Jennifer Moore

A debate has erupted over whether the almost $1-million compensation for the chief executive of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is justified, notes Give and Take, The Chronicle’s column summarizing the most-interesting blog posts about the nonprofit world.

Plus, in Tuesday’s roundup:

• Are charities losing the momentum to change?

• How a stringent vetting process is denying the federal government talented nonprofit officials.

• Why increasing foundation payout probably isn’t the solution.

• Advice to consider before you start a charity.

Three prominent philanthropists have died recently:

• Donald Fisher, the billionaire co-founder of the clothing chain the Gap and a major supporter of education and art, died September 27 of cancer, The San Francisco Chronicle reports. Mr. Fisher amassed one of the world’s most important modern-art collections. He and his wife, Doris, have donated $60-million since 2000 to the nonprofit charter-school operator KIPP and $40-million to Teach for America.

• Joseph Gurwin, who donated much of his textiles fortune to medical, scientific, and education causes in the United States and Israel, died September 24 of congestive heart failure in his Manhattan home, reports The New York Times. A native of Lithuania who made millions manufacturing specialized textiles for the military, Mr. Gurwin chaired the UJA-Federation of New York from 1988 to 1991, helped found the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and established the Rosalind and Joseph Gurwin Jewish Geriatric Center of Long Island.

• Ruth Cole Kainen, an art collector who donated more than 700 works to the Smithsonian’s National Gallery of Art, died earlier this month of congestive heart failure, reports The Washington Post. Ms. Kainen’s collection, amassed over several decades with her late husband, the artist and curator Jacob Kainen, encompassed paintings, drawings, engravings, and prints dating from the 15th century to the present day.

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A nonprofit consultant urges the nonprofit world to consider ways to operate more like Internet companies, with peer-to-peer interactions, notes Give and Take, The Chronicle’s column summarizing the most-interesting blog posts about the nonprofit world.

Plus:

• Offering investment banks a “route out of their reputational hell.”

• Predictions on trends that will matter most to the charitable world in 2010.

• Rethinking how to refer to the world’s 4 billion impoverished people.

• Determining the size of a charitable deduction for the gift of a stuffed beaver.

The White House announced today it had issued guidelines instructing administration officials to ensure that their dealings with the public do not appear to be influenced by improper political considerations, reports Government and Politics Watch, an online Chronicle column.

Plus:

• The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced a multiyear advertising and marketing campaign aimed at showing the public and politicians success stories from the U.S. government’s spending on global health.

• The Internal Revenue Service releases proposed rules for a type of supporting organization.

• Government needs to focus on nonprofit groups in disaster-recovery work, study urges.

Kevin Wu, a 19-year-old college student, is donating advertising fees to charity from his hugely popular KevJumba channel on YouTube, reports Prospecting, The Chronicle’s online column about charity efforts to collect private donations.

Plus:

• The economic downturn has taken a bite out of direct-mail returns.

• Bloggers seek to rescue a charity in danger of closing.