News Briefing: Charities Gain Traction in Marathons

• As charities gain traction in marathons, many nonprofits benefit.  [New York Times]

• Lisa Philp of J.P. Morgan Private Bank helps donors find ways to ensure their gifts have the most impact.  [New York Times]

• Aid workers hope the cholera outbreak in Haiti can be contained.  [CNN]

• Amid China's economic boom, philanthropy lags.  [Time]

News Briefing: Same-Sex Marriage Leads Catholic Charities to Adjust Benefits

• Employees at Catholic Charities are told that the social services organization is changing its health coverage to avoid offering benefits to same-sex parters of its workers.  [Washington Post]

• Museums saw a spike in attendance last year, despite struggling financially, according to the latest data from the American Association of Museums.  [Wall Street Journal]

• A court ruling in the Bernard Madoff case may mean that Carl Shapiro, a Boston philanthropist who reaped $1 billion in profits, may have to return a portion of that money, some of which he had already pledged to nonprofits.  [Boston Globe]

News Briefing: Small Fund-Raisers for Victims Start to Add Up

• Much of the money raised for Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake has not yet been spent.  [ABC News]

• Thousands of tiny fundraisers to gather donations for Haiti are taking place in bars, schools, and stores across the country.  [New York Times]

• Retired Goldman Sachs banker Chuck Harris brings Wall Street capital-raising methods to the nonprofit world.  [BusinessWeek]

• Reebok founder Paul Fireman sues his longtime accountant, claiming he stole $25 million from Fireman and his charity.  [Associated Press]

News Briefing: Charities Rise, Costing U.S. Billions in Tax Breaks

• The Internal Revenue Service approved 99 percent of the applications it received for public charity status last year, according to a new survey.  [New York Times]

• Hedge fund managers dominate the boards of many of the city's charter schools and support organizations.  [New York Times]

• Gates Foundation CEO Jeff Raikes pushes to make big bets on innovation and to focus on projects that get measurable results.  [BusinessWeek]

News Briefing: Harvard Ignored Warnings About Investments

• South Africa will treat all HIV-positive babies and expand testing.  [Associated Press]

• Bill Gates calls himself an "impatient optimist" on Meet the Press.  [Seattle Post Intelligencer]

• Through the first half of this decade, advisers told Lawrence Summers that Harvard was being too aggressive with billions of dollars in cash.  [Boston Globe]

News Briefing: $500 Million and Apology From Goldman

• Goldman Sachs is working with Warren Buffett to help 10,000 small businesses with business and management education, mentoring, and access to capital.  [New York Times]

• The City of Santa Monica is competing with Beverly Hills to become the home for a new museum to house Eli Broad's art collection.  [New York Times]

News Briefing: Author Hopes 'Genius Grant' Will Shine on Haiti

• Acorn files a lawsuit against a conservative activist.  [New York Times]

• Even small nonprofits, like Family Service of Greater Boston, ventured into the world of high finance.  [New York Times]

• Oral Roberts University is finally debt-free after a financial scandal tarnished its reputation.  [Associated Press]

• Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat hopes her MacArthur genius grant will bring attention to the wealth of talent in Haiti.  [Associated Press]

News Briefing: Holy Land Foundation Organizers to Learn Fate Today

• Five former Holy Land Foundation organizers will learn their fates today as a federal judge is expected to hand down their sentences in the largest terrorism financing case in US history.  [Dallas Morning News]

• Hal Smith steps down as executive director of Catholic Charities of Baltimore after 33 years at the charity's helm.  [Baltimore Sun]

• More than 1,000 hedge-fund managers and financial-services executives will pay $3,000 to attend the 14th annual Ira W. Sohn Investment Research Conference; proceeds will go to cancer research.  [Bloomberg]

News Briefing: Salvation Army Struggles With Increasing Demand

• Many cities with the most need for Salvation Army assistance - such as Detroit and Las Vegas - are having trouble raising funds.  [Associated Press]

• Officials at zoos and aquariums around the country are freezing or cutting jobs, reducing hours of operation, or eliminating programs.  [New York Times]

News Briefing: Elie Wiesel Levels Scorn at Madoff

• Elie Wiesel, whose charity lost $15.2 million to Bernie Madoff, calls the fraudulent investor a "thief, scoundrel, criminal."  [New York Times]

• Experts on charitable giving discuss ways donors might give in tough times without putting themselves in financial peril.  [New York Times]

• Donors and nonprofit groups are in an uproar over the Obama administration's proposal to limit the value of deductions for charitable gifts.  [New York Times]

• Two money managers are arrested, accused of appropriating funds from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, among others.  [New York Times]