One-third of San Francisco-area nonprofit groups are worried they may have to shut down in the next year, and 34 percent say they have no more than two months’ worth of operating funds in reserve, according to a survey by the regional United Way.

Nearly two-thirds of the 391 respondents to the organization’s 2009 Nonprofit Pulse Survey said demand for their services was increasing. Twenty-three percent have had to reduce services, while 26 percent said they have collaborated in the past six months with another charity.

Anne Wilson, head of the Bay Area United Way, said the increasing collaboration and partnership among groups “might be the one positive emerging from these lean times.”

A private Pennsylvania military academy has sued a group of disgruntled alumni in the latest salvo of a divisive fight over the school’s leadership and direction, reports The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Valley Forge Military Academy & College says the graduates’ group, Valley Forge Old Guard Inc., has done “irreparable harm” to the school and its foundation by using copyrighted symbols and images on its Web site and literature.

The alumni group has been at odds with the academy since July 2005, when Valley Forge trustees hired the school’s first civilian president.

Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court, is now under public scrutiny for the years she spent on the Board of Directors of a Puerto Rican advocacy group, The New York Times reports.

Ms. Sotomayor served on the board of the Puerto Rican Defense and Education Fund from 1980 until 1992, when she was appointed to become a federal judge.

During that time the organization, now known as LatinoJustice PRLDEF, filed lawsuits concerning job discrimination and bilingual education and staked out strong positions on issues such as capital punishment, voting rights, and police brutality.

“While it’s fine to let your Puerto Rican heritage influence — or any heritage for that matter — influence your positions when you’re on a board,...

Nonprofit organizations that provide energy-saving “weatherization” services to homes are set to get a major financial benefit via the federal economic-stimulus package, which sets energy efficiency and the creation of green jobs as major priorities, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Local governments, as well as private organizations, are jockeying for grants to provide energy audits and make weatherizing repairs, particularly for low-income families. Some states are asking charities to compete for some or all of their funds from the federal Weatherization Assistance Program.

Sheltering Arms Senior Services, a Houston charity that took in $350,000 last year, could get $22.2 million over two years and increase tenfold the number of homes it weatherizes annually.

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Charities that have the means to do so need to take chances and try things that might fail as a way to learn the best routes to social innovation, the head of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Jeff Raikes, said in an interview with the Associated Press.

“Almost by definition, good philanthropy means we’re going to have to do some risky things, some speculative things, to try to see what works and what doesn’t,” said the former Microsoft executive, who assumed administrative leadership of the world’s largest philanthropy nine months ago.

Mr. Raikes, whose own foundation supports youths, education, and Seattle causes, cited the Gates Foundation’s education effort, which has spent billions in recent years on scholarships and school...

Charities and foundations are moving rapidly into the development landscape previously dominated by government-run institutions such as the United Nations and the World Bank, the Financial Times reports.

While the government entities are still in the best position to respond to crises requiring a significant response, such as the global economic downturn, for-profit and nonprofit social enterprises can adopt more nimble and innovative approaches to particular problems in the developing world, the newspaper writes.

“Business and society have to go through this utterly profound management transformation to move away from a few people running everyone else,” said Bill Drayton, founder of the social-entrepreneurship organization Ashoka. “Because that model can’t...

Twitter users now have a new way to support charity, but it might not ever raise much money for good causes, notes Prospecting, The Chronicle’s online fund-raising column.

In today’s economy, nonprofit leaders need to understand how to effectively promote their organizations, programs, and fund-raising campaigns.

Many groups want to use online social networks to get their messages out but don’t know how to build their images and get attention on the networks.

In an online discussion on June 2, we’ll discuss how you can ensure that your organization stands out through online networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn and explore how those tools can complement traditional marketing efforts.

The Chronicle’s online discussions are free and open to everyone. People who ask questions in advance have a better chance of getting answers.

The turbulent economy is creating new incentives to combine “back office” functions like accounting, human resources, and technology.

But figuring out how to collaborate with other organizations — including how to unite fund-raising and mission-related programs — is a challenge.

To help Chronicle readers learn how to approach such efforts, we invite you to a one-hour Webinar on June 3.

Our Webinars give you easy access to experts without the expense of paying for consultants or the hassle of leaving your office during your busy day. What’s more, you can invite as many of your staff colleagues or board members as you like —...

A court in New Orleans has been asked to order Tulane University to reopen the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College, which it shuttered after almost 120 years, according to the group Save Newcomb College.

Susan Henderson Montgomery, a successor of Josephine Louise Newcomb, who created the college through a bequest and earlier donations, petitioned the Civil District Court for Orleans Parish on May 27 to grant summary judgment on key issues in the case and order the college’s reopening.

The petition states that Ms. Newcomb’s bequest to Tulane’s board was contingent on the board creating and maintaining in perpetuity a women’s college at the university. The plaintiff’s lawyers say they are not seeking money or property but recognition of the donor’s original intent. The college was...