning from the "Amazon Experience" that made Prime Air a reality. He applies his lessons to President Barack Obama, but they can be applied to nonprofits as well.

How quickly an organization responds to a crisis and how transparent it is in its communications will determine how rapidly it will emerge from the crisis and, in some cases, its long-term survival and reputation.

Crisis communications planning is a long-term, comprehensive process. But here are a few key points to keep in mind: 1. Have a crisis communications plan. 2. Make sure your plan is updated. 3. Practice your plan on a regular basis. 4. Don't let your plan gather dust.

When I was being trained as a journalist, I was taught that the who, what, when, where, why and how were the ingredients in a good lede. They are also the ingredients in good fundraising decision making. Dig a bit deeper — things are not always what they seem. 

The 2012 presidential election broke the $2 billion milestone in its final weeks, becoming the most expensive in American political history, according to final federal finance reports released Thursday. The reports detailed a last-minute cascade of money from mega-donors and an onslaught of spending by the Obama and Romney campaigns and "super" political action committees. The Romney campaign's total for the election was more than $1 billion. Final fundraising and spending totals for President Barack Obama's victorious drive also topped $1 billion.

President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney are employing increasingly sophisticated tools to get more people to donate to their campaigns. From text donations to sending e-mails encouraging supporters to buy T-shirts to using online video games to attract supporters to displaying actual Facebook friends who have "liked" the campaign — the candidates are counting on the "cool" factor to lure new donors, particularly Gen Xers and Gen Yers, experts say.

Creative philanthropic approaches to schooling in Los Angeles and the arts in Chicago won recognition in the 2012 Innovator of the Year Awards handed out by The Wall Street Journal’s WSJ Magazine. Eric Eisner, a former movie and music mogul who founded the Young Eisner Scholars program to help children from some of Los Angeles’ poorest neighborhoods get to college, was named the magazine’s Innovator of the Year in education.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg and David Geffen have teamed up to the tune of $90 million in donations to the Motion Picture & Television Fund’s endowment campaign.

Each entertainment mogul is donating $30 million to the nonprofit, which provides support, including health and social services, to active and retired entertainment industry workers.

The donations by the trio, founders of DreamWorks SKG, will significantly advance the $350 million endowment campaign of the fund, of which Katzenberg is chairman.