News Briefing: Women's Sports Foundation Stays Upbeat Despite Revenue Loss

• The D.C. Council votes to establish a nonprofit corporation to seize control of United Medical Center at a foreclosure auction next week.  [Washington Post]

• The Women's Sports Foundation, a pre-eminent voice for women's sports since the dawn of the Title XI age, has cut more than half of its staff in a time of dwindling revenue.  [USA Today]

• The X Prize Foundation announces that it is developing a multimillion dollar "oil spill cleanup X challenge" to come up with solutions to cleaning up shorelines in the Gulf.  [CNN]

News Briefing: Actress and Muslim Philanthropist Promote Women

• Geena Davis, Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon join heads of foundations and corporate leaders at a U.N. event promoting gender equality.  [Associated Press]

• A holdout juror in the trial of Brooke Astor's son has told defense lawyers that she voted to convict him and an estate lawyer for crimes she did not believe they committed out of fear for her safety.  [New York Times]

• Roslyn M. Brock will become chairwoman of the N.A.A.C.P.  [New York Times]

News Briefing: Journalists' Arrests Hamper Aid Groups

• Christian aid groups say the high-profile arrest in March of two American journalists has made it more difficult to help the people the women went to report about.  [Wall Street Journal]

• College endowments, reeling from their worst annual performance in decades, question their faith in investments that fueled huge returns.  [Wall Street Journal]

• The new generation of women philanthropists are more likely to use their wealth deliberately and systematically to aid women in need.  [New York Times]

News Briefing: Cancer Group Asks Women to Be Brazen Online

• Rethink, a breast-cancer charity for young women, is launching a brazen online campaign to spread awareness of the disease.  [Reuters]

• Edmund Hillary, known for being the first to climb Mt. Everest, spent decades funding hospitals, health clinics, airfields, and schools in Nepal.  He died today at the age of 88.  [Associated Press]

News Briefing: Boston Symphony Orchestra Launches New Campaign

• The Boston Symphony Orchestra looks to raise up to $400 million in its new fundraising campaign.  [Boston Globe]

• Senator Clinton will give to charity $23,000 her campaign received from a prominent Democratic donor after learning that there is a warrant out for his arrest.  [New York Times]

• Sales from a secondhand women's clothing store in Boston supports job training and career counseling for low-income women.  [Boston Globe]

News Briefing: CARE Recasts Itself

• Gates Foundation is readying for Buffett's money, due to take full effect in 2009.  [Omaha World-Herald]

• CARE's new program strategy attracts women donors.  [New York Times]

Harvard Names First Female President

Associated Press:  Drew Gilpin Faust recalls her mother lecturing her that ''this is a man's world, sweetie, and the sooner you learn that, the better off you'll be.''

Melinda Gates Takes Spotlight in Philanthropy

Associated Press:  Melinda Gates has traveled the world with her husband, meeting with the rich and powerful and visiting its poorest in remote African villages. She and her husband share top billing at the world’s richest foundation, but Bill Gates always dominated the spotlight — until this year.

Next Project for Oprah: Feel-Good Reality TV

New York Times: Oprah Winfrey and ABC on Friday announced plans to team up to create two new feel-good reality shows. The two series will mark Ms. Winfrey’s first venture into regular prime-time programming and the initial effort from the new television unit of her company, Harpo Productions.

If there's nothing you wouldn't do for your daughter

Houtlust - Nonprofit Advertising and Social Campaigns: Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney have created yet another thought-provoking campaign in support of White Ribbon Day in Australia, the United Nations' International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on November 25. Building on the award winning campaigns of the previous two years, the approach this year aims to bring the issue of violence against women even closer to home, by calling on fathers to take action now in order to improve the future safety of their daughters.