News Briefing: Founding a Charity at 6, and Walking Across the Country for It at 12

• Twelve-year old Zachary Bonner is walking from Florida to California to raise money for homeless children.  [New York Times]

• Maurice Sendak, author of the children's classic "Where the Wild Things Are" donates $1 million  to the Jewish Board of Family & Children's Services, where is life partner worked for 30 years.  [Wall Street Journal]

• Condoleezza Rice and Aretha Franklin perform together at a charity concert in Philadelphia.  [Reuters] 

News Briefing: China's Rich Give Back as Philanthropy Surges

• Charity gift cards are more popular than ever.  [New York Times]

• Philanthropic donations in China are surging, and should continue to do so, analysts say.  [Reuters]

• Senator Grassley's inquiry into the finances of six televangelists raises questions.  [Associated Press]

• The ongoing Center on Philanthropy Panel Study explores factors that influence Americans' giving and what causes those behaviors to change.  [Associated Press]

• Former Senator Bob Graham and his family donate $1.5 million to the Graham Center for Public Service at the University of Florida.  [Associated Press]

News Briefing: Nonprofit Workers Face Retirement-Plan Deadline

• The Gates Foundation announces $4.5 million in grants to provide housing and services for homeless families.  [Seattle Times]

• Nonprofit employees with 403(b) retirement plans have a week to transfer assets to another provider without a tax penalty.  [CNN]

• The Belo Foundation gives the University of Texas $15 million for a new convergent media center.  [Houston Chronicle]

• The Sisters of Bethany's convent in Santa Barbara will be sold to help the Archdiocese of LA pay for its $660 million settlement.  [Los Angeles Times]

News Briefing: As Muslim Group Goes on Trial, Other Charities Watch Warily

• The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, the largest Muslim charity in the U.S., goes on trial; prosecutors charge that it was a supporter of Hamas.  [New York Times]

• The cost of the sex abuse scandal for the Catholic Church surpasses the $2 billion mark.  [Associated Press]

• The Andy Warhol Foundation is accused of driving up the value of Warhol paintings by denying the authenticity of works that puport to be by the famous artist.  [New York Times]

• A Maryland animal shelter gets a surprise $1 million donation.  [Washington Post]

News Briefing: Cornell Medical School to Get $400 Million for Research Centers

• Group of philanthropists pledge $400 million to build research centers for Weill Medical College of Cornell University.  [New York Times]

• Representatives from nearly 300 colleges pledge to make their institutions carbon neutral.  [New York Times]

News Briefing: Charity Unites Troops in Iraq With Kin

• Parents, alumni, and corporations increasingly donate private money to public schools.  [New York Times]

• Freedom Calls Foundation enables soldiers to participate in milestone events with their families - through video conferences.  [Associated Press]

• Paul Newman donates $10 million to Kenyon College.  [Reuters] 

A 'Younger' Redstone Makes a Commitment

Michael Milken introduced Sumner Redstone, the 84-year-old media mogul behind Viacom and CBS, as a younger man than the one he'd known 20 years ago. And at a conference where philanthropy clearly came to the fore, it was appropriate that Redstone used this 10th annaul Milken Global Conference to announce a major charitable commitment - and to urge the audience of 3,000 movers and shakers to exercise and consume anti-oxidants.

Redstone - not previously well-known for his philanthropy - announced his commitment of $105 million in charitable grants to fund research and patient care advancements in cancer and burn recovery at three major non-profit healthcare organizations. The cash contributions of $35 million each will be paid out over five years to Milken's own FasterCures/The Center for Accelerating Medical Solutions; the Cedars-Sinai Prostate Cancer Center in Los Angeles and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

In introducing Redstone, Milken noted that "70 percent of healthcare spending is related to lifestyle," and recalled how Redstone - a hard-charging CEO - adjusted his lifestyle in terms of diet and exercise more than a decade ago, and still remains fully in charge of his empire. Said Redstone:

"Advancements in research and medical science are creating a better world and a higher quality of life for all of us. Like many, I have personally benefited from these advancements and have been an active contributor for many years to help speed their development. But I also know that there is so much more to be done and with the right resources in the right hands, we can make even more rapid progress and literally change the world."

FasterCures/The Center for Accelerating Medical Solutions is a non-profit "action tank" formed under the auspices of the Milken Institute with a mission to identify and implement global solutions to accelerate the process of discovery and clinical development of new therapies for the treatment of deadly and debilitating diseases.

According to the official announcement, funds provided by Redstone's foundaton will support and expand The Research Acceleration and Innovation Network (TRAIN), a program created by FasterCures in 2004. TRAIN coordinates the work of more than two dozen non-profit, disease-research organizations and aims to improve their effectiveness by sharing best practices, standardizing data collection, and enhancing dialogue with philanthropic and investment communities. FasterCures, which believes collaboration is essential to successful innovation, convenes the TRAIN network to accelerate medical solutions by uncovering the best approaches to get patients connected to treatments. The TRAIN groups say they are making significant strides in getting treatments to patients with diseases as diverse as prostate cancer, breast cancer, Alzheimer's, diabetes, autism, brain cancer, HIV/AIDS, malaria, epilepsy, MS, Parkinson's, heart disease, ALS, cystic fibrosis, and multiple myeloma.

The grants will be used to bring other disease groups into TRAIN and take these non-profit disease research organizations into new areas of collaboration, including accelerating clinical trial enrollments, identifying and implementing best practices for research, and increasing the use of information technology to study and treat diseases.

The TRAIN Program will be renamed The Redstone Acceleration and Innovation Network.

News Briefing: New Twist for ‘Idol’: Time Out for Charity

• $90M gift to the New World Symphony is announced - a bit prematurely.  [New York Times]

• American Idol plans a fundraising event with guest stars Gwen Stefani, Pink, and Sacha Baron Cohen.  [New York Times]

Hopes Soar After Record Hospital Gift of $400 Million

New York Times:  South Dakota’s economic renaissance has gone largely unnoticed, eclipsed by things like the state’s strong opposition to same-sex marriage, its raucous debates over abortion and the stroke suffered by one of its senators, Tim Johnson, that could tip control of the Senate back to the Republicans.

Donor Gives Brown School of Medicine $100 Million

The Providence Journal:  A Providence-based philanthropy has donated $100 million to Brown University to enlarge, enhance and rename its medical school — a gift that university and public officials say will send benefits cascading to the entire state.