Items relevant to more than one category may appear more than once in this summary. From the issue dated August 7, 2003 About Giving and Grant Makers FAMILY FOUNDATIONS have long been concerned with issues of succession in their leadership, but a few funds have established formal programs to ensure a smooth transition. CHARITIES AND FOUNDATIONS are warning the Internal Revenue Service to tread carefully as it considers whether to craft new rules to keep nonprofit groups from unwittingly helping terrorists. A SAMPLING of opinions about voluntary Treasury Department guidelines intended to prevent the flow of charitable donations to terrorists. THE METROPOLITAN OPERA is being sued for allegedly misappropriating $5-million donated by a Texas oil heiress who died in 1998. BRITAIN'S largest charities saw their income growth slow significantly during the past two years, according to a new report. GIVING TO THE ARTS by the nation's foundations dropped by 3.5 percent in 2002, the first decline in eight years, according to preliminary figures in a new report. A KENTUCKY COLLEGE has received an $18.6-million bequest from an insurance executive's estate; other recent gifts to nonprofit institutions. FACE OF PHILANTHROPY: The Brooklyn Public Library uses a gardening program to teach language and literacy skills to children who have disabilities and those who do not. RECENT GRANTS by foundations, corporations, and other grant makers. SUMMARIES OF ANNUAL REPORTS from the Dana, Joyce, and Charles Stewart Mott Foundations. UPDATE ON CAMPAIGNS for endowments, capital improvements, and other needs. INTEREST RATES for planned gifts, issued by the Internal Revenue Service. About Fund Raising A MARKETING DEAL between Home Depot and the National Wildlife Federation shows some of the pros and cons of such increasingly popular arrangements. CHARITABLE PLEDGES from individuals to United Way campaigns are growing at a slower rate than those to non-United Way drives, says a new report. AN ARIZONA JUDGE has ordered a company and its two principals to pay $4.4-million in restitution to elderly investors to whom they sold fraudulent charitable gift annuities. NEW POLLING DATA suggest that charities have an unprecedented opportunity to recruit volunteers and donors, a public-opinion research company official says. UPDATE ON CAMPAIGNS for endowments, capital improvements, and other needs. INTEREST RATES for planned gifts, issued by the Internal Revenue Service. About Managing Nonprofit Groups FRAUD AND THEFT by employees of nonprofit organizations are on the rise, according to experts, who say lax financial controls are a big reason for the problem. THE SOFT ECONOMY has opened up possibilities for charities looking to rent cheaper office space. A BUSINESS charged with fraudulently selling consumers lists of foundations that supposedly offered grants to individuals has agreed to pay the government $296,000 and to halt its operation. TWO NONPROFIT GROUPS say they will fight new federal regulations designed to eliminate so-called junk faxes, which charities fear may hamper fund raising. HOUSTON CHARITIES scored highest among those in the 20 largest U.S. cities when ranked by fund-raising efficiency, revenue growth, and spending on programs. THE NEW DIRECTOR of Save Venice sees the mobilization of young donors as key to his group's efforts to help preserve and restore that city's antiquities. AMERICORPS received another blow last month when the House of Representatives refused to give it the $100-million it had sought to keep from having to slash the number of participants this year. THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE says low-cost housing development is one of many topics affecting nonprofit organizations on which it intends to offer guidance in the next year (Tax Watch). A QUAKER GROUP is being sued by the IRS for refusing to garnish the wages of one of its employees, a tax resister opposed to military spending (Tax Watch). A MANUAL intended to help train IRS agents will not be published this fall, though the material will be available online (Tax Watch). About Technology BLOGATHON 2003 raised more than $100,000 in pledges to benefit the favorite charities of more than 400 people who updated their Web logs for 24 hours straight. THE OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE is accepting proposals for the development of software designed specifically for nonprofit organizations. CITYCARES has received a grant to help improve its technology for collecting and analyzing data about volunteer behavior around the country. Also in This Issue OPINION: Richard Magat on the glut of books about the nonprofit world; and Vincent Stehle on long-term implications of changing the foundation payout requirement. BOOKS: A guide for fund raisers at black colleges, a primer on how American donors can create foundations overseas, plus summaries of a directory of grants for postgraduate education, of a booklet on evaluating the key steps in program evaluation, and a handbook for nonprofit organizations planning a construction or renovation project. LETTERS: on the downside of trimming foundations' administrative costs; refocusing nonprofit energy on the true work at hand; changing the tone of nonprofit-management advice from the business world; highlighting a caring profession; reconciling religion and the academy; and donors' role in rebalancing the playing field. PEOPLE: Appointments and promotions in the nonprofit world. AWARDS: to individuals and organizations.