It seems the Internal Revenue Service is putting the "hot" in hotline.

A telephone number on the agency's Web site meant to provide information about tax-exempt organizations actually connects callers to a phone-sex operator.

On a Web page titled "Six Important Facts About Tax-Exempt Organizations," No. 3 suggests Americans call an IRS number to confirm if a group is qualified to receive a tax-deductible donation.

But unless promises of "hot action" and heavy breathing are new tax-code jargon for 501(c)(3), donors are going to be rather confused.

According to the IRS, the number is one digit off, and the correct phone line is 877-829-5500.

As of 1 pm Friday, the number had yet to be corrected.

Two of the world's best-known philanthropists -- Bill Clinton and Bill Gates -- came to Capitol Hill today to seek more government support for global-health efforts despite a growing federal budget crunch.

Appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the former president and the Microsoft co-founder said the world is making big strides in eliminating malaria, treating HIV/AIDS, and preventing childhood deaths. To continue this success, they urged the panel to back President Obama’s global-health plan.

(Other charity officials have been more mixed about the Obama administration’s proposed changes to international aid. Read The Chronicle’s article about the nonprofit world’s reaction to the president’s budget plan for 2011)

During the Congressional meeting, the two nonprofit leaders stressed the importance of building health systems in Africa, discussed how they operate in...

As the Social Innovation Fund gears up to make grants, nonprofit leaders raised concerns this week that the fund could have the unintended consquence of discourging grant makers from speaking out about federal policies.

During an event at the Hudson Institute's Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renwal, speakers of different political stripes discussed the foundation world's relationship with the Obama administration and the importance that grant makers remain a strong independent voice in Washington.

But they said advocacy work could be hampered by Mr. Obama's Social Innovation program, which will give money to existing grant-making organizations that, in turn, will support effective charities helping youth and other causes.

"The more dependent you are on government revenues, the more likely you are to bite your tongue," said Gara LaMarche, chief executive of the Atlantic...

The head of global health for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is under scrutiny by members of Congress for his previous job at one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies.

The Senate Finance Committee is investigating whether the drug company GlaxoSmithKline knew of possible health risks associated with the diabetes medicine Avandia. The committee's senior members, Max Baucus, a Democrat from Montana, and Charles Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, released a report over the weekend that says that the company intimidated outside researchers from studying the drug.

A figure in this controversy is Tachi Yamada, the Gates official who formerly served as director of research for SmithKline, the predecessor to GlaxoSmithKline.

Only a small portion of the 334-page report focuses on Dr. Yamada. But it says he made phone calls to officials at the University of North Carolina and the...

President Obama praised the work of religious charities in a speech today and said he has tried to improve how the government supports their charitable efforts.

But civil-liberties groups criticized his administration's "faith-based initiative," saying Mr. Obama has yet to fulfill his promise to place better safeguards against proselytization and religious discrimination.

Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, Mr. Obama focused on how religion can help bring civility to political debates, but also applauded Jewish, Christian, Hindu, and other faiths that are responding to the earthquake in Haiti.

He said such compassion should be harnessed for everyday disasters, like hunger and poverty. He also said that liberals have started to embrace the idea that religious groups and other private efforts can play a major role in fighting social problems.

There is an...

The Council on Foundations, an association of grant makers, is asking the Internal Revenue Service to declare Haiti a “qualified disaster,” a move the group says would help corporations assist their employees who were affected by the earthquake.

The designation would allow company foundations to provide monetary aid to their needy workers in the country, writes Steve Gunderson, president of the Arlington, Va., organization, in a letter to Douglas Shulman, commissioner of the federal tax agency.

Under IRS rules, corporate grant makers are barred from using philanthropic dollars to help employees except for special circumstances.

“Regrettably, some U.S. companies have employees who have been adversely affected by the earthquake,” Mr. Gunderson says. “These companies would like to assist their employees by making qualified disaster payments from company foundations.”

He says the ...

President Obama today is holding a White House event to discuss job growth, and some charity leaders will be rubbing shoulders with executives from Google and Disney.

With the unemployment rate passing 10 percent for the first time in more than 25 years, the president called for the forum to find ways to spur new jobs in addition to government efforts supported by the $787-billion economic-stimulus package.

According to The New York Times, the conference will have six discussion groups. They will be on “innovative and green jobs, small-business incentives, long-range infrastructure plans, encouraging export-oriented businesses, government and private-sector partnerships, and training for the jobs of the future.”

The guest list is primarily made up of business people, union leaders, and mayors, but a few charity officials will be among the 130 or so attendees.

They include...

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives have proposed a bill that would simplify the tax code for foundations, a move they say would encourage grant makers to give more during the economic downturn.

The bill, HR 4090 — which is similar to Senate legislation, S 676, proposed in March — would change the way foundations pay excise tax on their net investment income.

Foundations currently are subject to a 2 percent or 1 percent tax. They can qualify for the lower rate in any year in which the percentage of assets they directed toward charitable distributions is larger than the average percentage of their distributions during the previous five years.

While the two-tier tax was intended as an incentive for foundations to give more, lawmakers and foundation officials argue it has the opposite effect. They say it pushes foundations not to dramatically raise their grant making in any...

It seems foundation leaders are making house calls on the Obama administration.

As part of an effort to be more public about who is meeting with the president and other officials, the administration last month released the names of people who have visited the White House and the adjacent offices of the executive branch.

The list is not comprehensive and only covers the first six months of Mr. Obama’s term, but it shows at least eight philanthropy executives have made visits, some multiple times. (The names of other foundation leaders may appear on the list, but The Chronicle was unable to confirm them.)

The list includes Gara LaMarche, president of the Atlantic Philanthropies; Steve Gunderson, chief executive of the Council on Foundations; Luis Ubiñas, chief executive of the Ford Foundation; Carol Larson, chief executive of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation; Risa...

Buried within this week’s election coverage is the news that New York State voters approved a proposal that allows prisoners to volunteer at nonprofit groups.

Technically, the proposal changes the state constitution so that the legislature can pass a bill to permit inmates in state and local correctional facilities to work with charities. Before, the state said prisoners cannot “be farmed out, contracted, given, or sold to any person, firm, association, or corporation,” including charities.

According to The New York Times, New Yorkers overwhelmingly supported the idea, with 67.6 percent voting for the proposition.

Proponents of the change said it would assist charity work and help rehabilitate convicts.

“It can be helpful in repaying society, rehabilitating them, and re-acclimating them to people in the world,” Assemblyman Jeffrion L. Aubry, a Democrat from Queens and...