News Briefing: Billionaires Learn Giving Is Only a Start

• The annual 'Giving' Section of the New York Times includes articles on every day donors, cause-related marketing, foundations spending down their endowments, and much much more.  [New York Times]

News Briefing: Charity Chips in $3 million of USOC Payment

• The El Pomar Foundation, one of Colorado's largest charities, announces a $3 million gift to help keep the U.S. Olympic Committee headquarters in Colorado Springs.  [Associated Press]

• Larry Jones, Feed The Children's Founder, is fired.  [The Oklahoman]

• International Christian groups respond to the recent flooding and mudslides in El Salvador.  [The Christian Post]

News Briefing: Confusion on Where Money Lent via Kiva Goes

• Kiva overhauls its explanation of how it works after a blog post questions its claims of direct loans.  [New York Times]

• The Wall Street Journal offers a special Philanthropy report. 

• Venture Philanthropy Partners announces a $4.5 million grant to Year Up.  [Washington Post]

• One Laptop Per Child, one of the most ambitious design projects of recent times, is still criticized by many.  [New York Times]

News Briefing: Denver Public TV Plans Nonprofit News Operation

• A Denver public television station plans a nonprofit investigative news operation with a Web site and on-air program.  [Associated Press]

• Dr. Grant Colfax, director of H.I.V. prevention and research in the Public Health Department in San Francisco, is concerned about the city's disparities in viral load and in care.  [New York Times]

News Briefing: National Trust's Chief Retiring

• Richard Moe, President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, announces his retirement.  [Washington Post]

• Amherst College in Massachusetts receives 2 gifts totaling $125 million, the largest in school's history.  [Associated Press]

• The papers of the poet Siegfried Sassoon are likely headed to Cambridge University following a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.  [New York Times]

News Briefing: Nonprofit Groups Spin Off Green Ventures

• Nonprofit groups launch for-profit ventures that teach skills for green jobs.  [New York Times]

• The NAACP attempts to reach beyond its core black community.  [Washington Post]

• The California attorney general has raised nearly $10 million for two charter schools, an arts academy, and a military institude, all of which he founded as mayor of Oakland.  [Los Angeles Times]

News Briefing: Charities Eye Not-So-Generous Giving Season in Sour Economy

• The nation's 400 largest charities expect giving to decline by a median of 9% this year, according to a new survey.  [USA Today]

• Feed The Children founder Larry Jones authorized putting hidden microphones in the offices of three top executives.  [The Oklahoman]

News Briefing: After Complaints, Gates Foundation Opens Education Aid Offer to All States

• Madonna breaks ground for her $15 million Raising Malawi Academy for Girls.  [Associated Press]

• The Gates Foundation offers states up to $250,000 to prepare grant proposals for the Department of Education's $4 billion grant competition, known as Race to the Top.  [New York Times]

• The daughter of oil pioneer and cultural philanthropist Alfred C. Glassel is contesting his most recent of nine wills, claiming his lawyers coerced him into bequeathing most of it to charity.  [Houston Chronicle]

• The nonprofit company Social Vocational Services makes its owners wealthy.  [Los Angeles Times]

News Briefing: Billionaire Aids Charity That Aided Him

• Sergey Brin, the billionaire co-founder of Google, gives $1 million to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.  [New York Times]

• Paul and Diane Manning donate $5 million to fund diabetes research at the University of Virginia Health System.  [Washington Post]

• The President of the Baltimore City Council calls for an audit of the city's involvement with the Balitmore City Foundation.  [Baltimore Sun]

• Donors give to their favorite charities at rates similar to their grants before the recession.  [Associated Press]

News Briefing: Charity Christmas cards 'not always generous'

• Christmas charity cards are not always as charitable as they seem.  [AFP]

• Ethiopia's government asks for food aid for 6.2 million people.  [AFP]

News Briefing: Gates Foundation Grants Support Unusual Research

• The Catholic Diocese of Wilmington files for federal bankruptcy on the eve of a civil trial against the diocese and a former priest.  [Associated Press]

• The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announce new grants of $100,000 each for 76 unconventional approaches to world problems.  [Associated Press]

News Briefing: The Squandering of D.C.'s AIDS Dollars

• Nelson Mandela's Foundation denies that he wrote the foreword to Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou-Nguesso's book.  [Associated Press]

• The Washington Post investigates the spending, services, and finances of every specialized AIDS organization funded by D.C.'s HIV/AIDS Administration from 2004-2008.  [Washington Post]

• A Maryland man admits to selling drugs that had been donated to assist people in Cameroon.  [Washington Post]

Pray the Devil Back to Hell Inspires Women’s Groups Around the World

    Abigail Disney did not want to be a filmmaker. However, despite having “moved 3,000 miles away from home for a reason,” in 2007, the Disney heiress and philanthropist accepted her “family chromosome” for the medium and produced a documentary on the Liberian women’s peace movement. The film, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, was shown on October 10 at the National Arts Club in New York City. 

    Responding to the media’s love of “almost pornographic” conflict footage, Disney made Pray the Devil Back to Hell to pay respect to stories that “were literally being erased” and to propagate a peacekeeping legacy.   

    “Women have [waged peace] before. Women were doing this a hundred years ago,” she told audience members at the Harvardwood (a Harvard alumni network) sponsored event. “If we saw that 95% of people in the world are trying to do the right thing, we might act differently.”

    The film acts as a sort of case study. At each challenge, the audience is guided through the strategic plan of charismatic female Liberian leaders. To engage male citizens, the interreligious coalition of women organized a “sex strike.” When warlords stalled peace talks, they linked arms and took the men hostage until negotiations moved forward, threatening to strip naked if their demands were not met.  The film also takes us beyond the cessation of conflict, when most media outlets lose interest, and follows the peacemakers as they organize the female vote, resulting in the election of Africa’s first female head-of-state, Ellen Sirleaf.

    This instructive power is potent. In addition to gaining popular attention after winning Best Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival, Pray the Devil Back to Hell has been shown to women’s groups in several post-conflict areas, making its debut in Bosnia in 2008. After screenings, women’s groups have been inspired to sit down and draft documents for their own peacemaking activities.

    Disney will continue to use film to affirm women’s centrality in conflict resolution.  Another project is already underway, again in partnership with Gini Reticker, her collaborator for Pray the Devil Back to Hell, a series about women in conflict called Women and Children First. Inspiring collective action will continue to be her goal.

    Disney wants the next generation to learn the power of uniting with others, worrying that “we tell our kids that they should change the world. This is the wrong message and it is a task that is far too heavy for one person.” 
    She has a new message.

    “Tell them to be part of the big team that will change things.”

To find a screening or learn more click here

To learn more about Harvardwood click here 

To reach the author, please email her at MTu@changingourworld.com

News Briefing: Accountants Sue Charity for Wrongful Dismissal

• Two accountants sue Feed The Children for wrongful dismissal after they notified the charity's board that the organization owed $1.1 million in taxes.  [Associated Press]

• Barbra Streisand auctions more than 400 of her dresses and suits, books, and other collectibles for charity.  [Associated Press]

• The nonprofit salary of a well-connected D.C. lobbyist is questioned.  [Washington Post]

News Briefing: Obama and Elder Bush Team Up on Call to Service

• President Obama joins President George H.W. Bush in urging citizens to volunteer today.  [Associated Press]

• The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announces a $10 million gift to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.  [Washington Post]

• Congress is pushing legislation ordering Shaun Donovan to cut off all Acorn-related grants, something he has declined to address.  [New York Times]

News Briefing: French Investigators Look Into Charities

• French investigative magistrates launch a probe into several French-based charities, many of which have ties to U.S. marketing and mailing organizations.  [Wall Street Journal]

• Shakespeare & Company, the Berkshires' biggest and busiest theater company, begins a variety of cost-saving measures that include layoffs.  [Albany Times Union]

News Briefing: Gates Foundation CFO Announces Resignation

• Barbra Streisand will auction hundreds of pieces of furniture, art, clothes, and other possessions this week in a Beverly Hills charity auction.  [Reuters]

• The Leon Levy Foundation distributes grants to identify, preserve, and digitize archival collections in many New York City cultural institutions.  [New York Times]

• Alexander Friedman, the Chief Financial Officer of the Gates Foundation, announces his resignation.  [Seattle Times]

News Briefing: Getting Your Name on Building Gets Cheaper as Non-Profits Compete

• George Soros announces a $1 billion investment in clean-energy technology and a $100 million donation to an environmental advisory group to aid policymakers.  [Bloomberg]

• Nonprofits and universities may be more willing now to negotiate over how much donors have to give and how long they have to make the payments in exchange for public recognition.  [Bloomberg]

News Briefing: Move to Protect Mrs. Astor May Cost an Inheritance

• Their father's conviction may lead Alexander and Philip Marshall, Brooke Astor's grandsons, to lose about $10 million each.  [New York Times]

• The Whitney Museum of American Art forges ahead with plans to build a second museum at the entrance to the High Line.  [New York Times]

• If Mrs. Astor's most recent will is upheld, many charities will lose millions of dollars, with the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Public Library losing out on an estimated $10 million each.  [New York Times]

News Briefing: Obama Aims to Boost Funding For Pell Grants by $40 Billion

• President Obama aims to boost funding for Pell Grants by $40 billion.  [Washington Post]

• Architect Robert Venturi criticizes plans to move the Barnes Foundation and relocate its collection of postimpressionist and early Modern art.  [Los Angeles Times]