CharityChannel's Popular Professional Discussion Forums

The CharityChannel professional email-based discussion listserves, many of which were established in the early nineties, have been the hub of thousands of discussions by tens of thousands of members. In March, 2008, with the roll-out of its new web site, the forums are now even easier to use. Colleagues who prefer email-based discussion lists can elect to receive forum postings by email, and reply by email, as before. Further, colleagues who prefer to log in to participate via an easy-to-use web-based forum system may do so.

Forum Line-up:

Note: The following is a description of the CharityChannel forums. To access the actual forums, you must first log in. If you are wondering how the forums work, please view the tutorials on the right.

ACCOUNTABILITY
Focuses on the question of how transparent nonprofit organizations and NGOs should be when dealing with the public.

ACCOUNTING-NP
Focuses on any and all accounting issues relating to nonprofit organizations/NGOs. Typical discussions include how to account for charitable contributions, financial statements, Sarbanes-Oxley (in the US context), accounting software, etc.

ADVANCEMENT
Focuses on any and all aspects of the college or university advancement office. Since advancement properly encompasses such areas as alumni relations, fund development, asset and endowment management, public relations, etc., this forum is quite broad in scope.

ANNUAL-FUND
Covers all aspects of the annual fund form of fund raising. It is a long-standing discussion community that enjoys getting into the nuts and bolts of managing the annual fund.

BOARDS
Focuses on any and all aspects of nonprofit organization/NGO governance.

CANADATALK
The "Big Tent" discussion list of the Canadian nonprofit world (modeled after the popular list CHARITYTALK). Discusses literally any topic in the Canadian nonprofit sector, with an emphasis on philanthropy.

CAPTALK
Focuses on any and all aspects of the capital campaign. Topics include the feasibility study (inlcuding whether or not to have one), the quiet phase, the public phase, how to rescue a flagging capital campagn, hiring consultants, public relations, etc.

CFRESEARCH
Focuses on any and all aspects of corporate and foundation prospect research. Discussions are wide-ranging and tend to come from the perspective of prospect researchers, although proposal writers and corporate and foundation fundraisers are welcome.

CHARITY-HR
Focuses on human resources issues and challenges faced by nonprofit organizations. Discussions include such topics as employee policy manuals, employment law, discrimination, sexual harrassment, hostile work environment, setting compensation, etc.

CHARITY-PR
Focuses on any and all aspects of communications between the nonprofit organization and internal constituencies, external constituencies, and/or the public. Discussion topics include message formulation, branding, media relations, and crisis communication

CHARITYBOOKS
Covers all aspects of writing, publishing, marketing, and review of nonprofit-sector books. 1 0 Mail delivery failure

CHARITYLAW
Focuses on the US law of tax-exempt organizations. Topics inlcude such entity issues as formation, dissolution, conflict of interest, articles of incorporation, bylaws, minutes, etc., and such tax issues as UBIT, intermediate sanctions, etc.

CHARITYTALK
The "Big Tent" discussion list of the nonprofit world. List discussions are often original, and always edifying -- yet always anchored to a topic of interest to busy nonprofit-sector professionals.

CHRISTIANDEV
Open to any person who shares the Christian faith and an interest in the topic of development of churches, ministries, and organizations such as Christian schools, colleges, universities, and hospitals.

CONSULTANTS
Focuses on all aspects of consulting to nonprofit/NGO organizations. Business aspects, ethics, law, etc. of interest to consultants are discussed.

CONSULTANTS-CANADA
Open to Canadian consultants (self-employed, with a firm or with a nonprofit such as a management support organization) with a significant part of their work involving consulting to Canadian nonprofits.

DEV-WRITING
Development writing takes many forms and crosses many disciplines within the development arena. This is the first forum dedicated to all aspects of development writing.

DEVELOPMENT-OFFICE
Think of DEVELOPMENT-OFFICE as an electronic extension of your organization's or institution's development office. Imagine being able to tap into the collective wisdom of thousands of development professionals any time you need to.

E-PHILANTHROPY
Focuses on all aspects of electronic philanthropy -- which includes on-line charitable giving but goes substantially beyond that subject to explore how electronic philanthropy impacts, and integrates with the organization's overall development program.

EVENTS
Focuses on the any aspect of strategy, planning and execution of events conducted for or on behalf of nonprofit organizationsnNGOs. Discussions include the role of events in an organization's overall fund development program, planning for events, etc.

EXECUTIVE-DIRECTOR
Forum is designed for colleagues who are currently serving as the chief executive officer -- usually, the executive director -- of a nonprofit organization, large or small, or who have served in the role in recent years.

PLANNEDGIVING
Focuses on any and all aspects of gift planning in the United States. Typical disucssions inlcude use of split-interest trusts such as chartiable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts, and pooled income funds; gift acceptance policies; ethics, etc.

GRANTS
Focuses on any and all aspects of the foundation grant-seeking and grant-funding process. Discussions are wide-ranging and tend to come from the perspective of grant writers, though every now and again a funder will jump into the discussion.

STEWARDSHIP
Encompasses professional-level discussions of all aspects of donor relations and stewardship.

TECHNOLOGY
Focuses on the broader voluntary-sector social, management, strategic, legal, policy, privacy, and other issues brought about by the ever-increasing pace of technology -- especially Internet technology. Despite its name, it is not a "techno-geek" forum.

VOLUNTEER-RESOURCES-MGT
Focuses on all aspects of volunteer resource management for nonprofit organizations/NGOs. Discussions are wide-ranging and often are keyed on topics first introduced on CharityChannel's VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT REVIEW articles.