News Briefing: Buffett: Failure Key to Successful Philanthropy

• The Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation's board fires its veterinarian.  [New York Times]

 

• Sanford and Joan Weill donate $12 million to Sonoma State University.  [New York Times]

 

• Warren Buffett says failure is good in philanthropy - it means you are taking risks.  [Bloomberg News]

News Briefing: China embraces modern philanthropy era, legislation lags

China embraces modern philanthropy era, legislation lags [Xinhua]

India's new rich prove reluctant philanthropists [AFP]

Economy dampens Connecticut nonprofits’ fund campaigns [Hartford Business Journal]

News Briefing: Gates, Buffett Say China Charity Meeting a Success

• Warren Buffett and Bill Gates pronounce their dinner with some of China's wealthiest individuals an unqualified success.  [New York Times]

• Families of the victims and survivors of the shootings at Virginia Tech have launched a nonprofit organization using money from a settlement with the state.  [The Roanoke Times]

• A nonprofit evangelical group founded and run by Republican Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell of Delaware is at risk of losing its tax-exempt status.  [Associated Press]

News Briefing: Ex-Dean Accused of Stealing $1 Million From St. John’s

• Columbia University announces a 17.3 percent return on its investments, outperforming the major stock market indexes in the latest year.  [New York Times]

• The planned Gates-Buffett dinner in China, still over a week away, has sparked one of the widest-ranging discourses on philanthropy in years.  [Washington Post]

• A former dean at St. John's University is accused of embezzling about $1 million from the university.  [New York Times]

News Briefing: Gates, Buffett to Sell Giving to China's Richest

• Bill Gates and Warren Buffett will host a dinner in China to sell the art of giving to some of the country's richest individuals.  [Associated Press]

• Angelina Jolie urges people to donate cash to help Pakistan's 21 million flood victims.  [Associated Foreign Press]

News Briefing: Pledging Fortunes Takes Extra Effort in Shaky Recovery

• Some wealthy donors grow leery of long-term philanthropic promises.  [New York Times]

• Drew University's new nursing school opens under a financial cloud.  [Los Angeles Times]

• Tony Blair donates earnings from his forthcoming memoir to a charity for injured troops.  [Associated Press]

News Briefing: Donating to Charity Becomes 'Trendy' for America's Super-Rich

• A Texas couple has been indicted on charges they conspired to embezzle more than $220,000 from a Louisiana health care benefit program where the wife worked.  [Associated Press]

• Philanthropy is a growing status symbol of the rich.  [Reuters]

News Briefing: Gates, Buffett Tap Billionaires for Charity

• Forty wealthy families and individuals have joined Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and billionaire investor Warren Buffett in a pledge to give at least half their wealth to charity.  [Washington Post]

• Jewish donors give Catholic schools a lift.  [Boston Globe]

News Briefing: Tax-Exempt Funds Aid Settlements in West Bank

• Some groups in the U.S. use tax-exempt donations to help Jews establish permanence in the Israeli-occupied territories.  [New York Times]

• Warren Buffett makes his annual gift to the Gates Foundation.  [Bloomberg]

• BP says it has yet to decide how to handle claims filed by religious groups and other charitable organizations that are endangered because people can no longer afford to contribute.  [Associated Press]

• Companies find ways to bypass the ban on earmarks.  [New York Times]

News Briefing: The $600 Billion Challenge

• Salesforce.com founder Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne donate $100 million to a new children's hospital at the University of California, San Francisco.  [Wall Street Journal]

• Tiziana Dearing, the president of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Boston, steps down to lead a new antipoverty organization called Boston Rising.  [Boston Globe]

• James N. Wood, President and CEO of the Getty Trust in Los Angeles, passes away.  [New York Times]

• Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffett ask the nation's billionaires to pledge to give at least half their net work to charity.  [Fortune]