Former president Bill Clinton’s annual philanthropy meeting, which was held in New York last week, raised more than $9.4-billion in philanthropic gifts and other types of charitable commitments.

While organizers of the event had predicted the bad economy would hamper pledges this year, the amount is larger than in 2008, when Mr. Clinton generated $8-billion.

The commitments can take many forms, including changes in corporate practices that have an environmental benefit, which the donor provides an estimated dollar value to. This means that the dollar figure represents some cash in hand as well as money that needs to be generated in some fashion.

In total, Mr. Clinton estimates that since 2005 his conference has garnered $57-billion to fight social and environmental problems.

The former president prides himself on the fact that the meeting does not invite participants to...

While many celebrities give their voice to a cause, the music star Usher says he is putting his money where his mouth is — pledging $1-million to help youth around the world.

“My contribution is a reminder to all whom I’ve influenced that I’m not just talking the talk, I’m actually walking the walk,” the singer said in an interview with The Chronicle at the Clinton Global Initiative. “I’m going to make this donation to show you that I’m serious.”

The gift will support Powered by Service, a new effort announced at the Clinton meeting and run by Usher’s Atlanta charity. The project will provide $500 grants to young people ages 12 to 20 to get involved in fighting malaria, ending drug use, or other charitable work.

The grantees will be picked by a team of eight young people, who are graduates of a summer camp that Usher started to teach kids about the entertainment and sports...

Former president Bill Clinton gave cautious support for a new Senate plan that would limit charitable deductions — an idea that has been harshly criticized by nonprofit groups.

Several Democratic members of the Senate Finance Committee this month proposed limiting to 35 percent the tax break that wealthy Americans can get for their itemized deductions, including gifts to charity. The revenue generated by it would pay for changes in the nation’s health-care system.

The American Association of Museums, the Association of Fundraising Professionals, the Council on Foundations, and other nonprofit groups are fighting the congressional effort, saying it would hurt fund raising at a time when the recession is already taking a toll on giving.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Chronicle and other newspapers during the Clinton Global Initiative, Mr. Clinton said that he disliked a plan...

While foundations are sometimes viewed as organizations that are slow to change, Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, told members of the Clinton Global Initiative that her fund is doing more to innovate grant making.

She said donors should be more open to giving money to individuals or organizations that come along with new, if unusual, ideas. To illustrate her point, she told a story about John D. Rockefeller Jr.

When Albert Einstein sent a proposal to the philanthropist asking for $500, he said, “Why don’t we give him a $1,000? I think he’s onto something.”

Ms. Rodin also said her foundation has explored “innovative processes” to help this. For example, using the Internet and other technology, foundations can use “crowd sourcing” to receive feedback and suggestions from the people they and their grant recipients are trying to assist.

Nonprofit groups talk a...

A trio of businessmen at the Clinton Global Initiative said that getting involved in philanthropy has great rewards, but they also were rather candid about the challenges.

Eli Broad, who earned a fortune in real estate and has become a major donor to arts and education groups, said that unlike in business, a philanthropist must work hard to build consensus among charities, public officials, and others. Occasionally, he said, “you have to suffer more fools.”

Robert Wright, the former president of NBC who established Autism Speaks after one of his grandchildren was diagnosed with the disease, said half-jokingly that compared to his for-profit job, “the perks and pay really suck” running a charity.

Along with the other panel member, media mogul Ted Turner, they all said that business people can bring valuable skills and experience to nonprofit groups. However, they weren’t sure of...

During a panel at the Clinton Global Initiative on how to speed up the development of new ways to fix social inequities and other global problems, former vice president Al Gore and four other people were asked what innovations they hoped would develop in the year ahead.

Here are the responses:

• Mr. Gore called for a “sustainable capitalism” that would value environmental and social factors as much as profit.

• Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank, predicted that there would be breakthroughs in how mobile phones can be used to help improve the health of impoverished people.

• Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the managing director of the World Bank, hoped that developing countries in Africa and elsewhere could develop better ways to handle natural disasters and political emergencies.

• Jack Ma, the chief executive of the Alibaba Group, the Chinese equivalent of eBay,...

If you paid $20,000 to attend a conference, you’d probably expect a gift bag stuffed with books, gadgets, or other goodies.

But participants at this year’s Clinton Global Initiative — who do pay that amount to be here — are only getting an empty bag. Former president Bill Clinton said the decision to cut back on gifts was in part driven by the economy, but he also wanted to be different than other big world meetings.

In place of the swag, attendees get “200 points” that can be spent at the so-called Giving Back Center, a kiosk where they can allocate their points to various charitable projects donated by corporations and charities.

For example, 10 points or so can go to a water filtration packet from Procter & Gamble, which manufactures the small powdered product that reduces parasites, bacteria, and other contaminants.

While the points are symbolic, how they are spent will ...

Innovation — as a concept and a goal — is popular these days. The Obama administration, of course, has set up its Office of Social Innovation and several nonprofit groups are pioneering what they describe as innovative approaches to fighting social or environmental problems.

But what does it really mean to be innovative? At the Clinton Global Initiative a panel of experts sought to answer that question.

John Kao, founder of the Institute for Large Scale Innovation, said the idea is often misunderstood by some of the people who have embraced it recently.

“Innovation is an overly used word these days,” he said. He defined it as “creativity with a plan and purpose.”

Of course, what may seem like noteworthy creativity to some, may not appeal to others. If someone threw a bucket of paint on the floor it wouldn’t be worth anything, Mr. Kao said, but if Jackson Pollock did it, the...

Panels at the Clinton Global Initiative often avoid the hard issues that face charitable endeavors.

But the ABC News journalist Diane Sawyer added a tougher edge, pushing corporate and nonprofit leaders to discuss their failures in philanthropy and asking about the scarcity of resources.

The discussion focused on the so-called girl effect, the idea that whole nations improve when women and girls receive an education and other support.

While the panelists agreed on the importance of the concept, Ms. Sawyer wanted to hear practical details on what charitable efforts work and don’t work.

She asked Zainab Salbi, the chief executive of Women for Women International, and several other people how their efforts have fallen short and what they’ve learned.

Ms. Salbi said she preferred to focus on “challenges,” but Ms. Sawyer quickly rephrased her question: What is “something you...

With the recession hobbling the world economy, there were questions if attendance would drop at this year’s Clinton Global Initiative.

“We were thinking we would throw a party and no one would come,” said former president Bill Clinton at the start of the four-day conference.

But despite the downturn, Mr. Clinton said that 1,200 people are attending the New York event, more participants than last year.

He did say the economy has taken a toll; some of the charitable commitments made in previous meetings may take more years to reach their goals than planned. Given the difficulties, Mr. Clinton urged participants to consider supporting already-made pledges instead of creating new ones.

Since the conference started in 2005, Mr. Clinton said that 1,400 commitments have been made, with about a quarter of them fulfilled. The former president said those commitments are worth...