Items relevant to more than one category may appear more than once in this summary. From the issue dated April 5, 2007 About Grant Makers AT THE LARGEST U.S. GRANT MAKERS, assets grew a median of 7.7 percent last year and combined holdings topped $180-billion: results of The Chronicle's annual survey of foundations. ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS represented a median of 8 percent of the richest foundations' spending on charitable activities in 2006, the Chronicle survey found. A DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER that tackles social issues with no easy answers, Kartemquin Educational Films is among the eight winners of the MacArthur Foundation's award for innovative organizations. RECENT GRANTS by foundations, corporations, and other grant makers. About Fund Raising MOST CHARITIES RAISED MORE MONEY last year than they did in 2005, according to a survey released at the annual meeting of the Association of Fundraising Professionals: notes from the conference. POSTAGE ON FUND-RAISING LETTERS and other types of nonprofit standard mail is set to go up an average of 6.7 percent in May. 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 THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION will undergo a review of its governance following the departure of its secretary, Lawrence M. Small, who is under fire for unauthorized and excessive spending. A KIND OF NONPROFIT INCUBATOR, fiscal sponsorship allows established charities to accept donations on behalf of groups without tax-exempt status, giving fledgling projects a chance to take root. WIDER USE OF FISCAL SPONSORS could reduce duplication of charitable efforts and slow the proliferation of nonprofit groups, experts say. A CUBAN-BORN BUSINESSMAN trained in Moscow and Munich will head the Cleveland Foundation's efforts to bring international business opportunities to the distressed city (New on the Job). PROVIDING DECENT HEALTH CARE for needy people can be a hard sell, finds the leader of an AIDS charity in affluent Palm Beach County, Fla. (A Day in the Life). THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT may have been cheated of as much as $1.8-billion in revenue by taxpayers who inflated the value of donated noncash goods on their tax returns, according to the Treasury Department. THE NUMBER OF CHARITIES and private foundations registered as tax-exempt entities grew by 1.7 percent from 2005 to 2006, the Internal Revenue Service reported. About Technology MAKING IT EASIER FOR PATIENTS to use their electronic health records is the goal of $300,000 in research grants awarded jointly by two foundations. TECHNOLOGY ASSISTANCE TO CHARITIES is most often provided by for-profit enterprises, not other nonprofit groups, a new survey has found. THE AT&T FOUNDATION has given the Oasis Institute $1-million to train older people in the use of computers. TECHNOLOGY BITS: A conference in May focuses on ways that social-networking sites and other technologies can promote social change; a Dallas group receives $1.5-million for technology systems that enable companies to give surplus products to charities; and the Case Foundation's Web site seeks to lure people to careers in the nonprofit world. About Giving SUBSCRIBING TO THE PHILANTHROPIC VIEW: A handful of new magazines play to the interests of readers who want to put their instincts for good to work. EIGHTY-FIVE DISPUTED PAINTINGS will remain in a Canadian museum after an arbitrator ruled that they were not the possession of a British foundation controlled by the original donor's grandson. A PLEDGE of $33-million will help Washington and Lee University increase faculty compensation; other recent gifts to nonprofit organizations and institutions. THE FACE OF PHILANTHROPY: Keepers of the Wild runs an Arizona sanctuary where animals can roam freely. Also in This Issue OPINION: Suzanne Callahan proposes another way to think about evaluating grant results, and Pablo Eisenberg names the real culprit in the scandal at the Smithsonian: the institution's board. LETTERS: on the leadership of the ACLU, a controversial fund-raising consultant, and recent turnover at the NAACP. BOOKS: A handbook on capital campaigns, cases studies of organizations that promote social change, and a biography of one of the nation's earliest female philanthropists, plus summaries of publications on cultural groups in big cities, the skills a foundation chief executive must possess, and tools that help nonprofit groups monitor their progress. PEOPLE: Appointments and promotions in the nonprofit world. AWARDS: Honors for people and organizations in philanthropy.