Quick Hits (Jan. 13, 2008)

The GiveWell board has fined GiveWell co-founder Elie Hassenfeld $5,000 for "astroturfing" -- the same offense that cost GiveWell co-founder Holden Karnofsky his leadership position at the organization.

Allison Fine, author of Momentum: Igniting Social Change and blogger-in-chief at A.Fine Blog, argues that the GiveWell board was too lenient in demoting Karnofsky.

Lucy Bernholz flags a new resource, JustPhilanthropy.org, dedicated to addressing racial and social justice inequities in philanthropy. (Note: In the wake of the GiveWell-related grilling she was subjected to by members of the MetaFilter community, Lucy now includes a disclosure statement at the bottom of most of her posts.)

As reported in the New York Times, BigThink debuts with some questions designed to get us thinking.

And over at Give and Take (the Chronicle of Philanthropy blog), Peter Panapento asks whether direct mail is dead.

-- Mitch Nauffts