Weekend Link Roundup (March 19-20, 2011)

Our weekly roundup of new and noteworthy posts from and about the nonprofit sector....

Communications/Marketing

Are cause marketing efforts always a disaster after a disaster? Not if they're handled "tactfully [and] senstively in light of the circumstances," argues Joe Waters on his Selfish Giving blog.

On her Non-Profit Marketing Blog, Katya Andresen shares three key takeways from Switch co-author Dan Heath's plenary at the 2011 Nonprofit Technology Conference in Washington, D.C.

Rohit Barghava, who writes the Influential Marketing Blog, looks at some of the new tools announced by Google as part of the search giant's expanded Google for Nonprofit program.

Disaster Relief

After a major natural disaster like the one that just struck Japan, people want to give to organizations like the Red Cross, Save the Children, Mercy Corps, Oxfam, and World Vision, writes Tom Paulson on his Humanosphere blog. And that's okay, he adds -- "but maybe not just because of what's happening right now in Japan."

Appearing on CNN, Charity Navigator president/CEO Ken Berger offers five tips to avoid charity scams when donating to earthquake relief and recovery efforts.

Impact/Effectiveness

"Measuring results and thinking strategically can indeed be highly productive for nonprofits," writes Todd Cohen on his Inside Philanthropy blog. But what is "flat wrong" 

is the idea that vision, effectiveness and sustainability depend only on what can be quantified, when in fact success and impact are as much a function of experience, social intelligence and intuitive thinking....

In the first of a two-part post on the Foundation Center's Transparency Talk blog, John Craig, chair of the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York, lays out half a dozen reasons why it's time for the IRS to modernize the 990-PF tax form used by private foundations to file their annual returns.

Nonprofits

Social Actions co-founder Peter Deitz shares details about the process that led to GuideStar's acquisition of the Social Actions project/API.

Social Entrepreneurship

Foundations and social venture investors may want to think twice before they invest in a limited liability corporation (LC3), writes The Nonprofiteer.

Social Media

A long but useful video presentation from Tim Bete, communications director at the St. Mary Development Corporation in Dayton, Ohio, on "19 Ways Nonprofits Can Use Social Media to Connect With Donors" (h/t The Agitator).

And on her Coyote Communications blog, Jayne Cravens looks at one of the downsides of the exploding popularity of social media: its effectiveness in promoting misinformation and negative speech.

That's it for now. What did we miss? Drop us a line at rnm@foundationcenter.org.

-- Mitch Nauffts