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Eighteen nonprofits located in or near Richmond, Va., have reported receiving donation offers from an alleged British philanthropist—who was actually a scam artist....

On Monday, Consumer Reports released its "Best and Worst Charities For Your Donations" list. By no means as comprehensive as the magazine's robust coverage and hands-on reviews of cars, appliances and electronics, the list is intended as a snapshot for would-be donors, offering tips for avoiding charity scams and more. There's some sound advice in there, but the list itself leaves us with some questions...

We often hear about the fundraisers who use false promises and manipulation to get gifts, but the vast majority are honest, hardworking and passionate about the causes they represent. But, I daresay, a lot of them are kind of stuck at mediocre. This is generally not a result of laziness or a lack of desire. Rather, fundraising is complex. If you want to go from “OK” to “Wow,” no matter how many fundraising hats you wear, here are some tips to keep you moving forward...

On June 25, 2015, the Associated Press reported that Paul LePage, the Republican governor of Maine, had been accused of pressuring the Good Will-Hinckley school, a nonprofit charter school for at-risk youth, into removing Mark Eves from his position as president. According to the report, LePage threatened to withhold from the school $500,000 in yearly funds if it kept Eves on board, which, in turn, could have led the school to miss out on 
another $2 million in private funds, a potentially devastating blow to the small nonprofit. Eves, as it happens, is Maine’s Democratic House Speaker...

A USA Today investigation into the Jared Foundation's tax records found that the organization, founded in 2008, has not issued a single grant. According to the USA Today report, the foundation spent an average of just $73,000 a year, with 60 percent of that total allocated to former executive director Russell Taylor's salary and 26 percent unaccounted for...

Recently I've written about my personal epiphany regarding the expense-is-all-that-matters filter through which we/I have looked at nonprofits' effectiveness. The new movement afoot to evaluate nonprofits with effectiveness as part of the measure is sabotaged by villains like the four cancer charities that scammed millions from donors.

It is up to the thousands of honest and ethical fundraising professionals to look out for potential fraud and abuse in our profession.

Fundraisers, on the whole, are dedicated, passionate and tireless advocates of the causes they champion and of the greater good. The overwhelming majority are meticulously ethical and completely undeserving of the shadow that hangs darkly over their profession.

Granted, I know that a group of eight people does not represent an entire audience segment, but this is not the first time I've interviewed a group of donors and supporters to find that opinions and expectations do not always line up with what we believe within our own walls.

Here are some words of wisdom culled from the June 2006 issue of FundRaising Success.

Unfortunately for many nonprofits, it can feel like we have an invisible revolving door that is causing our donors to disappear from view, never to be seen again. It's clear that retaining donors is essential for organizations to survive and thrive, but how do we increase the likelihood of retention?

To measure the effectiveness of a brand based on a single channel or a single campaign strategy is a terrible mistake. And, honestly, I'd like to see the media report on what matters — not just something that has a shock factor.

Recent tweets from folks you shoud be following.

I honestly don't know how nonprofits could go so far as to send their friends and followers gifts for joining in the online conversation, but there is definitely a lesson here from Pepperidge Farm about the power of taking the time to talk to the people who take the time to talk to you.

New Miracle Diet Targets Belly Fat! Bye Bye Belly Fat! No Exercise Required! These are the kinds of e-mails that have been showing up quite frequently in my inbox since I signed up recently for a nutrition-related newsletter. I’ve been dieting, reading about dieting and writing about dieting for 25 years. I’ve done everything from the ice-cream diet to Weight Watchers. Tried Dexatrim, which made me eat faster, and Slim-Fast, which made a great shake with lunch (though didn’t work so well in place of it). I took fen-phen even after it was banned, and once, I massaged a baked potato because I

In the last few years, I have conducted sessions on fundraising at about 20 workshops in 14 “developing” countries — in Latin America, Africa and Asia. I’ve met amazing people and come across many examples of successful local-resource mobilization. There’s some very sophisticated fundraising happening in Latin America and Asia. Much of the cutting-edge work is being done by international NGOs like UNICEF and Greenpeace, but there’s also a growing band of indigenous nonprofits that are using professional fundraising techniques.

With just the click of a mouse, shoppers can buy nearly any product online — from groceries to cars, from insurance policies to home loans. And potential donors can form intimate relationships with the nonprofit organizations of their choices — getting information, registering for events and responding to other calls to action, and, ultimately, making donations or, better yet, signing up for automatically deducted monthly giving programs.

The numbers are self evident. More Americans these days are supporting nonprofit causes both financially and with their time than ever before. We are a multi-billion dollar industry that forms a vital component of our nation’s strength. And survey after survey shows that we are the most generous nation on Earth.

For a few months now, you’ve been hearing about plans by companies such as AOL and Yahoo! to apply a new business model to Internet communications to afford e-mail senders a secure way to communicate with potential customers. Goodmail recently unveiled a certified e-mail program that AOL and Yahoo! plan to make available to e-mail senders that allows them to bypass spam filters for a fee and get guaranteed access to recipients’ inboxes.

Recent do-not-call legislation has turned telefundraising into a battlefield. To speak on the current state of soliciting donations through the telephone lines is Jon Hamilton, CEO of Authtel Permission Solutions and president of JHA Telemanagement. Hamilton, a former president of the American Teleservices Association and chair of the Direct Marketing Association’s Telephone Marketing Council, spoke recently at the DMA Annual Teleservices Conference in Palm Beach, Fla.