News Briefing: Knight Foundation Spreads Random Acts of Culture

• The Knight Foundation spreads random acts of culture.  [New York Times]

 

• Slate lists the largest American charitable contributions in 2010.  [Slate]

 

• Private philanthropists push for change in Catholic schools.  [New York Times]

News Briefing: Corcoran Hires consultant to Help Re-Imagine Museum

The Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee files for bankruptcy.  [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

The Corcoran Gallery of Art turns to consultants to help re-imagine the museum and art school.  [Washington Post]

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: 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: From One Benefactor, Diverse Seeds in Theology

• The Amanda Foundation, a 34-year-old animal rescue organization,  has seen private donations drop 70 percent this year.  [Associated Press]

• Alonzo McDonald and his McDonald Agape Foundation give between half a million and a million dollars a year to divinity schools.  [New York Times]

• Bill Clinton and Bill Gates urge AIDS activists on Monday to squeeze value out of every cent of funds to fight HIV.  [Reuters]

• The Yale Repertory Theater receives a $950,000 gift from the Robina Foundation.  [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]

News Briefing: Catholic Charity and Sprint Tangle Over Texting

• Francisco Ayala, a one-time priest who later became an evolutionary geneticist and molecular biologist, receives the 2010 Templeton Prize.  [Associated Press]

• Catholic Relief Services' text messaging donation program is shut down by Sprint.  [New York Times]

News Briefing: Donations from Americans for Haiti top $1 Billion

• The former chief operating officer of Catholic Charities has called on the organization to reverse its recent decision to change health benefits for employees' spouses.  [Washington Post]

• According to Charles Bronfman, the new crop of philanthropists is focusing on smaller start-up organizations and looking for ways to leverage their gifts.  [Wall Street Journal]

• Experts who track charitable giving say donations from Americans for earthquake relief in Haiti have passed the $1 billion mark.  [Associated Press]

• Giving by U.S. companies endured the worst recession in decades with mixed results as some pared back philanthropy in the face of tough times, others increased budgets, and most predicted a steady 2010.  [Reuters]

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: 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]