The philanthropic response in recent months to the nation’s home foreclosure crisis is a cause for optimism, said George McCarthy, senior program officer at the Ford Foundation, in New York.

Speaking at a session here called, “What Can I Do About the Mortgage Crisis?,” Mr. McCarthy acknowledged that foundations’ early support for additional housing counselors had been largely insufficient.

These counselors, who help people facing foreclosure consider their range of financial options, currently have limited financial tools available to them to help people save their homes. As a result, some of the counselors are getting so depressed by their inability to help people that counseling charities have had to hire trauma experts.

The Consumers Credit Counseling Services of Greater Atlanta, a nonprofit group largely financed by the lending industry, is a pilot site for a new program...

Foundations need to find better ways to explain to government officials, citizens, and others why they deserve their tax-exempt status and freedom to operate independently, Lance Lindblom, president of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, told a meeting of foundation chief executives and trustees Sunday.

Grant makers need to realize that “we are fat cows in a resource-scarce environment,” he said, and that, as a result, government officials will be tempted to offer more suggestions about how foundations use their money.

He noted, for example, that Michigan’s attorney general, had “raised questions”: about whether the Ford Foundation should spend more money in that state, since the philanthropy was incorporated there.

“We need to justify the freedom we have — and explain why we deserving that freedom by saying more than we are good intentioned people doing good things,” he said.

Alan...

Philanthropy around the world has the advantage of “unprecedented resources” and an “unprecedented pool of knowledge, “ Geoff Mulgan, director of the Young Foundation, in London, told a group of foundation chief executives and trustees gathered at a meeting for foundation presidents and trustees held Sunday morning before the official start of the council meeting.

“If you want to fix something in San Francisco or Cleveland, you can get ideas from Finland or Brazil about what works,” he said, noting that it is only in the past decade or so that information could so easily be shared.

Even with more money and information available, the challenges facing donors are daunting, he acknowledged — but he said that should not intimidate grant makers.

“It is the difficulty of the challenge that gives us the edge, the reason for being,” he said.

Grant makers seeking to make a difference ...