Officials at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in Seattle, have announced plans to funnel millions over the next few years into efforts meant to encourage personal savings in developing countries, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The plan, which represents the foundation’s first focused grant-making program in the area of financial services, is part of a larger intention to improve poor countries’ basic infrastructure.

“We’re going to focus very heavily on using our resources and our voice to put savings back on the world agenda,” said Bob Christen, director of financial services for the poor at the Gates Foundation.

Often, poor people around the world save their wealth in the form of physical assets, such as livestock, coffee, or jewelry. But evidence is growing that they seek more secure means of accumulating savings. Six banks — in the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia,...

Acorn, a housing advocacy group that is also known for its far-reaching voter-registration drives is likely to be among the biggest beneficiaries from the housing bill signed into law July 30 by President Bush, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The housing bill, which Acorn’s advocacy arm lobbied hard for, provides nearly $5-billion for affordable housing, financial counseling, and mortgage restructuring for imperiled homeowners, all areas in which Acorn’s housing corporation works.

Acorn has a national headquarters in New Orleans, as well as affiliated groups across the nation. It is co-managing a $15.9-million campaign with the group Project Vote to register 1.2 million low-income black and Hispanic voters.

Republicans had raised objections to the legislation, fearing federal housing money could wind up being used to support voter-registration drives that heavily favor...

In the wake of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s cancellation of an international tour due to shaky economic conditions, other major American classical ensembles are girding themselves for their own treks abroad, despite a weak dollar, sparse financial support, and rising travel costs, according to The New York Times.

The Philadelphia Orchestra, which announced the cancellation of its European tour on July 29, was slated to debut its new chief conductor and music adviser, Charles Dutoit, on the trip. But sponsorships by the organization’s usual corporate donors did not materialize in time, said James Undercofler, the orchestra’s president. “You go to the people you’ve been counting on, and they say they can’t do it this time,” he said. He declined to identify the companies.

Orchestras, which often appear at festivals while on tour, must rely on financial help from corporate and...

Officials at the American Deputy Sheriffs Association benefited from at least $400,000 in payments over a period of four years — more than the group spent on death benefits and bulletproof vests for members, with the money going for such perks as dinners at the restaurant Hooters and golf tournaments for board members, according to a report filed in an Ohio court in July and recounted in The Orange County Register, in Santa Ana, Calif.

The group, known as ADSA, was ordered to stop raising money earlier this year by a court-appointed receiver, Jeffrey Lewis, a lawyer in Columbus, Ohio. Mr. Lewis is preparing to distribute the organization’s remaining money, and Judge John Bessey said he may dissolve the organization.

The sheriffs’ association, one of several charities assembled by Mitch Gold, a telemarketer who eventually served six years in prison for mail fraud, raised...

Republican senators who received re-election campaign funds from Sen. Ted Stevens, indicted July 29 by a grand jury on seven corruption charges, have pledged to give the money to charity, reports McClatchy Newspapers.

Recipients of money raised by the Alaska Republican’s political-action committee, Northern Lights, include Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, and Sen. John Cornyn, of Texas, who chairs the Republican Conference. Each said he will give away $10,000 in donations.

Among other senators who made similar promises: Norm Coleman, of Minnesota, who is giving up $20,000; Elizabeth Dole, of North Carolina, and Pat Roberts, of Kansas, who are each giving $10,000 to a campaign to fight hunger.

Senator Stevens was indicted on charges of lying to hide more than $250,000 in gifts from the Veco Corporation.

Senator Stevens is expected to plead not guilty to the ...

Roaming actors playing historic characters, a “green” cafeteria that serves locally produced food, and a sunny new atrium that will play host to naturalization ceremonies for new immigrants will be among the new features of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, reports the Associated Press. The museum is set to reopen November 21 following two years of renovation.

In addition to such pop-culture artifacts as Kermit the Frog and Judy Garland’s red slippers from the movie The Wizard of Oz, the made-over museum will include a new gallery spotlighting the American flag. It will also include a temporary exhibit of Abraham Lincoln’s handwritten copy of the Gettysburg Address, which is usually kept in the White House’s Lincoln Bedroom.

“We want visitors to come away with a deeper understanding and appreciation of the American dream and what it has meant to be ...

This month former president Bill Clinton invited friends, contributors to his foundation, and members of the news media to remote regions of Africa to get a firsthand look at his charitable work, The Chronicle reports. But the trip hit a snag Monday when a 727 plane carrying roughly half of the guests, mostly reporters, had an electrical fire, a problematic oxygen valve, and other mechanical malfunctions, grounding the flight from Newark, N.J., to Ethiopia.

Read Chronicle reporter Ian Wilhelm’s update from Ethiopia.

Fund raisers do more harm for their cause than good when they ask donors to give so that a charity can meet a budget shortfall or reach a difficult fund-raising goal, says Marc A. Pitman, an author and fund raiser, as noted in a new post in Prospecting, The Chronicle’s column on fund-raising news and tips.

Join us for an online discussion Tuesday, August 5, at noon U.S. Eastern time about the ways nonprofit groups handle unexpected windfalls.

For small to midsize organizations that struggle to raise enough money to reach their annual goals, the prospect of receiving an unexpected bequest of $100-million or more seems like hitting the lottery.

But as is often the case with lottery winners, failing to plan for how to use a massive payout can cause an array of new problems.

What should your organization be doing to be ready for such a gift? How have other groups handled such windfalls?

Join two nonprofit leaders who are managing major gifts to discuss these and other questions regarding windfall donations.

• Mike Batchelor is president of the Erie Community Foundation in Pennsylvania and is managing a surprise $100-million gift from an anonymous donor. The donor asked that...

More families, including those considered middle and upper class, are seeking assistance from Los Angeles area food pantries in what those organizations say is an unprecedented surge in demand, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The situation has forced food banks to face tough management decisions, as donations have not kept up with the high demand and food prices continue to climb.

The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, for example, saw demand increase by 80 percent in recent months, the paper reports. At SOVA Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles, 28 percent more people were served in June than over a similar period in 2007.

“We’re seeing an increase in people who never would have asked for help in the past,” Joan Mithers, a director at the organization, tells the Times.

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