Philanthropy Today - Philanthropy.com

These are items on other Web sites that are of interest to the nonprofit world. The Chronicle has no control over their content or availability. To reach the Philanthropy Today staff, send an e-mail message to daily.news@philanthropy.com

Compiled by Noelle Barton, Caroline Bermudez, Maria Di Mento, Audrey Hill, Anne W. Howard, and Candie Jones.

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July 2008

July 31, 2008

Gates Foundation Promotes Savings Accounts for World's Poor

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, Benin, Uganda, and Colombia — that serve largely poor clients found that customers were six times more likely to request savings accounts than loans, reports a 2006 study by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, a think tank sponsored by the World Bank that advised the Gates Foundation on its new financial-services program.

But collecting savings deposits from the poor in developing countries is rife with challenges, including strict banking regulations and a shortage of bank branches in rural areas. The new program could mean that the Gates Foundation will forge ties with telecommunications operators, banks, and retailers, which philanthropists have rarely worked with in partnership. Says Mr. Christen: “It’s a new world for foundations in general.”

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Acorn Likely to Be Among the Biggest Beneficiaries of New Housing Funds

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 Democratic candidates.

“These are taxpayer funds, in an indirect method, being used to subsidize political activism,” says Rep. Jeb Hensarling, Republican of Texas and chairman of the House Republican Study Committee. “I’m sure they’re not going out and registering any Republicans.”

Democrats counter that other groups across the political spectrum — the League of Conservation Voters, the National Rifle Association, and a number of religious charities — also register voters and have also gotten public money.

Charles Jackson, an Acorn spokesman, says housing aid does not support voter efforts. “The funds don’t intermingle,” he says. “There are clear walls with Acorn.”

Economy Poses Threat for Touring Orchestras

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 individual sponsors to cover their costs because the fees paid to them by the festivals are insufficient, says Mr. Undercofler.

Other classical ensembles slated to tour Asia and Europe within the next year and a half include orchestras in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, and San Francisco. All say they intend to go ahead with their plans.

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Spending by Sheriffs' Charity Comes Under Fire

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 $38.7-million from 1999 through 2007. Regulators in 14 states banned, restricted, or fined the group before Ohio seized control of the organization in August 2004.

Larry Smith, the charity’s founder, and Tom Buchman, its internal auditor, defended the group’s spending. Mr. Buchman said that board members conducted work-related discussions on the golf course and that Hooters was an inexpensive dining option for large groups of charity officials.

Mr. Smith said he and the other employees were all working in good faith: “We thought we could make it a viable organization. But we couldn’t play that game. The only people who made money from ADSA were the lawyers and fund raisers.”

GOP Senators Redirect Cash From Senator Stevens to Charity

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 charges Thursday in court, the Associated Press reports.

Smithsonian Museum Prepares for Reopening

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 an American,” said the museum’s director, Brent Glass.

The museum’s reopening was originally scheduled for this summer, but renovation workers discovered asbestos and lead paint, which delayed the $85-million project. The building has been closed since September 2006.

Reporter's Notebook: President Clinton's Africa Trip Hits a Snag

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.

Prospecting: Should Charities Ask Donors to Cover Budget Gaps?

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.

Online Discussion Next Week: Dealing With Unexpected Gifts

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 $85-million be used to make unrestricted gifts for local nonprofit groups and that $15-million go to charities around the country.

Joe Evans serves on the board of directors at the George School, a Quaker school in Newtown, Pa. Mr. Evans has played a key role in helping the school solicit and manage a $128.5-million pledge from Barbara Dodd Anderson, a 1950 alumna who will provide the school with $5-million a year.

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

July 30, 2008

California Food Banks See Surge in Demand

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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Philadelphia Orchestra Experiments With Online Membership Plan

The Philadelphia Orchestra is starting an online membership option for concertgoers, dubbed eZseat, as a way to lower its costs and expand its audience, reports The Philadelphia Inquirer.

People who sign up for the program will be able to buy tickets online at a 25 percent discount for almost any show and print them out.

The money to design and research the program came from funds donated by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Neubauer Family Foundation, the paper reports.

“We were looking for how to find a new way to get people to go regularly, as if they were subscribers, but not have the problems subscriptions have, because subscriptions are not the future,” says the orchestra’s marketing chief, J. Edward Cambron.

In addition, eZseat will offer college students a $25 membership that comes with unlimited free concerts.

Harvard Taps Gates Foundation Fellow to Lead Public-Health School

A senior fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and former World Health Organization official was named the next dean of the School of Public Health at Harvard University, reports The Boston Globe.

Julio Frenk, who was a visiting professor at the university at one time, will assume the role of dean in January, succeeding Barry R. Bloom. Dr. Frenk was Mexico’s health minister from 2000 to 2006.

In a statement announcing the news on Harvard’s Web site, Harvard’s president Drew Faust called Dr. Frenk “a highly influential figure at the crossroads of scholarship and practice, known for his profound concern with how scientific evidence can foster improvements in health systems and policy in societies around the world.”

(Free registration is required to view the Globe article.)

Bush Foundation Announces New Priorities

The Bush Foundation, in St. Paul, will focus its giving on developing leaders, supporting local areas in solving problems, assisting Native Americans, and increasing educational achievement, reports MinnPost.com.

The foundation gave $40.2-million in grants in 2006, making it the fifth largest grant maker in Minnesota, the news agency reports. The organization has worked to retool its priorities since 2006.

The new priorities come with specific goals the foundation wants to reach by 2018, including having 75 percent of the population of Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota say that their cities or towns are effective at solving problems and improving quality of life. Another goal is to see the percentage of students in the three states who earn a degree after high school increase by 50 percent.

The foundation held a Webcast this week with its president, Peter Hutchinson, and board chair, Kathy Tunheim, to answer questions about the new direction of the organization.

Car Donations Can Still Net Tax Breaks

Although a change in the tax law in 2004 reduced the tax deduction donors can receive for most car donations, donors can still claim the full Kelly Blue Book value for cars given to a charity that uses the car or sells it at a discount to someone in need, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper says a 2004 tax-law change has caused confusion among some donors, and many charities that have relied on car donations for income have seen a big drop in such donations.

Melwood, a charity in the Washington, D.C., area that serves people with mental and developmental disabilities, has seen car donations — its primary source of income — drop about 50 percent since the tax law changed.

For people interested in receiving the higher tax deduction for their car donations, The Journal directs readers to Opportunity Cars, a network of more than 150 nonprofit groups that distribute vehicles to low-income families.

From The Chronicle: Charity Lobbying

Most charities devote a tiny portions of their budgets to lobbying, according a report released today by the Johns Hopkins University. Limits on the amount of money and staff members charities had available were the biggest obstacle to getting involved in advocacy, says an article on the study in The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Government and Politics Watch: Money for Housing Groups in Foreclosure Bill

The Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Act of 2008 — which President Bush is poised to sign into law — includes the creation of a permanent Housing Trust Fund that would provide as much as $300-million a year to increase the supply of low-income housing, especially rental units, reports The Chronicle’s Government and Politics Watch column.

Prospecting: Online Fund-Raising Groups Merge

Network for Good, a Bethesda, Md., organization that helps charities raise money on the Internet and runs an online giving site, has acquired the ePhilanthropy Foundation, an organization that promotes ethics in online fund raising, says a new post in Prospecting, The Chronicle’s column on fund-raising news and tips.

Plus: More tips for raising money in a recession.

Give and Take: Corruption in Overseas Aid Work

There’s a lot of confusion among international aid workers about what constitutes corruption, according to a new study cited by Ruth Gidley on Reuters AlertNet, says a new item in Give and Take, The Chronicle’s roundup of the best blog posts about the nonprofit world.

July 29, 2008

Bad Real-Estate Market Is Good for Conservationists

As the real-estate market plummets, some nonprofit land-conservation groups are seeing a “green lining,” as they are now able to purchase land at a cheaper rate than in previous years, reports the Associated Press.

Will Rogers, president of the Trust for Public Land, in San Francisco, says that groups like his are snapping up property in the softening markets in Florida, the Southwest, and parts of California.

The Florida chapter of the Nature Conservancy was recently able to purchase between 85,000 and 100,000 acres, worth about $380-million, according to Keith Fountain, the chapter’s director of land acquisition. In comparison, the group bought about 45,000 acres for $260-million during all of 2006.

Food Banks Put Emphasis on Nutrition

As an increasing number of Americans suffer the diseases and side effects of obesity, food banks are trying to become more health-conscious in their offerings, reports The Washington Post.

Some groups, such as America’s Second Harvest, in Chicago, are trying to use less salt and cook fresh meals to distribute to clients.

The Capital Area Food Bank, in Washington, has hired a nutritionist and offers courses on healthy eating and grocery shopping.

General obesity rates have more than doubled in the past 30 years, and these rates tend to be higher among minorities and low-income people, who make up a significant percentage of food banks’ clients.

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More Nonprofit Executives Earn MBAs

As donors step up demands on charities and nonprofit groups seek to become more sophisticated in finances and management, an increasing number of nonprofit executives are choosing to earn master’s degrees in business administration, reports The Financial Times.

Liz Livingston Howard, associate director of the Center for Nonprofit Management at the Kellogg School of Management, at Northwestern University, in Evanston, Ill., says that there’s been a “statistically significant increase in the past 10 years” of nonprofit employees enrolled in the school’s part-time master’s program.

Experts say that donors are now more likely to have made their money in the business world, rather than through inheritances, and expect nonprofit groups to have businesslike approaches to using their gifts.

“When you get people with that kind of business savvy, they don’t want to just write a check, but they want to change the nature of public education or global health,” says Nora Silver, director and adjunct professor at the Center for Nonprofit and Public Leadership at the Haas School of Business, in Berkeley, Calif.

New Yorkers Mobilize to Help Others in Tribute to 9/11 Aid They Received

Volunteers with the nonprofit group New York Says Thank You take on a community-service project in disaster-stricken areas of the United States each September to memorialize the assistance New Yorkers received after the events of September 11, 2001, reports The New York Times.

Founded by Jeff Parness, a former venture capitalist, the group includes firefighters and rescue workers who have traveled to assist with tornado damage in Texas and Kansas and wildfire damage in California.

Mr. Parness says the point of his group is to “use the September 11 anniversary to celebrate that sense of humanity, that sense of neighborliness.”

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Microfinance Groups Push Disclosure

Eleven microfinance groups agreed yesterday to publicly report their annual interest rates in an effort to be more open, especially as more for-profit corporations are getting involved in the process of making small loans, reports the Associated Press.

The MicroFinance Transparency initiative, an American nonprofit group, was founded so that borrowers could figure out the best deal when taking out loans. The group will start publishing country-specific data this fall.

Microfinance is becoming a hot area for banks, which are offering microfinance investment packages to institutions and individuals. Officials of nonprofit microfinance groups fear that as the banks seek a return on their investment, the goal of bettering the lives of poor borrowers will become secondary.

To read more about philanthropic interest in microfinance, read The Big Promise of Small Loans from The Chronicle’s archive.

(Free registration is required to view the AP article on the Boston Globe site.)

From The Chronicle: $225-Million Bequest Benefits Florida Foundation

A Florida foundation has received a $225-million bequest, one of the biggest donations announced so far in 2008, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

From The Chronicle: The Future of the Gates Foundation

Read the transcript of the live online discussion The Chronicle hosted today with Patty Stonesifer, head of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Government and Politics Watch: IRS Tells Group It Isn't a Church

The Internal Revenue Service has told an organization that says it operates “for the advancement of Christianity and for other charitable purposes” that it does not qualify for a federal tax exemption as a church under Section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. tax code, reports The Chronicle’s Government and Politics Watch column.

Prospecting: Lessons From the Obama Campaign

The Obama campaign offers many lessons for nonprofit fund raisers, says a new post in Prospecting The Chronicle’s column on fund-raising news and tips.

Give and Take: Borrowing a Page From Amazon.com to Aid Donors

New efforts are under way to think about how Web sites can help predict what causes donors will want to support, based on their interests, says a new item in Give and Take, The Chronicle’s roundup of the best blog posts about the nonprofit world.

July 28, 2008

From The Chronicle: Efforts to Cultivate Repeat Volunteers Fall Short

Charities need to do a better job keeping their volunteers engaged and loyal, say the authors of a new report released by the federal government, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy. The report, from the Corporation for National and Community Service, says that more than one out of every three people who volunteered in 2006 did not do so again in 2007.

Preacher's Relatives Come Under Investigation

The lucrative jobs and prosperous lifestyles of relatives of Kenneth Copeland, a prominent televangelist, have been called into question as part of a broader inquiry led by the Senate Finance Committee into the spending and financial-accountability practices at six large televangelist groups, reports the Associated Press.

“There are far too many relatives here,” said Frances Hill, a University of Miami law professor who specializes in nonprofit tax law, referring to her analysis of Mr. Copeland’s Texas ministry. “There’s too much money sloshing around and too much of it sloshing around with people with overlapping affiliations and allegiances by either blood or friendship or just ties over the years. There are red flags all over these relationships.”

All those in question have denied any wrongdoing, and Mr. Copeland’s church has started a Web site, Believers Stand United, to “help set the record straight.” The church has also said it welcomed an Internal Revenue Service audit.

Charity Leader's Salary Triggers Protest

The federal government has ended its support of the nonprofit-run National Night Out, and some local jurisdictions have started to follow suit after news that the group’s executive director, Matt Peskin, makes more than $300,000 a year, reports The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Mr. Peskin, of the National Association of Town Watch, said the event planned for August 5 will be bigger and better than ever, according to the newspaper. In a brief interview with the newspaper, he defended his pay as “just one measure” of the group’s success.

Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican who had helped the charity secure $3-million in subsidies over the years, ended his support of the group last year. “It makes no sense that I make so much less than he,” said Senator Specter. The newspaper said Mr. Specter earned $165,200 last year.

Cancer Group Receives $8.5-Million Research Gift

The American Cancer Society has received $8.5-million from an anonymous donor to support a five-year research program to investigate a genetic disorder that increases the risk of developing cancer, particularly thyroid cancer, the charity reports.

The gift will establish a consortium of scientists with the aim of improving thyroid-cancer screening, monitoring, and diagnosis.

The program is expected to begin in July 2009.

McCain's Role With Nonprofit Institute Draws Scrutiny

The International Republican Institute, a nonprofit group that aims to promote democracy in closed societies, has been led for 15 years by John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, reports The New York Times.

Under Mr. McCain’s tenure, the institute, which operates free of the limitations that restrict campaign fund-raising, has solicited millions of dollars from over 500 defense contractors, lobbying firms, oil companies, and other corporations, many with issues presented before Senate committees Mr. McCain served on, the newspaper writes.

“Over the years, Mr. McCain has nurtured a reputation for bucking the Republican establishment and criticizing the influence of special interests in politics,” the Times says. “But an examination of his leadership of the Republican institute — one of the least-chronicled aspects of his political life — reveals an organization in many ways at odds with the political-outsider image that has become a touchstone of the McCain campaign for president.”

Mr. McCain declined to be interviewed for the story. A spokesman for his campaign said Senator McCain “has never requested nor offered to take a position on legislation in exchange for, or because of, contributions to I.R.I.” He added that Mr. McCain was “proud of I.R.I.’s work in countries from Peru to Serbia to Mongolia.”

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New York Budget Cuts Close Disaster Program

The Disaster Preparedness and Response Program of the Human Services Council of New York City, an umbrella group of local nonprofit organizations that handled disaster coordination in the aftermath of September 11, closed this month after the state declined to renew its financing, reports The New York Times.

One of several disaster programs affected by this year’s budget cuts, the council program was first paid for by money from the State Office of Homeland Security, then by the State Department of Health, which gave the group $380,000 in a contract that ended in 2007.

“It was a limited-time contract,” said Jeffrey Gordon, a spokesman for the State Division of the Budget. “It was not intended to be an ongoing funding stream. They completed the work they were contracted to do.”

But the council contends that there is still a lot of work to be done. “You can’t just set something up in 2005 and have it be relevant in 2009,” said Nancy Wackstein, board chair of the Human Services Council. “There has to be ongoing maintenance.”

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Opinion: Philanthropic Freedom Being Eroded

According to an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal, foundation leaders, board members, and those with charitable aspirations should be paying attention to legislative efforts that the paper says could compromise the freedom of charities nationwide.

The focus of the critique is a bill, intended to ensure diversity, that was introduced in California that would have required foundations with more than $250-million in assets to report the racial, gender, and sexual orientation of their board members, employees, and grant recipients.

The bill was recently abandoned by its sponsors in exchange for an agreement worked out with 10 of the state’s biggest grant-making organizations.

The implications of this compromise may prompt similar actions across the country, the newspaper said.

For more on the California bill and similar efforts in other states, read “The Chronicle’s coverage.

(A paid subscription or temporary pass is required to view the Chronicle article.)

Government and Politics Watch: IRS Publishes Updates on Charitable Trusts

The Internal Revenue Service has issued two new documents that affect charities that offer charitable remainder trusts and charitable lead trusts, reports The Chronicle’s Government and Politics Watch column.

Prospecting: Fund Raiser Predicts Worldwide Competition for Donors

American charities will soon be competing with a world of nonprofit organizations for online donations, an international fund-raising expert told participants at a conference in Washington last week, according to Prospecting, The Chronicle’s fund-raising column.

Online Discussion Tomorrow: What's Next for the Gates Foundation?

Join us next Tuesday, July 29, at noon U.S. Eastern time for a live online discussion with Patty Stonesifer, the first chief executive of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as she prepares to step down from that role.

Ms. Stonesifer will talk about what it’s been like to oversee an organization that has grown from a start-up group to the nation’s largest and most visible foundation in the span of just eight years, and she will answer questions about the Gates Foundation.

(Read an interview in The Chronicle in which Ms. Stonesifer talks about her work at the foundation and her plans for the future.)

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

July 25, 2008

Shriners Investigative Committee Finds Possible Wrongdoing

The Shriners of North America fraternal organization and the Shriners Hospitals for Children violated ethics policies and may have knowingly filed incorrect information on federal tax forms, according to an internal investigation by the group, reports The New York Times.

The committee found that the chairman of the Shriners Hospitals Board of Trustees, Ralph Semb, had tried to dismiss a fund-raising executive who refused to use a direct-mail company that had close family ties with another board member, Gene Bracewell, thereby violating the group’s conflict-of-interest code.

The report also found that another executive had accused the group of falsifying financial information on its tax returns. However, the investigative committee that was appointed to examine accusations of wrongdoing was disbanded in June before it could further examine those claims, says John C. Nobles, a member of the committee.

When another committee member, Mahlon W. Hessey, tried to present the committee’s findings at the annual Shriners meeting in St. Louis in June, he was booed off the stage.

Mr. Semb and Mr. Bracewell said they did not try to influence the choice of the direct-mail company, and the board did not punish them.

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Departure of Charity CEO Raises Questions About Fund-Raising Galas

The resignation of a Seattle arts group’s chief executive has brought a fund-raising debate to the forefront: Are flashy fund-raising events worth all the trouble and money?

For about five years, Gordon Hamilton was director of the group Poncho, a Seattle organization that raises money for cultural projects, reports The Seattle Times.

He resigned last week after being criticized for relying too heavily on major events to bring in donations. The organization’s fund-raising total dropped 10 percent in the past fiscal year, after Poncho’s annual gala failed to raise more money than it cost, according to the organization’s board chairman, Janet True.

Officials at Poncho are considering replacing the annual gala with a smaller, less costly event in years to come.

Mr. Hamilton said he was proud of the work he had done at the organization but that it was time for a change.

Online Giving Site Promotes Green Projects

GlobalGiving, a Web site where donors give money to support international charitable projects, is adding a new section to allow donors to support environmentally friendly international projects, reports The New York Times.

The group used a grant from the Packard Foundation to hire EcoSecurities Consulting, a company that develops carbon-trading programs intended to help reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, to assist in finding projects that would help limit carbon emissions.

For example, one such project would bring fuel-efficient stoves to homes in Honduras, limiting smoke inhalation and carbon emissions and improving family health.

To read more about efforts charities of all kinds are making to be environmentally friendly, see Charity Goes Green, a recent article from The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

(Free registration is required to view the Times article, and a paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view the Chronicle article.)

California Foundations Consider Supporting Journalism Projects

Foundations in California are trying to fill the gaps left in the state’s political reporting as newspapers and other journalistic organizations cut back because of the economy, reports the Capitol Weekly.

The New America Foundation, with headquarters in Washington and another office in Sacramento, has proposed an online magazine called “California Next” that would include original reporting, background information, and commentaries from California policy experts and journalists.

A.G. Block, a former California Journal editor who is now director of the public-affairs journalism program at the University of California Center in Sacramento, says he has been approached by the James Irvine Foundation, in San Francisco, to develop a training program for working reporters on covering public affairs.

Dave Lesher, senior manager of the Public Policy Institute of California and a former editor of the California Journal and a reporter for the Los Angeles Times Capitol, says journalism is in a transition period.

“One of the questions is, will media be commercially viable, or does it need some kind of nonprofit component or model to survive?”

To read more about foundation-financed journalism efforts, read Nonprofit News Hounds, an article from The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

(A paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view the Chronicle article.)

Prospecting: Why Word of Mouth Matters

Many donors tell their friends about their experiences in giving, a new survey has found — so charities need to make sure their supporters are happy, according to Prospecting, The Chronicle’s fund-raising column.

Government and Politics Watch: IRS Examines Charity Deals With Overseas Companies

The Internal Revenue Service is looking at whether charities are using offshore accounts and other tactics to avoid paying taxes on income earned in the United States, reports The Chronicle’s Government and Politics Watch column.

From The Chronicle: A Big Bequest Goes to Work Aiding Jewish Groups

The James Joseph Foundation, the beneficiary of a $1-billion bequest, is pumping large sums into projects that promote Jewish education, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

July 24, 2008

Nonprofit Groups Seek to Spark Investments in Cities

Nonprofit groups are providing start-up capital to entrepreneurs who wish to establish businesses in cities, reports The New York Times.

One group, Jumpstart, identifies companies in Cleveland to invest in and advise on their growth. It relies on charitable donations from private companies, foundations, and government agencies and does not give profits to investors.

A report commissioned by the group from Cleveland State University says that Jumpstart has helped to produce $56.3-million in goods and services and create 346 new jobs.

Another nonprofit group rounding up investments for businesses is Innovation Works, in Pittsburgh. Richard Lunak, head of the group and a former technology entrepreneur, says, “When people think of technology entrepreneurs and venture capital, they think of Silicon Valley and that’s where they think it ends. But there is a lot going on in regions like Pittsburgh, which has over a billion dollars of federally funded research pouring into its universities annually.”

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N.Y. Arts Coalition Asks City to Increase Its Financial Support

A coalition of arts organizations in New York is asking for a city grant to support minority-related arts programs, reports The New York Times.

The coalition, called the Cultural Equity Group, is asking for $15-million.

Laurie A. Cumbo, executive director of the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, says, “The competition for funding does not take into account the issues of the communities we serve — the soaring high-school dropout rate, the foster-care kids, the people facing re-entry from prison.” Currently, the Cultural Affairs Department does not consider culturally specific criteria when it awards money to arts groups.

Councilman Domenic M. Recchia Jr., of Brooklyn, chairman of the cultural affairs committee, said he told the Cultural Equity Group there was no money for new programs for the new fiscal year.

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Jewish Organizations Accuse Ford of Supporting Anti-Israel Groups

An investigation conducted by a nonprofit group that focuses on Jewish issues alleges that the Ford Foundation has continued to support groups that portray Israel negatively, reports the JTA news service.

Ford has provided more than $200-million over the past five decades to about 350 organizations in the Middle East. JTA contends that the foundation has awarded grants to groups that paint Israel as a “racist, apartheid” state and that attempt to “isolate the Jewish nation through boycotts, divestment, and sanctions.”

The controversy began at a United Nations antiracism conference in Durban, South Africa, when it was discovered that many anti-Israel groups that attended the conference were Ford grantees.

JTA alleges that the groups Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, Muwatin: Palestinian Institute for the Study of Democracy, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, and Miftah: the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy have all received Ford grants and signed onto boycott and divestment petitions against Israel.

Alfred Ironside, a spokesman for the Ford Foundation, responded to the controversy by saying: “Ford grants are made for specific purposes, and we require a strict accounting of how funds are applied to grant-specific work.”

Adoption Agency Struggles to Recover From Employee's Fraud

The Florence Crittenton League adoption agency in Lowell, Mass., faces the sobering task of rebuilding its operations after a longtime employee stole $637,000 from it, reports The Boston Globe.

Natalie Fleury worked at the agency as a bookkeeper and office manager for 19 years. She was accused of stealing from the organization from 1998 until 2006, when auditors discovered $12,000 missing from one of the agency’s accounts.

The article says Ms. Fleury wrote checks to vendors, asking the executive director to sign them, and would then erase the vendor’s name and sign her own. She altered bank statements to show that payments were made to vendors. The article says Ms. Fleury used the money to purchase a new home, a recreational vehicle, and an annuity.

Ms. Fleury pleaded guilty to 15 counts of mail fraud and five counts of tax evasion. Lawyers for Ms. Fleury did not respond to the newspaper’s request for an interview.

Executive director Ilze Keegan says the adoption agency has had to cut back on programs and services for adoptive parents. She said of Ms. Fleury’s actions: “I am so angry. It was so needless.”

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Profile of a 'Quiet Philanthropist': Bernard Osher

A “quiet philanthropist” is making his impact felt in big ways, reports The Christian Science Monitor.

The newspaper profiles Bernard Osher, a billionaire who made his fortune through banking and established a foundation that bears his name in 1977. In 2006 he gave his fund $732-million, which placed him as the third most-generous donor in The Chronicle’s annual survey of the largest donors in America.

Nearly 80 percent of grants from Mr. Osher’s foundation have gone to support educational programs. Seventeen percent support arts organizations.

Among the grants: $70-million in scholarships to California community-college students, and $16-million to the University of California at Berkeley’s Incentive Awards Program, which helps poor students attend the university.

Mr. Osher plans to give away his entire fortune, saying, “Although I have no heirs, I can enjoy the opportunity of helping members of several generations lead more fulfilling lives by my contributions.”

Government and Politics Watch: Upcoming National-Service Forum

Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama have been invited to weigh in on their plans for public service during a conference in New York City on September 11 and 12 organized by Time magazine and the Carnegie Corporation, reports Government and Politics Watch, The Chronicle’s online column.

Prospecting: Tips for Getting Annual Donors to Make Endowment Gifts

Kimberly Lauth, a consultant who specializes in nonprofit endowments, offers three tips to fund raisers who want to convert annual donors into those who make endowment gifts, according to Prospecting, The Chronicle’s fund-raising column.

From The Chronicle: Congressional Bill to Aid Flood Victims

A group of U.S. senators and House members from the Midwest have introduced a bill that would create tax incentives for charitable giving to help victims of the recent storms, tornadoes, and floods that have hit their region, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

From The Chronicle: Strong Endowment Growth

Endowments saw big gains in 2007, the fifth year in a row for strong growth, according to The Chronicle’s annual survey, but that streak may soon be over.

(A paid subscription or temporary pass is required to view this article.)

Online Discussion Next Week: What's Next for the Gates Foundation

Ms. Stonesifer will talk about what it’s been like to oversee a start-up that has grown to become the nation’s largest and most visible foundation in the span of just eight years.

(Read an interview in The Chronicle in which Ms. Stonesifer talks about her work at the foundation and her plans for the future.)

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

July 23, 2008

From The Chronicle: $375-Million Anti-Tobacco Effort

Michael R. Bloomberg and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced on Wednesday a new $375-million joint commitment to fight tobacco use in poor and middle-income countries, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

From The Chronicle: Templeton Foundation Anticipates Growth

The $1.3-billion John Templeton Foundation may see its assets increase by 50 percent by the end of 2009, following the death this month of its founder, Sir John M. Templeton, the mutual-fund pioneer, reports The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Alaska Nonprofit Groups Get New Health-Insurance Program

An organization that supports nonprofit groups in Alaska has teamed up with the Rasmuson Foundation to provide health insurance to employees at nonprofit organizations, reports The Anchorage Daily News.

The Rasmuson Foundation will contribute more than $2-million to get the program started, the paper reports. It is working with the Foraker Group to provide the health-insurance coverage.

“Having something like this is just phenomenal,” Charlotte Fox, executive director of Alaska State Council on the Arts, a state umbrella agency for arts organizations, tells the newspaper. Many such groups, she says, have been unable to afford traditional health insurance. “The field has been waiting for it for a really, really long time.”

Gates Foundation Breaks Ground for New Headquarters

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation broke ground this week on its new headquarters in Seattle, which will open in 2010 with space for its employees, meetings, events, and a visitors center, reports The Seattle Times.

The $500-million facility will be about 90,000 square feet, will cover a city block in downtown Seattle, and will be located across the street from the Space Needle.

The foundation reports in its announcement of the groundbreaking that the visitors center at the new facility will open in 2011.

Charities Find Success With Online Auctions

Online auctions are becoming increasingly popular tools for charities looking to raise money in a short amount of time, reports BusinessWeek.

Since 1999, eBay has raised $150-million online. Other sites offering charity auctions are Charity Folks and Charitybuzz.

Even small charities are reaping the rewards of online auctions, the magazine reports. The New Hampshire Center for Environmental Education, for example, has raised about $500,000 since 2004 with charity auctions online.

“It changed our lives,” Cynthia Thomashow, executive director of the organization, tells BusinessWeek. “It’s a quick and efficient way to raise an operating budget.”

Opinion: Retiring Boomers Could Leave Legacy of Charity

Baby boomers reaching retirement age are increasingly looking to start new careers with social missions, which could lead to the generation being remembered “more for what they did in their 60s than for what they did in the Sixties,” writes columnist Nicholas D. Kristof in The New York Times.

The highest-profile example to date is the transition of Microsoft founder Bill Gates from the head of his company to a full-time role at his foundation, but Mr. Kristof says more retirees are charting similar courses. Those retiring from successful careers have much to offer in the world of philanthropy, such as their management experience and contacts, Mr. Kristof writes.

Rob Mather, a former management consultant who founded the organization Against Malaria, has seen the efforts of his organization lead to reduced numbers of malaria cases in some parts of Africa.

“If more people take on encore careers like that, the boomers who arrived on the scene by igniting a sexual revolution could leave by staging a give-back revolution,” Mr. Kristof writes.

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Give and Take: Focus on Fund-Raising Basics

Sean Stannard-Stockton, who works for an investment-management company in Burlingame, Calif., writes that charities often ignore the low-hanging fruit — donations from individuals, reports Give and Take, The Chronicle’s roundup of the best blog posts about the nonprofit world.

Prospecting: An Online 'Museum of Fund Raising'

An online “museum of fund raising” has been created to serve as a free reservoir of fund-raising materials that can be used by nonprofit officials around the world, according to Prospecting, The Chronicle’s fund-raising column.

July 22, 2008

Congress Poised to End Charity-Assisted Down Payments

Programs that allow nonprofit groups to provide home buyers with money for down payments would be eliminated in legislation Congress plans to pass this week, reports The Washington Post.

Although more than half a million people have made use of these programs to purchase homes in the past decade using loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration, the agency says that borrowers who participate in these programs go to foreclosure at nearly three times the rate of borrowers who use their own money to make a down payment.

Scott Syphax, president of Nehemiah, a down-payment-assistance charity in California, believes that the agency’s assessment is skewed and accuses it of undercounting the number of loans it has made while properly reflecting the number of foreclosures it has had to pay for, thus overrepresenting the percentage of bad loans.

He has been pushing to save the programs and said he was “angry and saddened” about the programs’ close, which, he says, will affect “families and communities who obviously did not get a seat at the table as these harmful policies were conceived.”

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Company Revises Controversial Giving Campaign

In response to public outcry, the cellphone company Virgin Mobile USA has modified its recent online ad campaign that encouraged people to disrobe for charity, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The company drew criticism from people and nonprofit groups after it started “Strip2Clothe,” a campaign that invited people to send in videos of themselves undressing. The company said it would donate clothes to homeless shelters that serve young people in exchange for the videos.

With the new name, “Blank2Clothe,” the project now invites people to send in videos that show them doing whatever they want, such as juggling or singing. Each time those videos are viewed, the company agrees to make a donation of clothing.

Restricted Deductions Stifle Art Donations

Museum directors say that federal restrictions on tax deductions for gifts of art made over time, called fractional gifts, have caused a drop in donations, reports The Wall Street Journal.

“Many of the significant gifts we’ve had in our history have come from fractional gifts,” says Kaywin Feldman, the director of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. “The new law has virtually stopped new fractional gifts from being started. It’s a real problem for us and other museums.”

Lawmakers are considering lifting some of the restrictions that have dissuaded donors from giving, the newspaper says.

Until those changes are put in place, which could happen by the end of the year, wealth advisers are directing donors away from fractional giving in favor of other options, such as charitable remainder trusts and donor-advised funds.

College's Approach to Aiding the Needy Draws Attention

Berea College, a 150-year-old institution in Kentucky that accepts only low-income applicants and doesn’t charge tuition, finds that its approach is attracting attention amid the growing debate over whether the richest higher-education institutions do enough to serve society, reports The New York Times.

Concern about college endowments has grown so intense that lawmakers are considering requiring wealthy higher-education institutions to distribute at least 5 percent of their assets a year, just as foundations are required to do by law.

Larry D. Shinn, president of Berea, which receives 80 percent of its $43-million education and general budget and about two-thirds of its $55-million operating budget, from endowment income, is opposed to a required 5-percent payout but wants colleges held accountable to do more for needy students.

“You see some of these selective liberal-arts colleges building new physical-education facilities with these huge sheets of glass and these coffee and juice bars, and charging students $40,000 a year, and you have to ask, does this contribute to the public good, or is this just a way for the college to keep up with the Joneses?” said Mr. Shinn. “We are a tax-exempt institution, so I think the public has a right to demand that our educational mission be at the heart of all our expenditures.”

To learn more about endowments held by academic institutions, see The Chronicle’s most recent survey of those funds.

(Free registration is required to view the Times article, and a paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view the Chronicle article.)

Prospecting: Fund Raisers Grow Gloomy About the Economy

Fund raisers are starting to show greater concern about how the declining economy is affecting charitable giving, according to a report cited in Prospecting, The Chronicle’s fund-raising column.

Government and Politics Watch: A New Web Site Monitors Hospital Finances

A new Web site seeks to call attention to spending practices at nonprofit hospitals, reports Government and Politics Watch, The Chronicle’s online column.

Building an Endowment: Advice From Experts

Read the transcript of the online discussion The Chronicle hosted today to provide advice on building an endowment.

From The Chronicle: The Gates Foundation's Departing Chief Executive Looks Ahead

As the first chief executive of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Patty Stonesifer, steps down from her job, she talks to The Chronicle about the fund’s best and most-challenging grants and how to manage rapid growth.

You can listen to audio excerpts from the interview, plus ask Ms. Stonesifer your own questions in an hourlong online discussion on Tuesday, July 29, at noon Eastern time.

July 21, 2008

Senator Grassley Proposes New Disclosure Requirements for Smithsonian

Sen. Charles E. Grassley and Sen. Arlen Specter have introduced legislation that would remove the Smithsonian Institution’s exemption from the Freedom of Information Act and the Sunshine Act, thereby requiring that the organization hold public meetings and make its records available to the public upon request, reports The Washington Post.

After a number of scandals and embarrassments, the institution — which receives 70 percent of its financial support from Congressional appropriations — has promised to make its operations more transparent and has hired a new secretary, G. Wayne Clough. The Post has previously reported on lavish, unauthorized expenditures by the former top Smithsonian executive, Lawrence M. Small.

The institution says that its policies are consistent with FOIA requirements, the newspaper reports. But according to Melanie Sloan, director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the public currently has no way to appeal if the Smithsonian refuses a FOIA request.

“Grassley’s bill would clarify that the Smithsonian belongs to all of us … and is not some private institution which can do as it will,” says Carl Malamud, who founded Media.org, which advocates for disclosure of public records.

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

Surprise $10-Million Left to Pa. Charities

James Ebbert, the son of a sharecropper who lived modestly in Quakertown, Pa., left a $10-million fortune to nonprofit groups when he died last December, reports The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Mr. Ebbert left $1-million to St. Luke’s Quakertown Hospital; $1-million to be divided between Millersville University and Temple University, the alma mater of his late wife, Martha; and other gifts to three churches, two private schools, a local fire company, the local YMCA, the Salvation Army, and the Shriners Hospital for Children in Philadelphia.

In 1946, as a high-school teacher, Mr. Ebbert bought K&L Company and sold lumber, coal, and sand. He lived frugally and invested his money well, says the newspaper. Most people did not know he was wealthy or planned to leave a major bequest, the newspaper says.

“Uncle Jim told me years ago, ‘We made it here in Quakertown; it’ll stay here in Quakertown,’” says his niece, Susan Ebbert Wambaugh.

Leader of Humane Society Presses for More-Aggressive Activism

The chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States, Wayne Pacelle, has helped the organization become a more aggressive advocate for animals, in part by using publicity campaigns and lobbying for animal-friendly legislation, reports The Los Angeles Times.

Under Mr. Pacelle, the Humane Society has doubled its assets to $207-million and increased its lobbying and publicity efforts. After the group released a video of cows being dragged and abused at a California slaughterhouse, the plant was closed. Mr. Pacelle has also set up a branch of the Humane Society that goes after politicians with poor animal-welfare records.

Mr. Pacelle’s actions have drawn criticism both from those who think he is too aggressive and those who think he is not aggressive enough. He says he knows that people have such different views on animals that he cannot please everyone. His own view, he says, is that animal advocacy is “really about human behavior and less about the animals. Animals for the most part just need to be left alone.”

To read more about the humane society’s approach, see this profile in The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

(Free registration is required to view the Times article, and a paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view the Chronicle article.)

Health-Care Philanthropy Executive Talks About Foundation's Efforts

The chief executive of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, discusses her organization’s work advocating for health-care changes, fighting childhood obesity, and pushing for social change in a profile by the Financial Times.

Ms. Lavizzo-Mourey earned a medical degree from Harvard University and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania; she is the first female and first African-American to lead the $10-billion foundation, the largest health-care philanthropy.

“We want to create transformative social change that improves the health of people and the health care they get, so we’ve got a very clear, focused mission,” she says. “We don’t have to deliver results quarter to quarter, we have to deliver results decade to decade, and that makes us have a very different mindset than corporations or, for that matter, governments that can have a much more short-term horizon than we do.”

In 2007 the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, created by the heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, gave away $487.8-million. It also pledged $500-million to lower the rates of childhood obesity by 2015. Ms. Lavizzo-Mourey says that philanthropy is strengthened by collaboration among different types of groups working for different but related causes, like health and education or poverty.

Conservation Groups Protest Plan to Let Farmers Opt Out of Federal Program

The U.S. Agriculture Secretary, Ed Schafer, is considering allowing farmers to opt out of a conservation program that pays farmers to protect swamps, native grasslands, and other environmentally important areas found on their land, reports National Public Radio.

A press officer at the Agriculture Department says Mr. Schafer is now considering a plan to let the 450,000 farmers in the program turn the conserved areas back into fields and pastures without giving back the money they were paid to protect them, reports NPR.

“Corn prices are triple what they were a year ago,” says Jesse Sevcik, of the American Meat Institute. “We think there should be an opportunity for farmers to opt out [of the reserve programs] and respond to market signals.”

But environmental groups are protesting the changes, saying that the program prevents more than 400 million tons worth of erosion every year and supports millions of birds.

“The conservation-reserve program is the most successful land-conservation program in history,” says Neil Shader, of Ducks Unlimited. “This is the Holy Grail of conservation.”

From the Chronicle: State Budget Woes Hit Charities

Charities across the country are feeling a budget squeeze as the economic downturn eats into state finances and forces cutbacks in money for social services and other causes. And experts say next year will be even tougher, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

Plus: See all the articles The Chronicle posted this morning from its new print issue.

(A paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view the article on state budget woes.)

Prospecting: Preparing for a Long Recession

Fund raisers should get ready for a long recession, according to Prospecting, the Chronicle’s column on fund raising.

Online Discussion Tomorrow: Building an Endowment

Join us tomorrow at noon U.S. Eastern time for a live online discussion on creating and building endowments. Get expert advice on programs available to help charities with endowments, strategies for reaching out to potential donors, and tips on how to manage those funds.

Answering your questions will be:

Lisa Farber Miller, a senior program officer at the Rose Community Foundation, in Denver. In that position, Ms. Miller has helped 19 charities in the Denver metropolitan area create or expand their endowments.

Kimberly Lauth, who runs Nonprofit Outfitters: Community Benefit Consulting, a Knoxville, Tenn., company that advises nonprofit groups on endowment building and other topics.

Althea Allen Ledford, founder and chief executive officer of Founders Choice Endowments, a nonprofit organization in Inglewood, Calif., that helps charities and foundations more effectively manage their endowment funds.

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

From The Chronicle: Aid to Zimbabwe Stalled

Six weeks after a directive from Zimbabwe’s government ground aid work in the country to a halt, charities’ efforts to resume their operations have largely been thwarted and more than a million people are still living without food aid and medical care, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

July 18, 2008

Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against Religious Charity

A federal judge has determined that a group of atheists and agnostics has no right to sue the state of North Dakota for sending juveniles to a church-affiliated ranch, reports the Associated Press.

U.S. District Judge Dan Hovland told the Freedom From Religion Foundation and five North Dakota taxpayers who belong to the group: “The payment of taxes is generally not enough to establish standing to challenge an action by the state or county government.”

The group contends that the state uses government money to send youths to the Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch, which is affiliated with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The ranch says its religious programs are supported by private donations.

Dan Barker, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, said the group may appeal the decision.

Read The Chronicle‘s profile of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

(Free registration is required to view the AP article on the Los Angeles Times site, and a paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view The Chronicle article.)

Md. Police Accused of Spying on Activists

Undercover Maryland State Police officers monitored the activities of activists against the Iraq war and the death penalty during the administration of former Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., reports The Washington Post.

Records with details of the monitoring were released on Thursday to the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, which had sued the Maryland State Police in June to obtain the data. In 2004, the ACLU discovered that a state-police intelligence unit had conducted surveillance on Baltimore antiwar groups that had protested at the National Security Agency in Fort Meade during that year.

The records show that undercover police officers spent 288 hours monitoring groups from March 2005 until May 2006. The groups included the Campaign to End the Death Penalty and the Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore, an antiwar organization.

David Rocah, a lawyer for the ACLU, said, “To invest this many hours investigating the most all-American of activities without any scintilla of evidence there is anything criminal going on is shocking. It’s Kafkaesque.”

In response to those allegations, Henry Fawell, Mr. Ehrlich’s spokesman, said, “State law enforcement uses a variety of means to keep its citizens safe. It would be inappropriate for me to discuss them publicly.”

The ACLU has asked the administration of current Maryland governor Martin O’Malley to stop conducting surveillance on activists and to release records pertaining to such activities. Mr. O’Malley’s spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said, “The ACLU is making an allegation, and we’re looking into it.”

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Congressman Seeks Ethics Inquiry in Fund-Raising Controversy

Rep. Charles B. Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has asked the Congressional ethics committee to determine whether he violated any rules by using House stationery for his fund-raising efforts on behalf of an educational center that is named after him, reports The New York Times.

In a news conference on Thursday, Mr. Rangel expressed confidence that the ethics committee would find that he had committed no violations in raising money for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York.

Mr. Rangel has come under criticism for securing a $1.9-million earmark to help start the center, which promotes diversity in public administration and will store his official papers upon his retirement.

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Founding Leader of Muslim Charity to Serve Time in Prison

Emadeddin Muntasser, former leader of a now-defunct Muslim charity named Care International, has been sentenced to a year in a federal prison for lying to an FBI agent about his travels to Afghanistan, reports the Associated Press.

Mr. Muntasser, along with two other men, was convicted of defrauding the U.S. government into giving his organization tax-exempt status. Care International has been accused of supporting terrorist activity.

However, a judge overturned the most serious charges against Mr. Muntasser.

(Free registration is required to view this article on the Chicago Tribune site.)

Prospecting: Tailoring Fund-Raising Appeals

Washington’s Goodwill affiliate has sharply increased fund-raising results and achieved other financial gains by tailoring its appeals to dozens of different types of recipients, reports Prospecting, The Chronicle’s column on fund raising.

Plus: Two prominent fund-raising consulting companies have merged.

Give and Take: The Best Charity Tag Lines

The winners of a contest for the best charity tag lines have been announced, reports Give and Take, The Chronicle’s roundup of the best blog posts about the nonprofit world.

Plus: The use of the Red Cross logo by the rescuers of the hostages in Colombia has aroused concerns about the precedent it has set — and whether it could jeopardize the safety of humanitarian workers.

Online Discussion Next Week: Starting and Building Endowments

Join us Tuesday, July 22, at noon U.S. Eastern time for a live online discussion on creating and building endowments. Get expert advice on programs available to help charities with endowments, strategies for reaching out to potential donors, and tips on how to manage those funds.

Answering your questions will be:

Lisa Farber Miller, a senior program officer at the Rose Community Foundation, in Denver. In that position, Ms. Miller has helped 19 charities in the Denver metropolitan area create or expand their endowments.

Kimberly Lauth, who runs Nonprofit Outfitters: Community Benefit Consulting, a Knoxville, Tenn., company that advises nonprofit groups on endowment building and other topics.

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

July 17, 2008

Clinton Foundation Details Plan to Make Malaria Drugs More Accessible

Former President Bill Clinton’s foundation is revealing a pricing agreement today that intends to make malaria drugs more widely available to needy people worldwide, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The agreement will attempt to limit fluctuations in the price of artemisinin, a plant extract that is a key ingredient in antimalarial drugs. Wide swings in the price of the ingredient — from $150 a kilogram to $1,100, according to Chinese producers — make it difficult for companies to plan how much of the drugs they can produce and for governmental health ministries to plan how much they can afford to buy.

The Clinton Foundation agreement is expected to create a consortium of two Chinese raw-artemisinin suppliers, two Indian companies that convert artemisinin into a usable pharmaceutical ingredient, and two Indian generic-drug companies. It will establish a price ceiling for raw artemisinin in return for a promise that other consortium members will purchase large proportions of the plant extract. The deal also slashes the price of one antimalarial drug, known as ASAQ, by nearly one-third.

(A paid subscription is required to view this article.)

Trial Delayed for Accused in Seattle Jewish Federation Shooting

A second trial for a man accused in a fatal 2006 shooting at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle has been postponed by a county judge, according to The Seattle Times.

Judge Paris Kallas, of King County Superior Court, postponed on July 15 the second trial of Naveed Haq, 32. Mr. Haq is accused of bringing a gun into the offices of the Seattle federation and of killing one woman and wounding five others. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Judge Kallas ordered the delay so that Mr. Haq’s lawyers can review hundreds of telephone calls the defendant made from King County Jail since his arrest two years ago. The lawyers said they will also need time to review transcripts of Haq’s first trial, which ended in a mistrial on June 4. Mr. Haq’s new trial, the judge said, may not be scheduled until early next year.

At his first trial, Mr. Haq’s lawyers said he had endured an abusive childhood and was taking a dangerous mix of prescription medications at the time of the shooting.

Red Cross Struggles to Improve Blood Collection

The American Red Cross is still struggling to improve its methods of collecting and processing blood donations, despite a federal court order 15 years ago that demanded it do so, according to The New York Times.

Since 2003, the federal government has leveled fines against it totaling $21-million. In January, Andrew C. von Eschenbach, the U.S. commissioner of food and drugs, attended a Red Cross board meeting to caution members that they could face criminal charges if they did not make good on promises to improve the safety of the nation’s blood supply, according to three anonymous Red Cross officials who attended the meeting.

The problems, according to the federal agency’s reports, include the Red Cross’s lapses in screening donors for possible exposure to diseases, failures to test potential donors for syphilis, and negligence in throwing out deficient blood.

The Red Cross, which controls 43 percent of the nation’s blood supply, has acknowledged problems with its quality control and has promised to fix them.

Bernadine Healy, a former chief executive of the Red Cross, suggests that the best solution might be to spin off the Red Cross’s blood services. “Two-thirds of the revenue base of the Red Cross is blood, yet the Red Cross is run by people who think of it as primarily a disaster-relief organization, relegating blood to stepchild status,” Dr. Healy said. “When is the last time you saw a Red Cross fund-raising appeal for money to make the blood supply safer or support its blood research?”

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Leader's Pay Under Fire as D.C. Charity Cuts Services

Food & Friends, a Washington charity that feeds homebound HIV-AIDS and cancer patients, has announced it is cutting some of its services due to lean donations and rising costs — just as the group is drawing criticism from supporters who say it pays its leader excessively, reports The Washington Post.

The charity paid Craig M. Shniderman, its executive director, $357,447 in salary and benefits last year, and Mr. Shniderman, 60, said he received a 4 percent raise this year. “Food & Friends compensates all of the staff appropriately, and that compensation is not, shall we say, fluctuated according to the momentary circumstances,” he said.

Donors, AIDS activists, and nonprofit watchdogs have criticized the charity’s decision to compensate Mr. Shniderman to that degree. “It appears excessive in relation to other nonprofits in related fields,” said Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy.

Food & Friends’ board of directors defended Mr. Shniderman’s pay, citing his long experience in social services and the scope of his responsibilities as leader of the charity, which runs on an $8-million annual budget and a staff of 58. “We are lucky to have him, and we should pay him at the top of the range in order to incentivize him and retain him,” said Christopher Wolf, a member of the group’s executive committee.

To learn more about what charity leaders make, read The Chronicle‘s most recent survey of nonprofit executive compensation.

(Free registration is required to read the Post story; a paid subscription or short-term pass is required to read the Chronicle article.)

Panda Research in China Hampered by Earthquake

The earthquake that struck China two months ago has had a crippling effect on a research facility that studies panda bears, according to National Public Radio’s All Things Considered.

The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding escaped physical damage in the disaster, but, with tourism in the region hard hit, the center has seen its visitor numbers plummet. It receives only about 300 visitors a day, roughly one-tenth of its usual traffic.

Center officials predict their organization will lose more than $1-million in revenue this year and have been cutting back on costs, including the amount and variety of bamboo fed to the pandas daily. The center’s habitat-conservation programs have all been put on hold. “Economically, it is a disaster,” says Zhang Zhihe, the center’s director.

The publisher of a new book about Panda Jingjing, the Olympic mascot that lives at the Chengdu Research Base, is donating the book’s profits to the center, raising $30,000 so far from American sales.

Give and Take: Museum's New Trustee an Asset or Concern?

The newest member of the board of directors at the Frick Collection, in New York, is vice chairman at Sotheby’s auction house, and the writer Lee Rosenbaum raises concerns about the appointment in her “CultureGrrl” blog, notes Give and Take, The Chronicle’s roundup of the best blog posts about the nonprofit world.

Online Discussion Next Week: Starting and Building an Endowment

Answering your questions will be:

Lisa Farber Miller, a senior program officer at the Rose Community Foundation, in Denver. In that position, Ms. Miller has helped 19 charities in the Denver area create or expand their endowment funds.

Kimberly Lauth, owner of Nonprofit Outfitters, a consulting firm that specializes in strategic planning and fund raising for nonprofit groups in Knoxville, Tenn. She has helped organizations such as the YMCA of East Tennessee and the East Tennessee Veterans Memorial Association with endowment campaigns.

Discussions are free and open to everyone. People who ask questions in advance have a better chance of getting answers.

July 16, 2008

Law Enforcement Cracks Down on Charitable-Giving Abuses

A recent criminal case highlighting abuses in charitable tax write-offs serves as a warning to potential donors, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The government is investigating more than 100 donors with possible links to a solicitation effort that raised millions of dollars and promised donors the return of large portions of their gifts, while not reducing the value of the tax deduction they could claim, the paper said.

Donors can also be led astray by professional tax preparers or accidentally violate complex tax-law provisions, and the Internal Revenue Service has increased its law-enforcement efforts accordingly to track misconduct ranging from fabricated deductions to improper valuations for noncash gifts.

According to the most recent data released by the agency, more than 41 million individual income-tax returns claimed charitable donations for 2006 for a record total of about $173-billion, up 0.6 percent from the prior year.

Colleges Rapidly Expand Their Development Departments

At a time when many industries are suffering job losses, many college development departments are experiencing a hiring boom that shows no signs of slowing, reports The Chronicle of Higher Education.

With government support down and competition for dollars up, institutions without strong fund-raising operations face the risk of being left behind. “Public universities didn’t have to do this for many, many years,” said Rhea Turteltaub, vice chancellor for external affairs at the University of California at Los Angeles. Now, she says, “it’s out of necessity.”

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Politician's Fund Raising Prompts Call for Ethics Inquiry

The House ethics committee has been asked to examine whether the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Charles B. Rangel, violated ethics policies by using House stationery for his fund-raising efforts on behalf of a nonprofit institution that bears his name, reports The Washington Post.

The House Republican leader and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, in Washington, a government watchdog group, made separate calls yesterday for the panel to look into Mr. Rangel’s solicitation of corporate donors for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York. Mr. Rangel, 78, was the target of criticism last year for securing a $1.9-million earmark to help start the center, which promotes diversity in public administration and will store his official papers upon his retirement.

“This is yet another example of the hypocrisy of House Democrats who famously promised to ‘drain the swamp’ in Washington,” said Kevin Smith, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John A. Boehner. “Using taxpayer resources to solicit donations for a ‘monument-to-me’ earmark fiasco raises serious questions, and the ethics committee has a responsibility to examine this issue.”

Responding to questions about his fund-raising efforts last week Mr. Rangel said, “If it was an ethical problem, I wouldn’t do it.” He could not be reached by The Post for comment yesterday, the newspaper said.

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Court Cites Maryland Law in Reducing Charity Executive's Severance

William L. Jews, former chief executive of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, is entitled to only half of his $18-million severance package, according to a ruling Monday that accuses him of taking actions that lost sight of the organization’s nonprofit mission, reports The Baltimore Sun.

Mr. Jews is accused of violating a 2003 state law, which was passed by legislators angry with Mr. Jews for trying to convert the organization to a for-profit entity that could then be sold to a California company. The law requires that executive pay for the group meet a “fair and reasonable” standard. Under the order, which marks the first test of the law, Mr. Jews is entitled to nearly $9-million of the $18-million severance package that the insurer’s board approved in 2006. Since stepping down from his post, he has received $2.3-million in salary and other benefits, which will be deducted from the total, along with interest.

“It sends a message about the state of Maryland that we value a not-for-profit culture, that we’re not trying to enrich people based on people’s health needs,” said Del. Shane Pendergrass, vice chairman of the Health and Government Operations Committee. “I have said consistently that no one is worth $18-million.”

Mr. Jews could not be reached for comment, the newspaper said.

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From The Chronicle: U.S. City-by-City Comparisons for 'Human Development'

The average American is living longer, earning more money, and receiving more education than a half-century ago, but that progress hasn’t been shared equally among people of different races, geographic regions, and gender, according to a report released today, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

Government and Politics Watch: Revoked Tax-Exempt Status

A California eye-insurance provider is petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a 2003 decision by the Internal Revenue Service to revoke its tax-exempt status, notes The Chronicle’s Government and Politics Watch.

July 15, 2008

New Leader Named at Washington Think Tank

The nonprofit think tank American Enterprise Institute has named Arthur C. Brooks, a scholar who studies charitable giving and other topics, as its new president, reports The Washington Post.

Mr. Brooks, a professor of business and government policy at Syracuse University, will replace Christopher DeMuth, the Post reports. He will take over in 2009.

Read an excerpt from Mr. Brooks’s book, Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism, in The Chronicle, and the transcript of an online discussion with Mr. Brooks hosted by the Chronicle.

(Free registration is required to view the Post article, and a paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view the book excerpt in The Chronicle. The discussion transcript is free.)

Theft Leads to Jail Sentence for Former Museum Official

A former museum official in Bellevue, Wash., was sentenced to 22 months in prison last week after she admitted to embezzling money from her former employer, reports The Seattle Times.

Janet Ellinger, who was chief financial officer of the Bellevue Arts Museum, pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $300,000 from the museum. Along with the jail sentence, she was ordered to pay about $335,000 in restitution.

The theft was discovered in May 2007, and Ms. Ellinger’s lawyer said his client spent the money on tuition payments for her son and home improvements, among other things, the Times reports.

Fund Raisers Turn to Green Companies for Help

People who run school fund-raising campaigns have discovered new products that do more than just raise money, and companies that sell such products (such as recycled gift wrap) are helping fund-raising programs become more environmentally friendly, reports The Wall Street Journal.

One company that carries green gift products for sale is Greenraising, in Agoura Hills, Calif., which has helped about 500 schools and nonprofit organizations raise money, the newspaper reports. One school in New Hampshire had its most successful campaign in several years, garnering about $2,500, as a result of using the Greenraising catalog.

To read more about how nonprofit groups are turning to environmentally friendly techniques, see this cover article from our most recent issue.

(A paid subscription is required to view the Journal article, and a paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view the Chronicle article.)

Charity to Protect Chesapeake Bay Waterfront

The Trust for Public Land, in San Francisco, is planning to buy large parcels of land along the Chesapeake Bay, in Maryland, and later sell them to local governments to protect as open space, reports The Sun, in Baltimore.

The plan would help preserve the land that the government may not be able to acquire in the short term because of a lack of cash. The trust has preserved more than 8,000 acres of land in Maryland since 1985, the paper reports.

“The concept is parks for people that will in turn protect the bay,” Rose Harvey, the trust’s Mid-Atlantic regional director, tells the Sun. “We call it green-printing.”

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From The Chronicle: Promoting Charity Web Sites on a Tight Budget

Read a transcript of today’s online discussion about the best ways to promote charity Web sites on a tight budget.

July 14, 2008

Striptease Charity Stunt Draws Complaints From Nonprofit Organizations

A Web campaign that encourages young people to post striptease videos of themselves online as a way of raising clothing donations for homeless youths has angered many of the charities the effort is supposed to benefit, reports the Star Tribune, in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

The campaign is a joint project between Virgin Mobile, a cellphone company, and the National Network for Youth, a Washington lobbying group that represents more than 150 organizations that help homeless youths.

The campaign asked young people to post videos of themselves stripping to music. Clothing companies would then donate new clothes based on the number of times the videos were viewed.

Officials at some of the charities that were supposed to benefit from the campaign said they were never consulted about the concept and are disgusted by the idea of young people stripping as a means to get clothes for homeless youths.

Rebecca Lentz, a spokeswoman for Catholic Charities, called the charity stunt “distasteful and inappropriate and exploitative. We never authorized this nor were we ever approached to be involved.”

The concept is especially offensive, Ms. Lentz said, because so many youths on the street have been sexually exploited within a day or two of becoming homeless.

“It’s unfortunate it’s become so explosive,” said Victoria Wagner, the head of the lobbying group. She said her group is rethinking the controversial campaign.

Officials at Virgin Mobile, who had previously said they had established “good taste” criteria to keep videos “fun but not salacious,” could not be reached by the Star Tribune for comment.

Education Group Presses Candidates to Improve the Schools

Strong American Schools, an education-advocacy group that is financed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, will begin airing ads this week to press the two major presidential candidates to focus on the state of education, reports the Associated Press.

The group plans to spend $5-million on ads that will begin appearing today on television and radio and in print and online. The ads will appear in Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

“This campaign is trying to stoke interest and create intensity in key battleground states,” said Marc Lampkin, executive director of the advocacy organization.

To read more about other efforts by nonprofit groups in the 2008 campaign, see The Chronicle’s special election section.

(Free registration is required to view the AP article on the Washington Post site.)

Charities Step Up Efforts to Use Online Networks to Raise Money

More charities are establishing Web sites that make it easy for people to distribute information about charitable causes to their friends and urge them to donate online, reports The Wall Street Journal.

What’s more, many groups are creating online spaces where people who use traditional networking sites like Facebook and MySpace can use the sites to send charitable requests to friends.

People are 100 times more likely to donate when asked by someone they know than by an anonymous solicitor, according to a survey cited by the newspaper. Yet online social networks have raised only about $44-million over the past two years, a tiny sum compared with all charitable giving, the newspaper notes.

That may change, though, as more and more young people are using social networks to give, reports The San Francisco Chronicle. The article says young people are increasingly using Internet promotions to send money overseas.

Charity Accuses Rival of Taking Donor Database

The American Syringomyelia Association Project, in Longview, Tex., is attempting to settle a lawsuit it is pursuing against the Chiari and Syringomyelia Foundation, a New York charity the Texas group says took a copy of it donor database, the Longview News-Journal reports.

Both organizations offer information and support to people who have been diagnosed with syringomyelia (a chronic disorder involving the spinal cord) and chiari malformations (when the lower part of the brain grows down into the cervical spinal canal and causes syringomyelia.).

The Texas organization was incorporated in 1988, and the New York group was established in 2007.

According to federal court documents filed last week, the two organizations have reached a tentative agreement about contact with potential donors while they continue to try to resolve their differences. Officials of the foundation declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Opinion: As Money Gets Tight, Donors Should Focus on High-Performing Groups

Charles Bronfman, chairman of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, and Jeffrey Solomon, the organization’s president, argue in The Financial Times that the amount a donor gives to charity is often less important than the leverage that donor brings to an organization. They urge big donors to become more involved with the charities they support financially.

What’s more, they note, “in a slowing economy, foundations must carefully evaluate the efficacy of each grant recipient and, if necessary, decrease funding to those that are not yielding social dividends.”

Such efforts, they write, “will strengthen the overall performance of your grantee portfolio, thereby ensuring that your energies are not squandered on underperforming grantees.”

Give and Take: How Can Foundations Make a Difference

A commentator wonders whether foundations can really make much of a difference, according to a posting cited in Give and Take. The Chronicle’s roundup of the best blog posts about the nonprofit world?

Prospecting: Raising Money Through a Reality-TV Show

A reality-television show hopes to document fund-raising galas and then raise money, reports Prospecting, The Chronicle’s fund-raising column.

Online Discussion Tomorrow: Promoting Charity Web Sites With a Small Budget

Join us Tuesday, July 15, at noon U.S. Eastern time for a live online discussion about tools and tricks nonprofit leaders can use to improve their presence on the Internet without spending a lot of money.

Answering your questions will be:

Beth Kanter, a nonprofit-technology consultant in Boston who specializes in helping charities use social-media tools.

Jonathon D. Colman, associate director of digital marketing at the Nature Conservancy, where he leads the strategic marketing and promotion of the organization’s Web site.

These discussions are free and open to everyone. People who ask questions in advance have a better chance of getting answers.

From The Chronicle: Gambling and Charity

Gambling-industry executives have traditionally not been big donors, but Bob Levey, a Chronicle columnist, has found one who may signal the coming of a new breed of gaming chiefs.

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July 11, 2008

Salaries of College Fund Raisers Climb Steadily, Survey Shows

Fund raisers at colleges earn an average of $68,241, an 8-percent increase since 2005, according to a study released by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, reports The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Fund raisers in charge of seeking big gifts made the most money, with an average salary of $83,776. Employees working in annual giving made the least, on average.

The survey also shows that women still make far less than men, on average, and that compensation of Hispanic employees rose 23 percent in their average salaries from 2005, to about $71,532.

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California Universities Review Whether to Strip Buildings of a Donor's Name

The Universities of California at Los Angeles and at Irvine are trying to decide whether to strip Henry Samueli’s name from its engineering schools now that Mr. Samueli has pleaded guilty to charges that he lied to financial regulators, reports the Los Angeles Times

Mr. Samueli, co-founder of Broadcom Corp., and his wife donated a total of $50-million to the two engineering schools in 1999.

His guilty plea last month to making a false statement to federal authorities investigating the alleged backdating of stock options awarded to employees at Broadcom has officials at the universities reconsidering his name on their schools, said Brad Hayward, a spokesman for the University of California. Neither Henry Samueli nor his lawyer, Gordon Greenberg, would comment.

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Federal Prosecutors Oppose Action of Civil-Liberties Group in Muslim-Charity Trial

Federal prosecutors on Thursday opposed a move by the American Civil Liberties Union to clear two groups named as unindicted co-conspirators in the federal case against the Holy Land Foundation, reports the Associated Press.

The Islamic Society of North America, in Plainfield, Ind., and the North American Islamic Trust, in Burr Ridge, Ill., were named by the government in its case against the Holy Land Foundation, in Richardson, Tex.

Lawyers for the ACLU moved to expunge the groups’ names from public documents identifying them as unindicted co-conspirators and sought to have the court declare the government’s actions a violation of the Fifth Amendment right to due process.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a court document Thursday saying evidence establishes the two groups’ relationship with defendants in the Holy Land case. They said they also had proof of the groups’ ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and the Palestine Committee, organizations linked to the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The original case against five Holy Land Foundation officials who were accused of helping finance Hamas, which the United States deems a terrorist organization, ended in a mistrial last year. Another trial is set for this September.

Read The Chronicle’s coverage of the original case.

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Colombian Military’s Rescue Operation May Be Harmful to Aid Workers

Although the Colombian military successfully rescued 15 hostages last week from Marxist rebels by posing as humanitarian-aid workers, the impersonation could pose future harm to actual humanitarian-aid workers, reports the online daily-news site MinnPost.com.

Michael Barnett, a professor who teaches classes on humanitarianism at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, said the impersonation would make life more difficult for aid workers, as combatants in Colombia may now suspect them of actually being members of the military or friendly with the government.

“I don’t want to be melodramatic,” Barnett said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that aid workers are going to get shot. But it does mean that you’re going to have a lot more difficult time getting access to populations at risk. It does mean you’ve got to go through a lot more hoops. It means that you probably have to go through more searches and more background checks.”

Santa Group Gets in Trouble Over Charity Appeals

The Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth has ordered one of the nation’s largest “Santa groups” to stop soliciting charitable contributions because it has failed to register to seek donations, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Amid months of infighting among members of the Amalgamated Santas, which was formed in 1994 as a network for Santa impersonators, some of the group’s members complained to the state attorney general’s office in Kentucky that the organization’s bookkeeping was inaccurate and that money was missing from its accounts. The complaints were forwarded to the Charitable Organizations Bureau in Pennsylvania, where the Amalgamated Santas have headquarters.

An official of the charity said the group is working with the state agency to deal with its concerns.

Obituary: Sherman Lee, Former Head of the Cleveland Museum of Art

Sherman E. Lee, an expert on Asian art who served as director of the Cleveland Museum of Art for 25 years and was instrumental in elevating the museum’s reputation, died at his home in Chapel Hill, N.C., at age 90, reports The New York Times.

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Prospecting: How to Preserve Corporate Marketing Deals During the Economic Downturn

Charities can expect to encounter trouble with marketing deals in the tough economy, but they can take steps to avoid the worst problems, according to a new posting in Prospecting, The Chronicle’s online column about fund raising.

Plus: Discuss how nonprofit institutions should respond when a key donor gets in legal hot water.

Online Discussion Next Week: Promoting a Charity's Web Site on a Tight Budget

Answering your questions will be:

Beth Kanter, a nonprofit-technology consultant in Boston who specializes in helping charities use social-media tools.

Jonathon D. Colman, associate director of digital marketing at the Nature Conservancy, where he leads the strategic marketing and promotion of the organization’s Web site.

These discussions are free and open to everyone. People who ask questions in advance have a better chance of getting answers.

From The Chronicle: How Campaign 2008 Affects Advocacy Groups

In an opinion piece for The Chronicle, Joshua Horwitz, executive director of the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, laments the “campaign effect” on nonprofit fund raising as donors direct their gifts to the presidential race and offers suggestions for people who want to promote political change.

July 10, 2008

Oil Mogul Pledges $100-Million to New York Theater

David H. Koch, a billionaire who made his fortune in the oil and gas business, has pledged $100-million toward the renovation of the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center, reports The New York Times.

His gift, which will result in the building being named after him, represents the largest private capital donation ever awarded to Lincoln Center. The New York State Theater houses New York City Ballet and the City Opera.

“I’ve been going to the New York State Theater for 40 years,” Mr. Koch told The Times. “I can assure you, I would not make a gift of this magnitude unless I was absolutely convinced that the quality of the work was world class.”

Mr. Koch’s estimated net worth is $17-billion, which places him 10th on Forbes magazine’s list of the nation’s wealthiest individuals and 37th on its list of the world’s richest. His gift to the New York State Theater will be paid out over 10 years, with the first installment, $15-million, slated to be given this summer, according to The Times.

For more on Mr. Koch’s philanthropy, see the recent Chronicle profile.

(Free registration is required to view the Times story. A paid subscription or temporary pass is required to read the Chronicle article.)

Advocacy Campaign Takes Aim at Federal Deficit

A new foundation is seeking to build grass-roots support to drastically shrink the $9-trillion federal deficit, reports The Boston Globe.

The nonpartisan Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a New York fund named after the founder, an investment banker who served as commerce secretary in the Nixon administration, will next week start a multimillion-dollar advocacy campaign, beginning with the premiere of the documentary film I.O.U.S.A. Television advertisements and Internet appeals will follow, according to Mr. Peterson and David M. Walker, the former comptroller general of the United States, who serves as the foundation’s chief executive officer.

The foundation plans to meet with advisers to presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama. “We are going to do our best to try to make sure it is an issue in the presidential campaign,” Mr. Walker said.

See The Chronicle’s recent article on the newly created Peterson Foundation.

(Free registration is required to view the Globe article, and a paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view the Chronicle article.)

Senators Query Foundations About Federal Money's Uses

Two foundations close to the timber industry that received a total of $350-million in federal money as the result of the settlement of a trade dispute with Canada have been asked by a pair of U.S. senators to account for how they have spent the funds, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Democratic Senators Maria Cantwell, of Washington state, and Max Baucus, of Montana, wrote to the American Forest Foundation and the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities to tell them that, while some of the funds may be used to rebuild timber towns, “we must also ensure the environment sustainability of our forests.”

“Good stewardship of these funds must include good stewardship of great American lands,” Senator Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement. “This is an opportunity to prioritize the preservation of our forests for generations to come.”

The foundations’ officials have told the senators that they will report to Congress and the public on how the money is used. Both groups said the money is going toward environmentally friendly projects.

Utah Charity Leader Charged With Fraud

A trial has been ordered for a Utah charity leader who has been accused of defrauding individuals who donated to his group, which organized trips for World War II veterans to visit Washington, according to the Deseret News, in Salt Lake City.

Prosecutor Neal Gunnarson charged that Paul W. McSweeney, of the group Our Unsung Heroes, raised money for a 2007 trip to Washington, but much of those gifts instead paid for revenue shortfalls from a previous trip. Mr. Gunnarson also alleged that the charity leader spent some of the approximately $90,000 that the state says was misappropriated to cover personal expenses.

Mr. McSweeney’s lawyer, Guy Black, said his client was an honest man who simply could not generate enough donations to accomplish the goals he had set. Mr. Black said Mr. McSweeney offered to sell an airplane he owned to help cover the charity’s debts. “I don’t think he committed fraud in this case,” Mr. Black said. “The only thing he may be guilty of is not being able to raise enough funds.”

The charity leader is charged with six counts of communications fraud and one count of a pattern of unlawful activity; all the charges are second-degree felonies. Mr. McSweeney’s next court date is August 20.

Harley-Davidson Museum Revs Up

A $75-million museum celebrating the history of the iconic Harley-Davidson motorcycle starts its engines this week in Milwaukee, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The brick, glass, and metal museum, built on a former brownfield site in Milwaukee, is intended to have a factory feel and spark enthusiasm for the machines it spotlights, says Jim Fricke, the museum’s curatorial director. “If you’re a hard-core enthusiast, you ought to get more enthusiastic,” Mr. Fricke says. “If you’re convinced that motorcycles are evil, hopefully you leave hating them a little less.”

The new museum is the latest example of a revitalization of Milwaukee this decade, a movement that has included Miller Park stadium, the Discovery World technology museum, and an expansion of the Milwaukee Art Museum, the newspaper says. The Harley-Davidson Museum was paid for by the motorcycle company.

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From The Chronicle: Congress Weighs Changes to Art Donations

Staff members for Sen. Charles E. Grassley, of Iowa, say some key members of the Senate Finance Committee are discussing possible legislation that would loosen some of the tax rules associated with donations of art, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

Prospecting: Challenges of a Capital Campaign's Final Phase

After bringing in the top-tier gifts of a capital campaign, one higher-education fund raiser confesses confusion about how best to approach donors of relatively modest means, in an item featured on Prospecting, The Chronicle’s online fund-raising column. Let us know if you share similar concerns or have advice to pass along.

Give and Take: Adding Online Video

Charities thinking about how to use online video to tell their stories or motivate donors can pick up some pointers from marketing consultant Nancy Schwartz, according to a new post on Give and Take, The Chronicle’s roundup of the best blog posts about charitable organizations.

Online Discussion Next Week: Internet Improvements on a Tight Budget

Join us Tuesday, July 15, at noon U.S. Eastern time for a live online discussion about tools and tricks nonprofit leaders can use to improve their presence on the Internet without having to spend a lot of money.

Answering your questions will be Beth Kanter, a nonprofit-technology consultant in Boston who specializes in helping charities use social-media tools. She is also the author of Beth’s Blog, which dispenses advice to nonprofit leaders on how to use online tools to communicate with supporters.

These discussions are free and open to everyone. People who ask questions in advance have a better chance of getting answers.

From The Chronicle: Charities and the Elections

Charities and foundations are gearing up for efforts to get people to the polls, as this year’s presidential election appears to be creating unusual enthusiasm among voters, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

(A paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view this article.)

Correction: Bill Gates's Philanthropy

In a summary in Wednesday’s Philanthropy Today about a column in The New York Times asking Congress to consider taxing some charitable gifts, Ray D. Madoff was mistakenly identified as “Mr. Madoff.” Ms. Madoff is a professor at Boston College Law School.

July 09, 2008

Money Misappropriated at Two Charities

In unrelated cases, misappropriations of money at two national charities are coming to light this week, with one organization disclosing the theft of nearly $1-million that it had tried to handle internally, reports The New York Times.

That organization, Acorn, a neighborhood organizing group, says it lost nearly $1-million, which Dale Rathke — brother of the group’s founder, Wade Rathke — embezzled in 1999 and 2000, according to the Times. That sum showed up as a loan on the books of Citizens Consulting, a company that provides bookkeeping and other services to the charity, the newspaper reports. When the theft was discovered — eight years ago — some of Acorn’s executives decided to keep the matter quiet after a deal was brokered to have the sum repaid to the charity by the Rathke family.

Dale Rathke remained on staff until a month ago, when whistleblowers forced the issue to become public. Wade Rathke stepped down as chief organizer for Acorn last month as well.

“We thought it best at the time to protect the organization, as well as to get the funds back into the organization, to deal with it in-house,” Maude Hurd, president of Acorn, tells the Times. “It was a judgment call at the time, and looking back, people can agree or disagree with it, but we did what we thought was right.”

By contrast, when the management of the Points of Light Foundation realized that a related entity — run by a former fund raiser for the organization — may have been auctioning off fake vacation packages to unsuspecting donors on eBay, it disclosed that information to federal authorities in less than a month, the Times reports.

The charity has been unable to estimate a value of the loss due to the vacation-package sales but has taken down the online sales business. The Times was unable to reach the former fund raiser, but Points of Light’s president, Michelle Nunn, says the charity is working to repay customers for packages that were sold.

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Gates Foundation Promises $150-Million More to Anti-Polio Efforts

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced that it plans to spend an additional $150-million this year on the battle to eradicate polio, the organization reports.

The new gift was made in recognition of progress made by the Group of Eight countries, which met this week in Japan, in supporting development and health issues facing the world at large, the foundation said.

The Gates foundation already had committed $250-million to polio-eradication programs.

Foundations Add $11-Million to Journalism Education

The Carnegie Corporation and the James S. and John L. Knight Foundation are adding $11-million to their combined effort to strengthen journalism education at universities throughout the country, reports The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The new gift comes as three institutions join the recipient pool for the program — Arizona State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

The program seeks to support curriculum development and help the deans of the participating journalism programs adapt to major changes facing the news industry.

(A paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view this article.)

Update on Katrina Aid Sent to State Agencies

Leaders of nonprofit organizations in the Gulf Coast hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 are dismayed over reports that supplies intended to help Katrina victims instead went to state agencies, reports CNN.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency stored $85-million worth of supplies in warehouses for two years, CNN reporter earlier. Those were parceled out to federal agencies and states after they were declared by FEMA to be surplus early this year, the network reports.

Several groups that CNN interviewed had been unaware that such items were available.

“We work so hard to help people in our community when the government is holding back stuff that we can use to give people,” Glenda Perryman, director of United Hearts Community Action Agency, in Biloxi, Miss., tells CNN.

Kym Wiggins, a spokeswoman for the Mississippi agency that oversees surplus items, said nonprofit groups had to have met federal guidelines and register with the state. She said no groups were registered with the state’s surplus agency.

Opinion: Some Charity Dollars Should Be Taxed

If the late Leona Helmsley’s mammoth bequest to her dogs was taxed like the rest of her estate, $3.6-billion of the $8-billion she left to their care would have been paid in taxes — a sum that amounts to a federal subsidy of one person’s charitable intent, writes Ray D. Madoff in a column in The New York Times.

Ms. Madoff, a professor at Boston College Law School, says that the current system of allowing for tax-free charitable donations does not necessarily mean that such gifts are given for the broad public good. She cites Ms. Helmsley’s bequest as a key example. She also takes issue with the rule that requires private foundations to pay out 5 percent of their assets annually, saying the rule guarantees their perpetual existence and even allows for internal fees to be included in the payout sum.

Ms. Madoff calls for changes in the tax code that would tax charitable gifts above some set limit and require foundations to pay out more of their assets, even if doing so threatens their existence.

“Until Congress makes these changes to the tax code, it is not just Leona Helmsley’s fortune that is going to the dogs; it is our tax dollars as well,” she writes.

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From The Chronicle: Tribute to Templeton

Sir John M. Templeton, the investor and philanthropist who died Tuesday at age 95, spent millions of dollars investigating spirituality’s effects on health and behavior. He leaves behind a foundation worth $1.5-billion. Read The Chronicle’s profile of Mr. Templeton, as well as the interview he gave in 1992 on investment strategies for charities.

Government and Politics Watch: IRS and Nonprofit Applications

Nina E. Olson, the national taxpayer advocate, says the Internal Revenue Service has made progress — but not enough — in improving the speed at which it processes applications by groups seeking tax-exempt status, notes The Chronicle’s Government and Politics Watch.

July 08, 2008

Obituary: Sir John M. Templeton Dies at Age 95

The investor and philanthropist Sir John M. Templeton died Tuesday at age 95, The New York Times reports. During his lifetime, he donated hundreds of millions of dollars to the exploration of what he called “spiritual realities,” according to the newspaper.

For more on Mr. Templeton’s giving, read The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s profile.

(Free registration is required to view the Times obituary. A paid subscription or temporary pass is required to view the Chronicle profile.)

Judge Refuses to Dismiss Muslim Charity Lawsuit

A federal judge on Monday declined to throw out an indictment against former leaders of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a Muslim charity accused of financing terrorism, reports the Associated Press.

Lawyers for the charity had sought a dismissal of the case, arguing that materials left by prosecutors in the jury room caused a division among jurors that contributed to last fall’s mistrial after 19 days of deliberations. Prosecutors said that the materials had been placed in the jury room by mistake.

Housing Group Settles Lawsuit With Its Affiliate

Habitat for Humanity of San Antonio, the charity’s oldest chapter, settled a lawsuit Thursday that it had filed against Habitat for Humanity International, in Americus, Ga., reports the Associated Press.

The lawsuit came after the national organization asked the group’s 1,600 affiliates to provide more money to it and sought other changes in the way the affiliates operate.

For the next three years, the San Antonio chapter will remain a part of the international group and be exempt from any new requirements placed on affiliates, including larger fees. “We feel like we came to a good resolution for both us,” said Stephanie Wiese, vice president of development for the San Antonio chapter.

Duane Bates, a spokesman for Habitat for Humanity International, said the organization does not plan to change the existing affiliate agreement, which 1,500 chapters have signed.

Coal Investments by Bill Gates Draw Scrutiny

Bill Gates’s advocacy on the issue of climate change and his partial ownership of Otter Tail Power, in Fergus Falls, Minn., which is seeking to build a controversial coal-burning plant, has attracted public attention, reports MinnPost.com, a nonprofit online news service produced in Minneapolis.

The philanthropist and software mogul’s 9-percent stake in the utility includes ownership of $90-million in voting stock, the news organization reports. Cascade Investment, Mr. Gates’s investment firm in Kirkland, Wash., also made a $50-million loan to Otter Tail, according to the article.

When questioned about the contrast between Mr. Gates’s public calls to curb climate change through his foundation and his investment in coal, a foundation spokesman told MinnPost.com that the billionaire’s philanthropy is separate from his investment company.

Foreclosure Tours Benefit Charity

A Long Island real-estate agent is turning the mortgage-crisis fallout into donations for a local charity.

David Farrell, owner of a real-estate brokerage in Mineola, N.Y., will donate $5 from every $50 ticket sold from buyers’ bus tours of foreclosed homes for sale in Long Island to Hour Children, a charity in St. Rita’s Convent in Long Island City, where nuns care for children whose parents are in prison, reports Newsday.

Mr. Farrell, who has previously appraised properties for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y., hopes to raise $50,000 this year.

Opinion: Volunteerism Should Not Be Mandatory

In an opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times, Jonah Goldberg criticizes Sen. Barack Obama’s promise to “set a goal for all American middle- and high-school students to perform 50 hours of service a year and for all college students to perform 100 hours of service a year” if he’s elected president.

Mr. Goldberg argues that America already has a healthy culture of service and says that spending federal education dollars to meet new service goals would make public service something people did because they had to, not because they wanted to. Such a shift in public perception would ultimately do more harm than good, he writes.

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

From The Chronicle: Corporate Marketing Deals

Read a transcript of our live online discussion about corporate-marketing deals that benefit charity.

July 07, 2008

For-Profit Fund Raisers Kept 54 Cents of Every Dollar Raised, Calif. Study Shows

For-profit fund-raising businesses kept nearly 54 cents of every dollar raised, according to an analysis of more than 5,800 campaigns on behalf of charities that were registered with the state attorney general from 1997 to 2006, reports The Los Angeles Times.

According to the newspaper, records filed with the California attorney general’s office show that telemarketers, direct-mail businesses, and other consultants reported raising $2.6-billion. They kept nearly $1.4-billion. Many of the organizations are based in states outside California and raise money across the country.

Although commercial fund raisers in California are required to file fund-raising reports with the state, many do not, but they are rarely caught because the state lacks the staff to enforce the law, the newspaper said.

With more than 300 fund raisers registered in California, the number of campaigns and the amount of money raised by for-profit firms has risen by about two-thirds since 2000, the newspaper found.

The newspaper also provided access to a searchable database it compiled to show the amounts that charities registered in California received.

To see results of a national study conducted by The Chronicle, read this special report from our archive.

(Free registration is required to view the Times article and database, and a paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view the Chronicle article.)

Charities Struggle to Finance Disaster Relief in the Midwest

Recent tornadoes and flooding throughout Kansas and Western Missouri have stretched the limits of money designated for disaster relief at both the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army, reports The Wichita Eagle.

Andrea Anglin, a spokeswoman for the Midway-Kansas Chapter of the American Red Cross, said that while that organization has enough money for smaller disasters such as local house fires, relief money is badly needed for the tornadoes that have hit northeast Kansas and the flooding that has inundated the Midwest.

She estimates that the Red Cross will need $30-million to meet the needs of people affected by the tornadoes and flooding and added, “That doesn’t include what could happen tomorrow.”

As of the middle of last week, the Red Cross had raised $13-million in cash and pledges, Ms. Anglin said.

Public-Service Groups Benefit From Bad Job Market for Young People

In the face of a slumping job market, more and more recent college graduates are applying for jobs with community-service groups The Wall Street Journal reports.

Teach for America says applications from recent college graduates jumped 36 percent in the past year, and officials at the Peace Corps say they are expecting a 16-percent rise in applications from 2007.

The turbulent job market isn’t the only force driving recent graduates toward public service. Officials at nonprofit groups say young people are showing a greater interest in work to improve society.

Altruism isn’t the only factor however. Young workers say they want to learn the skills that community-service jobs offer and access to the powerful networks of those organizations’ alumni who are now working in a multitude of industries.

(A paid subscription is required to view this article.)

Muslim Charity Lawyers Ask Judge to Dismiss Case

Lawyers representing the former leaders of a Muslim charity that was accused of supporting terrorism have asked a judge to dismiss the case, which ended in a mistrial in October, reports The Dallas Morning News.

Defense lawyers for the five former leaders of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which was in Richardson, Tex., accused the prosecution of fostering disagreement among the jurors by leaving materials related to the case in the jury room. They said that was grounds to dismiss the case, rather than retry it in September as planned.

Prosecutors said their staff members had put exhibits and some other materials in the jury room but had done so inadvertently and that the case should proceed as planned.

The former leaders of the charity are accused of funneling millions of dollars to the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The U.S. government designated Hamas a terrorist group in 1995, making financial transactions with it illegal. Lawyers for the foundation said the group was a legitimate charity that helped Muslim children and families who had bee left homeless or poor by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Donor's Decision to Name a Campus Building After a Gossip Columnist Draws Critics

The quiet renaming of a prominent academic building at the University of Pennsylvania for a gossip columnist has sparked some annoyance among students and others on the campus, reports The New York Times.

In recent weeks, signs reading Claudia Cohen Hall started appearing on the building that had been known as Logan Hall, named over a century ago for James Logan, a secretary to William Penn and one of the first trustees of the university.

The new name was chosen by Ronald O. Perelman, chairman of Revlon, to memorialize Ms. Cohen, a gossip columnist for The New York Post who died last year. Mr. Perelman donated $20-million to Penn in 1995 and exercised his naming rights recently.

Ms. Cohen and Mr. Perelman, who both graduated from the university, were married for nine years. Despite their divorce in 1994, the two remained close friends.

Some faculty members and students say they were unhappy to see the building get a new name.

“I, as an academic, am accustomed to seeing buildings with names like Newton, Copernicus, Darwin,” said Ponzy Lu, a chemistry professor at the university. “Then to see the name of this person, who is very fresh in our memory, who is not associated with a pursuit of knowledge — a gossip columnist: It strikes me as being totally idiotic.”

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

From The Chronicle: What Obama's Campaign Says About Philanthropy

Several of the campaign stances taken by Sen. Barack Obama suggest that the Illinois senator’s call for change seems to be directed at the nonprofit world as much as at government, writes Leslie Lenkowsky, a regular Chronicle columnist.

July 03, 2008

Obama Calls for Expanded National Service

Sen. Barack Obama has made several speeches this week calling on Americans to volunteer to serve their country, reports The Washington Post.

Promising a wide array of expanded opportunities, Senator Obama said on Wednesday that “government depends not just on the consent of the governed but on the service of citizens.”

Senator Obama’s service plan, first detailed in December and expanded slightly on Wednesday, would cost an estimated $3.5-billion annually. It would increase AmeriCorps members by 250,000, double the Peace Corps by 2011, create an Energy Corps for renewable-energy and environmental projects, and expand the Foreign Service. Additionally, a Social Investment Fund Network would support the nonprofit world, and veterans would be tapped to help other veterans find jobs.

Referring to his own experience working as a community organizer, Senator Obama said, “Through service, I found a community that embraced me, citizenship that was meaningful, the direction I’d been seeking.”

For more about the candidates’ views on national service and other topics, see the Campaign 2008 section of The Chronicle’s Web site. In addition, see an article on the public-service group that is a key influence in the campaign.

(Free registration is required to view the Washington Post article.)

Some Jewish Nonprofit Groups Lay Off Employees and Trim Programs

In these tough economic times, some Jewish nonprofit organizations are reducing the size of their staffs and programs, reports The Jewish Week, in New York.

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, an international relief agency, and the Jewish federation umbrella group United Jewish Communities recently cut dozens of jobs, and several Jewish groups and programs have closed.

The bad economy has caused some donors to pull back, leaders of Jewish charities said.

“It hasn’t been easy fund raising in the last 90 days. People are feeling like each dollar has to go further in their charitable giving,” says Simon Greer, chief executive of the Jewish Funds for Justice, in New York.

At least one observer said the cutbacks are not so much the result of the economic slump as other factors.

“I don’t think the fact that some number of Jewish organizations are having financial problems is a function of the economy, hard times, or some general wave in Jewish organizational life. It’s about those organizations.” says Gary Tobin, president of the Institute for Jewish & Community Research, in San Francisco.

Catholic Bishop Apologizes for Charity's Aid in Va. Abortion Case

Catholic leaders in Richmond, Va., are apologizing after a teenage immigrant in a Catholic charity’s care obtained an abortion with help from charity staff members, reports the Associated Press.

The unidentified 16-year-old Guatemalan was being cared for by Commonwealth Catholic Charities through a program that provides foster care for illegal-immigrant children in the United States without their parents.

Four of the charity’s staff members were fired for helping the girl travel to and from the procedure and signing a parental consent form, required by law in Virginia, according to the news service.

N.Y. Child-Care Providers Accused of Misusing Government Funds

An audit of New York City contractors hired by the state to provide child care to low-income families found many incidents of misspent funds, with 19 centers referred to local prosecutors for possible prosecution, reports The New York Times.

The state comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli said the audit found that “a lack of effective monitoring contributed to ineffective results and misuse of funds.”

The audit examined 205 contracts to New York City child-care centers, spanning 1999 to 2006, which totaled $10.7-million.

One part of the audit analyzed 55 contracts worth $2.9-million and found that misspending in 39 reached nearly $1.6-million.

In one incident, a contractor received $95,000 to create 30 child-care slots; instead, some of the money went into a personal checking account, and the slots never materialized.

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

Opinion: America’s Wealthiest Are Giving More to Charity

America’s slowing economy has inspired some of the richest in the nation to increase their donations to charitable causes this year, writes Andrew Farrell, a columnist for Forbes magazine.

A survey by Prince & Associates, a research firm, found that six in ten Americans with wealth surpassing $30-million intend to give more to charity this year than last year. And of those intending to donate more, 87 percent cited greater need as a motivation.

See The Chronicle’s database showing all the gifts of $1-million or more that have been announced in 2008, plus you can see who has publicly announced the biggest donations to charity this year.

Online Discussion Next Week: Corporate Marketing Deals

Join us on Tuesday, July 8, at noon U.S. Eastern time for a live online discussion about corporate-marketing deals that benefit charity.

How can your charity make the most of its corporate-marketing partnerships? What are the pitfalls? And what are some examples of deals that are good models for other charities?

Join these experts to answer your questions:

Katrina McGhee is vice president of marketing for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, in Dallas, where she oversees more than 100 deals that benefit the breast-cancer charity.

Michal Ann Strahilevitz is an associate professor of marketing at Golden Gate University, in San Francisco. She has studied marketing deals between companies and charities for more than 12 years.

These discussions are free and open to everyone. People who ask questions in advance have a better chance of getting answers.

Prospecting: New Law on Annuities

New York has passed a new law to regulate charitable gift annuities, reports Prospecting, The Chronicle’s column on fund raising.

Give and Take: Promoting the Arts

A contest is under way to spur creative ideas for promoting the arts, reports a new post in Give and Take, The Chronicle’s summary of the best blogs about the nonprofit world.

Correction: Leona Helmsley's Charitable Foundation

A summary in Wednesday’s Philanthropy Today incorrectly described some details of a New York Times article about Leona Helmsley’s instructions for the charitable foundation that will benefit from her estate’s assets. The Times reported on a mission statement drafted by Ms. Helmsley, not on the will itself, which is public. In addition, the newspaper reported simply that a spokesman wouldn’t comment while the estate’s executors were determining the direction of her charitable trust; the article said the trustees of the charitable trust had hired a philanthropic advisory service to determine if there was a way to stick to Ms. Helmsley’s desires and also pursue broader goals.

Holiday Notice

Because of the Independence Day holiday, we will not be sending you Philanthropy Today on Friday. We will be back in your mailbox on Monday.

July 02, 2008

Billions of Dollars in Hotel Mogul's Foundation Might Benefit Dogs

Leona Helmsley, the hotel mogul who died in August, wanted most of her estate – worth $5-billion to $8-billion — to be used by a foundation that would focus on the care and welfare of dogs, reports The New York Times.

Ms. Helmsley drafted a mission statement for her foundation before she died, the newspaper said; at first she instructed that money left to her foundation should care for needy people and dogs. She later crossed out the will’s reference to people, according to two people who told the newspaper they have seen the statement.

A spokesman for the executors of Ms. Helmsley’s estate, Howard J. Rubenstein, declined to comment on where the money would end up going, aying that the executors were still determining the direction of the trust.

The newspaper said the trustees of the charitable trust established by Ms. Helmsley had hired a philanthropic advisory service to determine whether they could fulfill her wishes and still pursue broader charitable goals.

If $5-billion, the low-end estimate of the value of her estate, is used for dog-related charitable efforts, the trust will be worth close to 10 times the amount of the assets of all animal-related nonprofit groups, according to Internal Revenue Service figures for 2005, the newspaper said.

Note: This item has been amended since it originally appeared to correct inaccuracies.

Louisiana Court Rules That "Would-Be Heirs" May Sue in Donor-Intent Case

The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that “would-be heirs” have the right to sue if they believe the donor’s bequest is not being followed, reports The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The dispute arose when Newcomb College, an undergraduate college for women in New Orleans, was merged with Tulane University in the aftermath of financial concerns resulting from Hurricane Katrina. Alumnae and supporters of the women’s college have opposed the merger, saying that it violates the intentions of Josephine Louise Newcomb, who donated $100,000 to set up the institution in 1886.

In 2006, two descendants of Ms. Newcomb’s sister sued Tulane, accusing the university of violating the conditions of the bequest.

The court ruled that would-be heirs have a right to sue, but also said the plaintiffs must “more accurately establish their standing” as being next in line as the donor’s heirs.

“This is the first time a Louisiana court ruled that would-be heirs—people who don’t inherit anything from a decedent because she gave all of her money to someone else—have a right not only to revoke a bequest if a condition on that bequest is not being honored but also, most importantly, the right to come in and enforce the bequest,” John F. Shreves, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said on Tuesday.

“Tulane University remains confident that our actions regarding women’s education at Tulane are consistent with Mrs. Newcomb’s wishes and that her will imposes no conditions,” said Tulane officials in a written statement about the Supreme Court’s decision.

Philanthropy Scholar Moves to Top Fund-Raising Job at Indiana U.

Eugene R. Tempel, executive director of Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy, announced today he is leaving his job to become president of the Indiana University Foundation, the fund-raising arm of the public institution.

Mr. Tempel replaces Curtis R. Simic, who is retiring, according to a university news release.

Mr. Simic spent 20 years at the helm of the university’s foundation, where the endowment grew from $214-million in the 1988 fiscal year to $1.6-billion today.

Patrick M. Rooney, director of research at the philanthropy center, will serve as interim executive director while the university conducts a national search for Mr. Tempel’s successor.

Opinion: Donors Should Help Best Charities Do Better

Donors should support the best charities, enabling nonprofit organizations to hire top employees, take risks, and innovate, according to an opinion piece in the Financial Times by Sean Stannard-Stockton, director of tactical philanthropy at Ensemble Capital Management.

“The gift of money is only the first step in a chain of events that might achieve the elusive goal of creating social impact,” writes Mr. Stannard-Stockton.

In drawing contrasts between how investors approach investing in for-profit groups versus nonprofit organizations, he criticizes donors’ reluctance to finance overhead costs or to support groups that pay competitive salaries to charity employees. Citing public outcry when nonprofit employees receive high salaries, as well as Congressional investigations and criticism in the news media, Mr. Stannard-Stockton says this attitude hinders the nonprofit world’s ability to be successful.

“We need to believe that nonprofit leaders know best how to achieve their mission, and just as investors do not tell companies how to spend their investment dollars, make the majority of our donations for general operating support,” Mr. Stannard-Stockton advocates.

Prospecting: Direct-Mail Returns Continue to Slide

Donations made in response to direct-mail appeals declined in the first three months of this year, continuing a downward trend that began in 2006, notes a new post in Prospecting, The Chronicle’s column on fund raising.

Give and Take: Questioning Mega-Gifts

Do some multimillion-dollar gifts end up distorting the mission of a nonprofit institution? asks a post cited in Give and Take, The Chronicle’s roundup of the best blog posts about the nonprofit world.

Plus: What is the proper way for nonprofit organizations to set compensation standards?

Online Discussion: Corporate Marketing Deals

Join us on Tuesday, July 8, at 12 noon, U.S. Eastern time, for a live online discussion about corporate marketing deals that benefit charity.

How can your charity make the most of its corporate marketing partnerships? What are the pitfalls? And what are some examples of deals that are good models for other charities?

Join these experts to answer your questions:

Katrina McGhee is vice president of marketing for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, in Dallas, where she oversees more than 100 deals that benefit the breast-cancer charity.

Michal Ann Strahilevitz is an associate professor of marketing at Golden Gate University, in San Francisco. She has studied marketing deals between companies and charities for more than 12 years.

These discussions are free and open to everyone. People who ask questions in advance have a better chance of getting answers.

From the Chronicle: Discuss Obama's Plan to Aid Religious Charities

Sen. Barack Obama’s plan to help religious charities get government aid has stimulated a lively discussion on The Chronicle’s Web site. We hope you will share your views now. Just click on the comment link below the article and your voice will be added to the debate.

July 01, 2008

From the Chronicle: Obama Unveils Plan to Aid Religious Charities

Sen. Barack Obama, the likely Democratic nominee for president, this afternoon will announce a plan that he would use to help religious charities if he wins the race for the White House, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

From the Chronicle: $100-Million Gift to Fight Global Warming

Princeton University has received a $100-million pledge from an investment manager to support research to prevent global warming, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

Charities Seek Donations of Tax-Rebate Checks

Churches and other charities are seeking the donation of some, or all, of the tax rebates that the government is sending to families throughout the country in the hopes of spurring spending, reports the Associated Press.

Members of one congregation in Asheville, N.C., voted to give at least 10 percent of their checks to charity, the news agency reports.

“It’s an unbelievable amount of cash that people of faith or people of conscience could choose to say, ‘You know, we could get along without this. We could put this money to use,’” Ken Sehested, co-pastor at the Circle of Mercy church in Asheville, told the Associated Press.

Sandra Enos, a sociologist at Bryant University, in Smithfield, R.I., told the news agency that such donations are as good for the economy as spending on retail.

Nebraska Court Upholds Foundation Decision

Nebraska’s Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s handling of a dispute between two factions seeking control of a charitable foundation in Omaha, reports the Associated Press.

The battle over the Gilbert M. and Martha H. Hitchcock Foundation, with assets of more than $17-million, dates back to at least 2002, the news agency reports. Two factions of the Kountze family, which is tied through marriage to the Hitchcocks, have been fighting over who would best manage the foundation.

The latest court decision may end the dispute, lawyers for both sides say. However, a separate case is pending in federal court and focuses on the same issues.

Foundation Gives $25-Million to Okla. Colleges

The George Kaiser Family Foundation, in Tulsa, Okla., has given $25-million to three colleges and universities in the Tulsa area, reports the Tulsa World.

The money will be split among three institutions. Tulsa Community College will receive $4-million, three Tulsa-area affiliates of Oklahoma State University will receive $9-million, and the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa will receive $12-million, the newspaper reports.

Government and Politics Watch: Disaster Relief

A group of Midwestern U.S. senators have introduced legislation to create tax incentives for charitable giving to help victims of the storms, tornadoes, and floods that have hit their region, The Chronicle’s Government and Politics Watch column reports.

Prospecting: Seeking New Donors

Many charities do the wrong thing when they seek new donors, says a fund-raising expert whose views are included in the latest post in Prospecting, The Chronicle’s online fund-raising column.

Transcript: How Charities Can Go Green

Read a transcript of our online discussion on the best ways for charities to save money and protect the planet.