Buzz!

News Briefing: Charities Ask Congress to Ease Gas Price Burden

2008-08-06T10:28:28-04:00

• More than 100 charitable groups complain that the current tax deduction for use of a personal car while performing volunteer services for charities is too low. [New York Times]

• One Laptop Per Child partners with Reliance ADA to bring computers to India’s primary school kids. [Business Week]

News Briefing: New York Hospitals Create Outcry in Foreign Deal

2008-08-05T11:54:13-04:00

Clinton's Foundation to focus efforts on fighting AIDS in the United States. [Associated Press]

Coach Pat Summitt will donate $600,000 to the University of Tennessee. [Associated Press]

Citgo, the Venezuelan-owned oil company, is making a $1.5 million donation to the nonprofit group CASA to help fund programs for low-income workers. [Washington Post]

New York City's Health & Hospitals Corporation has signed a ten-year, $100 million contract with a profit-making medical school in the Caribbean. [New York Times]

News Briefing: Not Many Speak Their Mind to Gates Foundation

2008-08-04T09:37:48-04:00

After the long and bitter primaries, Clinton calls his foundation 'my life.' [Washington Post]

Network for Good acquires ePhilanthropy, part of a strategy to expand its reach without draining money from other parts of the nonprofit world. [Washington Post]

The Gates Foundation's clout and power worries some critics. [Seattle Times]

Whole Foods shows its support for small-scale agriculture by offering grants to help firms that meet its quality standards. [Los Angeles Times]

IBM's Corporate Service Corps program aims to stretch the company's global reach. [Wall Street Journal]

News Briefing: Rowling to Publish Wizarding Fairytales for Charity

2008-07-31T10:20:32-04:00

• The Hollywood Foreign Press Association gives $750,000 to several top film schools and nonprofits. [Reuters]

• America's Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee is closing. [Associated Press]

• Foreign aid agencies are slowing return to Iraq to address massive humanitarian needs. [Reuters]

• J.K. Rowling announces plans to publish a book of wizarding fairy tales, the proceeds of which will go to charity. [Reuters]

• The World Food Program resumes emergency operations in North Korea. [Washington Post]

News Briefing: Efforts Against AIDS Among Black Americans Criticized

2008-07-30T12:20:55-04:00

• The Black AIDS Institute accuses the federal government of doing little to fight AIDS among black Americans in a new report. [Associated Press]

• An East Harlem church raises money for repairs through a web site. [New York Times]

• Helen LaKelly Hunt encourages women of means to write checks for $1 million or more to improve the lives of women and girls. [Christian Science Monitor]

• Hard economic times for real estate developers mean good times for conservationists. [Associated Press]

News Briefing: Amnesty Slams China's Broken Olympics Promises

2008-07-29T11:35:41-04:00

Amnesty International slams China for failing to honor its Olympic human rights pledges. [Reuters]

Televangelist Kenneth Copeland is one target of a Senate Finance Committee investigation into allegations of questionable spending. [Associated Press]

News Briefing: World War II Camp Preservation Proves Difficult

2008-07-28T10:55:50-04:00

As the seventh anniversary of the Clinton Foundation's arrival in Harlem approaches, community wounds with the former president need to be healed. [New York Times]

Princeton Review's annual guide to colleges will now include a "green rating." [New York Times]

The National Park Service and grass-roots organizations try to restore a block of barracks in Idaho to recreate the living conditions that rouhgly 13,000 Japanese Americans experienced at the camp. [Associated Press]

News Briefing: Report on Shriners Raises Question of Wrongdoing

2008-07-25T09:58:52-04:00

An investigavtive committee suggests questionable financial dealings with Shriners. [New York Times]

GlobalGiving introduces a new web site that will list projects with minimal greenhouse gas emissions. [New York Times]

The House votes to triple financing to fight AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. [Associated Press]

News Briefing: Billionaires Back Antismoking Effort

2008-07-24T09:42:20-04:00

Bill Gates and Mike Bloomberg announce a $500 million pledge to stop people around the world from smoking. [New York Times]

A lively debate in the arts world begins about just what cultural equity means. [New York Times]

News Briefing: A $500 Million Home for Gates's Charity

2008-07-23T12:52:05-04:00

The Gates Foundation breaks ground on its new $500 million headquarters. [Associated Press]

Berea College in Kentucky accepts only applicants from low-income families, and it charges no tuition. [New York Times]

News Briefing: Kenya Blocks Aid Work in Restive West

2008-07-21T10:51:05-04:00

Kenyan armed forces block aid workers from helping homeless, hungry families caught between a militia and an army crackdown. [Associated Press]

The Film of Society Lincoln Center gets a new executive director. [New York Times]

News Briefing: Problems Persist With Red Cross Blood Services

2008-07-18T10:04:22-04:00

Clinton's Foundation aims to stabilize the cost of anti-malaria medication. [Associated Press]

Problems continue with the Red Cross's blood services. [New York Times]

The founder of a defunct Muslim charity is sentenced to a year in prison. [Associated Press]

A Washington-based nonprofit is under fire for high compensation of its longtime chief. [Washington Post]

Billy Crystal joins the Board of the 9/11 memorial foundation. [Associated Press]

News Briefing: Vision Insurer to Ask Justices to Restore Its Tax Exemption

2008-07-16T14:49:31-04:00

The Gates Foundation announces plans to distribute $8.1 million in grants to keep library computers up-to-date. [Associated Press]

VSP Vision Care plans to ask the Supreme Court to decide whether the I.R.S. properly revoked its tax exemption in 2003 in a case that will call into question the tax-exempt status of a number of nonprofit health care providers. [New York Times]

Charles Rangel's fundraising efforts for an academic center that bears his name are called into question. [Washington Post]

News Briefing: Nonprofits in St. Louis: "What Now?"

2008-07-15T10:02:28-04:00

More and more young people use social networks to give. [San Francisco Chronicle]

Nonprofits in the St. Louis area worry that Belgium-based InBev will not continue the philanthropic support that Anheuser-Busch has given throughout the years. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

News Briefing: Samueli's Guilty Plea a Ticklish Issue for Schools He Gave Millions To

2008-07-14T10:07:03-04:00

Four aid workers in Somalia are held hostage. [Reuters]

UCLA and UC Irvine must decide what to do about buildings named after a donor who plead guilty to a felony charge. [Los Angeles Times]

Small businesses tie contributions to causes, believing strategy can boost profit. [Los Angeles Times]

Fragrance Partnership with Antonio Banderas Will Benefit HIV/AIDS Organization by Ingrid Velmonte

2008-07-11T13:57:54-04:00

Yesterday afternoon, Antonio Banderas could be found onstage dancing with a lively group of New York City youth, as well as professional dancers and singers. The event celebrated the launch of Mr. Banderas’ new fragrance, BLUE SEDUCTION for WOMEN, and the partnership between fragrance company PUIG and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Volunteering and philanthropy have long been of interest to the actor-director, and he expressed how important it is to him that his business ventures also benefit the less fortunate. During the 2008 holiday season, one dollar from the sale of each set of Blue Seduction for Men and Women will be donated to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

The money that Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS grants each year (almost $9 million in 2007) is distributed to The Actors’ Fund of America, which benefits those in the industry who live with HIV/AIDS, and hundreds of community-based organizations. To highlight the work of BC/EFA, cast members of Tony Award-winning musical In the Heights choreographed routines and performed with youth affiliated with Broadway Cares and members of Ballet Hispanico and R.Evolucion Latina. The kids attend free dance workshops coordinated by House of the Roses, a BC/EFA grantee that operates at various outreach facilities, homeless shelters, and community centers around the city. Its function is to offer homeless and at-risk youth the opportunity to stay off the streets and express themselves creatively.

Mr. Banderas conveyed his belief that art was not only entertaining but educational. The event showcased how resources from business and the artistic community could result in a dynamic, and beneficial, collaboration. The entire group onstage was, as In the Heights cast member Luis Salgado proclaimed to the audience, celebrating life and human dignity.

News Briefing: David H. Koch to Give $100 Million to Theater

2008-07-10T09:51:55-04:00

The Senate Finance Committee has agreed to loosen stringent limits on "partial" artwork gifts. [New York Times]

Two national nonprofit groups are reeling from public disclosures about misappropriated funds. [New York Times]

Oil and gas billionaire David Koch donates $100 million toward the renovation of the New York State Theater. [New York Times]

News Briefing: Sir John M. Templeton, Philanthropist, Dies at 95

2008-07-09T09:47:43-04:00

Prince Harry believes his mother would be proud of the work his charity is doing in Lesotho. [Associated Press]

Sir John M. Templeton, investor and philanthropist, dies. [New York Times]

The UN and Afghanistan's government launches a $400 million food aid appeal. [Associated Press]

News Briefing: Settlement in Habitat for Humanity Dispute

2008-07-08T13:33:25-04:00

Habitat for Humanity reaches a settlement with its San Antonio affiliate. [New York Times]

The West Virginia Ethics Commission is looking into a degree scandal at West Virginia University. [Associated Press]

Professional telemarketers collect money, but not always for nonprofits. [Los Angeles Times]

Growing numbers of college graduates contribute to surge in applications to public-service agencies. [Wall Street Journal]

News Briefing: Hippie Arrests Draw A.C.L.U.’s Attention

2008-07-07T10:46:44-04:00

The A.C.L.U. will investigate the actions of federal officers who arrested five members of the Rainbow Family in western Wyoming. [Associated Press]

Lawyers for the former leaders of a Muslim charity ask judge to dismiss the case. [Associated Press]