John Cori, an electrician, has volunteered at a youth charity in New York for 20 years.

Claudio Vazquez

Kyle Zimmer of First Book says companies are often unwilling to support marketing deals with charities once the economy sours.

Photograph by Carol Gillott

New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art is subject to taxation on earnings from its retail stores, including this one in Scottsdale, Ariz.

From the issue dated February 7, 2008 About Charities and the Economy WITH A RECESSION LOOMING, many charities are feeling the pinch, as donations fall off and, in many cases, demand for services increases. STAY IN TOUCH with donors and avoid laying off fund raisers are among the suggestions experts offer for shoring up fund raising in difficult economic times. DIRECT-MARKETING APPEALS for new donors can be an early sign of whether a recession is affecting fund raising, according to the outlook for a variety of approaches to generating revenue. ONE MARYLAND CHARITY may actually benefit from the real-estate slump: It is raffling off a house the owners couldn't sell and will split the proceeds with them. About Gifts and Giving MIDDLE EASTERN ROYAL FAMILIES, tapping a growing interest in philanthropy in their region, plan to set up an organization to promote charitable activities in the Arab world. AT A GLOBAL ECONOMIC MEETING, Bill Gates called on business and philanthropy to join forces to improve people's lives. JEWISH DONORS who make gifts of more than $1-million direct the vast majority of their donated dollars to secular causes, says a study by the Institute for Jewish & Community Research. AN ANONYMOUS DONOR has given $50-million to the University of St. Thomas, in St. Paul; other big gifts to nonprofit organizations and institutions. THE FACE OF PHILANTHROPY: Education Through Music, a New York charity, helps public schools that are strapped for money teach music to their students. INTEREST RATES for planned gifts, issued by the Internal Revenue Service. About Fund Raising THE VIOLENCE IN KENYA has prompted charities to rush relief supplies to afflicted parts of the country, though fund raising for the effort has been slow. AT A CONGRESSIONAL HEARING on fund-raising practices at veterans charities, lawmakers showed a growing interest in finding ways to require nonprofit groups to disclose how they spend the money they raise. A TELLING DETAIL, like the make of a prospect's shirt, can make a fund-raising report not just good reading but a useful tool as well, says Bob Levey, a university fund raiser and former journalist, in his new monthly column. About Managing Nonprofit Groups MANY CHARITIES, making use of exemptions and vague rules, manage to pay no taxes on revenue from businesses not related to their mission, The Chronicle found in a study of 91 large nonprofit organizations. SINCE 2006, nonprofit groups have been required, by a federal law aimed at holding them more accountable, to make public the tax return on which they report unrelated business income. VOLUNTEERS who keep coming back year after year are a nonprofit manager's dream, but many charities don't do enough to cultivate them. DEAN ZERBE, an aide to Sen. Charles Grassley and a key actor in the Senate's efforts to curb charity abuses, will leave his Capitol Hill job at the end of February (Tax Watch). AT A HEARING of the Senate Finance Committee, the head of Independent Sector urged Congress to extend two lapsed tax provisions affecting charitable donations (Tax Watch). THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE announced it would release the revised Form 990 and its accompanying instructions on a staggered schedule over the coming months (Tax Watch). A WATCHDOG GROUP has asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate a preacher's apparent endorsement of a presidential candidate (Tax Watch). IN HIS STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS, the president urged Congress to make permanent actions his administration has taken to ease the flow of federal grants and contracts to religious charities. TELEVISION NETWORKS devoted an average of 17 seconds an hour to free public-service announcements in 2005, about the same amount they aired in 2000, according to a new study. A PERIPATETIC CAREER spanning the business and nonprofit worlds has brought Robert Boyd to the leadership of a group that promotes public charter schools (New on the Job). About Technology ELECTRONIC GIVING KIOSKS, designed to operate much like ATM's, make donating to charity as easy as swiping your debit card. FACEBOOK isn't just for socializing anymore, but is now a place where users can raise money for charity or promote a cause, thanks to new Internet tools. INTERNET PHONE SERVICE and other Web-based communication systems have greatly cut the cost of overseas calls, videoconferencing, and other tasks. THE NONPROFIT TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE, set for New Orleans in March, will feature such topics as using mobile phones and Web-based social networks for raising money and communicating with supporters. A NEW WEB SITE hopes to reduce the volume of direct-mail catalogs that go out to consumers by helping people "opt out" of companies' mailing lists. VIDEO AND OTHER MEDIA PROJECTS supported by the Open Society Institute to document the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina have been brought together on a new Web site. About Grant Makers GIVING BY U.S. COMPANIES has risen in recent years, but corporate philanthropic efforts still fall short in many areas, two new studies suggest. CALIFORNIA LAWMAKERS last week approved legislation to require big foundations to disclose an array of information about the diversity of their leadership and grant making. SUMMARIES OF ANNUAL REPORTS from the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, the James Irvine Foundation, and the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. NEWLY ANNOUNCED grant programs RECENT GRANTS by foundations, corporations, and other grant makers. Also in This Issue OPINION: Stephen Viederman on how foundations might use their assets to fight global warming, Leslie Lenkowsky on Bill Gates's idea of "creative capitalism," and Scott Bittle on what charities can learn from pollsters' mistakes in the New Hampshire primary. PRESS CLIPPINGS: The New Yorker and Forbes examine the growing number of medical charities applying business solutions to their work, and Fortune magazine includes some big nonprofit groups on its list of the best places to work. NEW BOOKS: A guide to building social networks, a handbook on using communications tools to carry out a charity's mission, plus summaries of other publications on effective board practices,a school-based effort to link children with mentors, and managing interactive media projects. PEOPLE: Appointments and promotions in the nonprofit world. AWARDS: Honors for people and organizations in philanthropy.