Jazz at Lincoln Center is in settlement talks with a Pennsylvania insurance executive it says did not follow through on a five-year, $500,000 donation commitment, according to Bloomberg.

The organization sued AV International chief executive Andre V. Duggin earlier this month, claiming he still owes $327,500 on his 2005 promise, made in writing two weeks after he joined the renowned New York venue’s board, and subsequent additional pledges.

In other arts news, the Financial Times reports that budget cuts at British museums have not affected attendance. More than a third of 312 museums and galleries surveyed by the nonprofit Art Fund saw gains in visitors between September 2008 and last March, and 38 percent experienced no change.

Also, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra musicians have agreed to forgo promised wage and pension hikes, making what amounts to a $1-million donation to the...

Major international humanitarian agencies are running appeals seeking millions of dollars to aid Sri Lankans fleeing the fighting as the country’s army seeks to crush the Tamil Tiger rebels, reports Reuters.

Camps and hospitals are reportedly bursting at the seams as civilians, many of them badly injured, stream out of the war zone. Critical needs include shelter, food, water, sanitation, clothing, bedding, mosquito nets, and psychological support.

CARE is appealing for $9-million for Sri Lankan aid, and Save the Children is running a $3.65-million campaign. All told, the United Nations, the federal government, and some 40 aid agencies are seeking $155-million but so far have received less than a third of that.

A joint paper by the San Francisco Foundation and the city attorney’s office recommends major changes among the Bay area’s nonprofit groups as a gaping municipal deficit crimps charities’ budgets, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

The study suggests ways the city can reduce the nearly $500-million a year it spends on some 800 social-service providers as it seeks to close an unprecedented $438-million budget gap. It recommends that the city help some of San Francisco’s 7,000 nonprofit organizations cut costs, merge, or close.

“There are going to be changes in the nonprofit landscape — not all are going to survive,” the foundation’s executive director, Sandra Hernandez, said.

Los Angeles education philanthropists Bruce and Martha Karsh have pledged $3-million toward a plan to open new charter schools in the area, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The donation is the second major recent gift to help charter-school operator KIPP LA reach a goal of expanding in the next five years to 14 elementary and middle schools in the area from the current three. The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation gave $12-million last year.

The nationwide KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) network runs 66 schools in 19 states and the District of Columbia, many of which have achieved significant academic gains with largely poor and minority student bodies, the newspaper reports.

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The Greater Boston Guild for the Blind, the city’s only adult day health-care center for the visually impaired, will stop serving clients tomorrow, a victim of rising costs and declining donations, The Boston Globe reports.

The facility in the West Roxbury area will officially wind up operations in June. Its 15 employees will be laid off, and clients are being referred to other adult day centers across the region.

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In a Wall Street Journal opinion column, the leaders of two of the nation’s largest minority organizations write that business philanthropy can play a “make or break” role in meeting public needs during the economic crisis.

National Urban League head Marc Morial and Janet Murguia, chief executive of the National Council of La Raza, recall the surge in giving by individuals and companies during the Great Depression and cite recent campaigns by Avon, Comcast, and UPS in urging businesses to help fill the gap left by squeezed government budgets and nonprofit groups facing fiscal struggles.

Richard Pratt, a Polish emigre who became one of Australia’s richest men and a leading international patron for Jewish causes, died of cancer Tuesday at age 74, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports.

Mr. Pratt, who immigrated to Australia with his parents on the eve of World War II, made his estimated $3.8-billion fortune as the head of Visy Industries, a global packaging and recycling business. The Pratt Foundation, which he founded in 1978 with his wife, Jeanne, has given some $140-million to charities in Australia, Israel, and the United States.

Nonprofit social-services groups in 19 states said in a recent survey their payments from state or local governments have been received later than they were due, in some cases forcing charities to cut jobs or services, notes Government and Politics Watch, The Chronicle’s online column.

Alanna Shaikh, a global-health expert, tries to save readers of her blog from some regrettable on-the-job missteps by describing five mistakes she made in pursuit of her dream job, according to a new item in Give and Take, The Chronicle’s roundup of the best blog posts about the nonprofit world.

Plus:

• Questioning the value of beneficiaries’ stories in charity evaluation.

• Google.org helps track the swine flu.

The Nature Conservancy’s “Plant a Billion” campaign to plant trees in Brazil’s rain forest has just received $2.7-million from an arrangement with Disney Studios to donate a portion of the ticket price for every moviegoer who saw its new nature documentary “Earth” in its first week, says Prospecting, The Chronicle’s online column on fund raising.