Julie Packard, a trustee of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, has met with charities to discuss the impact of the recession.

Jim Graham, for The Chronicle

Kim Thiboldeaux, of the Wellness Community, says her group is considering merging with another national organization that helps cancer patients.

Tyagan Miller

Adrian Sargeant, a professor at Indiana University, has been studying the motivations of people who make bequests.

From the issue dated April 9, 2009 About Giving FOUNDATION ASSETS declined 28 percent in 2008 among respondents to the annual Chronicle survey of the nation's largest grant makers, but some funds nevertheless plan to do more to help those hit hard by the recession. THE CLOSURE OF TWO FOUNDATIONS felled by the Bernard Madoff fraud could prove a special hardship for charities that work in criminal justice, human rights, and other causes the grant makers supported. SEVERAL LARGE FOUNDATIONS, despite the beating their assets have taken, have pledged many millions of dollars to efforts to slow climate change. AMERICAN GRANT MAKERS lost $150-billion in assets last year, according to a new survey. PRESIDENT OBAMA stood by his proposal to cut the tax deductions that wealthy people can take for charitable gifts, but the plan's future progress through Congress is far from certain. A BILL NOW IN THE SENATE would adjust a tax provision affecting private foundations that its sponsors say inadvertently penalizes increases in giving by grant makers. ON THEIR ANNUAL ROUND OF MEETINGS WITH MEMBERS OF CONGRESS, grant makers from the Northwest found the lawmakers more receptive to their concerns than in previous years.. MUSLIM CHARITIES AND DONORS meeting in Abu Dhabi agreed that giving in the Islamic world, while generous, is often inefficient. A REPORT from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy that sets standards for foundation giving has drawn fire from grant makers and prompted at least one member to withdraw its financial support. THE FACE OF PHILANTHROPY: The Los Angeles Philharmonic is building youth ensembles in impoverished parts of the city. RECENT GRANTS by foundations, corporations, and other grant makers. RECENT GIFTS to nonprofit organizations and institutions. EMERGENCY GRANTS made by grant makers for social-service needs: a sampling About Managing THE WINNOWING OF CHARITIES that many in the nonprofit world have long believed was necessary is likely to be hastened by the recession, though few are certain how the process will play out. CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL of a major expansion of national-service programs was a big victory for many nonprofit leaders, but now comes the hard work of making sure it's done right. NEARLY A THIRD OF AMERICAN CHARITIES ended last year in the red, and only a small percentage expect to be able to cover expenses this year and next, a study by the Nonprofit Finance Fund indicates. THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE reported that the number of charities and private foundations increased by more than 5 percent from 2007 to 2008. TWO UMBRELLA GROUPS, the Council on Foundations and Independent Sector, have urged Congress to make the estate tax permanent at 2009 levels. A DISTRICT JUDGE has ruled in favor of the Internal Revenue Service in a dispute over a tax deduction taken by an Illinois couple for the donation of a facade easement on their home. ORPHANS OF THE RWANDAN GENOCIDE can find help and support at a home for them modeled after an Israeli community founded in 1953 to help children who lost their parents in the Holocaust (Innovations). About Fund Raising CHARITABLE BEQUESTS often increase in economic hard times, and three new studies suggest the best ways to solicit them. THE STATE OF FUND RAISING in 2008, special events on a shoestring, and the need to thank donors: notes from the conference of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. UPDATE ON CAMPAIGNS for endowments, capital improvements, and other needs. INTEREST RATES for planned gifts, issued by the Internal Revenue Service. About Technology KABOOM, a charity that builds playgrounds, is enlisting people around the country to build a national online map of available neighborhood play spaces. MORE THAN 50 CONTENDERS have entered a contest sponsored by the charity TechSoup Global to devise a way to use cellphones for social good, and online voters will decide who gets the $50,000 prize. About Philanthropy Careers A YOUNG WOMAN'S JOURNEY from Peru took her from a job cleaning houses to the leadership of a California charity that screens people on the street for diabetes and other illnesses (Entry Level). AT HIS DAUGHTER'S INSTIGATION, an immigrant to the United States with a full-time academic career took on the added work of starting a charity to help the children of sex workers in India (Regeneration). PEOPLE: Appointments and promotions in the nonprofit world. AWARDS: Honors for people and organizations in philanthropy. Also in The Chronicle VINCE STEHLE looks at Congressional attempts to limit the advocacy rights of nonprofit organizations. PABLO EISENBERG argues that grant making to advocacy groups is money well spent. WILLIAM A. SCHAMBRA urges foundations to get back to the basics of supporting worthy causes. GARA LAMARCHE enumerates ways to turn the economic crisis into an opportunity for change in the way foundations and charities operate. ELIZABETH M. MILLS AND MICHAEL W. PEREGRINE warn that the anger in Washington at the business and financial industries could easily spill over into the nonprofit world. LETTERS: on improving the way grant makers respond to crisis and limiting tax breaks for charitable donations. NEW BOOKS: A memoir of an investment banker turned social entrepreneur, a guide to fund raising in tough times, essays on black philanthropy, and summaries of other publications on ways to improve special events and reflections from a longtime nonprofit leader.