News Briefing: Lauded Harlem Schools Have Their Own Problems

• The campus of M.I.T. has transformed over the past decade, with new buildings funded by donations, portfolio investments, and other financing sources like tax-exempt bonds.  [New York Times]

• Geoffrey Canada and his charter schools struggle with the same difficulties faced by other urban schools.  [New York Times]

• The Peace Corps turns fifty.  [USA Today]

News Briefing: Pepsi Refresh Contestant Claims Rules Were Broken

• A group battling childhood cancer has filed a complaint against Pepsi, contending that its fundraising contest, Pepsi Refresh, has been infiltrated by organizations with a political agenda.  [New York Times]

• Saturday's Farm Aid concert will feature 15 musical acts, including Willie Nelson, one of its founders.  [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

• Ten U.S. cities are recruiting volunteers to help with local problems as part of a nationwide emphasis on service led by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.  [Associated Press]

News Briefing: Questions Arise About Executive’s Pay at Dodgers Charity

• The Los Angeles Dodgers paid one of their highest-ranking executives more than $400,000 from the team's charity in 2007.  [New York Times]

• Olympic organizers are seeking 70,000 volunteers for the 2012 London Games.  [Associated Press]

• National Public Radio quietly changes its name to NPR.  [Washington Post]

• Thousands of donations total nearly $500,000 to help Arizona defend its immigration law.  [Associated Press]

News Briefing: Obama Steps Up Fatherhood Advocacy with New Mentoring Initiative

• Crews of volunteers - with differing faiths - join together to bring disaster relief.  [Associated Press]

• President Obama brings together children, famous dads, and nonprofit groups that promote fatherhood to highlight the importance of fathers.  [Washington Post]

• James Taylor and Carole King have raised $1.5 million for charity on their "Troubadour Reunion" tour.  [Associated Press]

• Increasingly, nonprofits fill a need for investigative reporting.  [Washington Post]

News Briefing: Plenty of Gulf Volunteers, Not Enough Work to Do

• The Gulf of Mexico oil spill has brought out thousands of people who want to help.  [Associated Press]

• Warren Buffett's annual charity auction hits $1,500,100 with twelve hours to go.  [Dow Jones]

• Senator Tom Harkin will hold a series of hearings to examine the surge in federally funded grants and loans flowing to for-profit colleges in the U.S.  [Washington Post]

News Briefing: Wealthy Give More Overseas, Less to Education, Religion

• According to a report released by Giving USA and the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, charitable donors are moving away from standard causes to focus their money on health and the overseas poor.  [Wall Street Journal]

• Someone has bid $700,100 to dine with billionaire investor Warren Buffet in an annual charity auction.  [Reuters]

• First lady Michelle Obama is asking for volunteers across the country to help kids stay active and keep up the skills they have learned in school throughout the summer.  [USA Today]

News Briefing: Gov't Awards $234 Million in AmeriCorps Expansion

• The District's Office of Campaign Finance is investigating a complaint that DC Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee solicited donations from private foundations.  [Washington Post]

• Eli Broad is considering a site at 2nd Street and Grand Avenue in downtown L.A. for his art museum.  [Los Angeles Times]

• The government awards grants to nonprofits to put 57,000 AmeriCorps members to work in communities around the country.  [Associated Press]

News Briefing: Nature Conservancy Faces Potential Backlash From Ties with BP

• Grammar-school-aged activists raise money, create awareness, and volunteer.  [The Orlando Sentinel]

• The Nature Conservancy faces potential backlash from its ties with BP.  [Washington Post]

• The new organizational model that a younger, globally connected workforce demands is one that blends social and commercial goals, and attracts talent with visionary leadership and social mission.  [Seattle Times]

News Briefing: Nonprofit Groups Hopeful but Wary as New York City Aims to Cut Red Tape

• Thousands of New York nonprofits brace for an ambitious change in the way the city awards $4 billion in contracts every year.  [New York Times]

• Muhammad Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, brings low-interest credit to the poor and unemployed in Washington.  [Washington Post]

• The Baltimore Community Foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, and the Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Foundation tap the value of older adult volunteers to strengthen five city neighborhoods.  [Baltimore Sun]

News Briefing: Foundation Promotes Art as Well as Sole Trustee

• Thousands of volunteers stack sandbags along the Red River in Fargo in the face of a severe flood.  [Associated Press]

• A major beneficiary of the Judith Rothschild Foundation has been its sole trustee.  [New York Times]

• The Bullitt Foundation plans to build Seattle's greenest building ever, a six-story structure that generates as much electricity as it consumes.  [The Seattle Times]