The Chronicle of Philanthropy
By Holly Hall
May 17, 2010

Several charities have told The Chronicle that it’s taking them longer to receive money they were promised in donors’ wills because it is so hard to sell the real estate and other items donors left when they died.

Even when the properties do sell, the price is often substantially lower than it was before the real estate market started to plummet in 2007.

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Wake Forest aids the aimless graduate with a road map for meaningful work
By Kathryn Masterson

Ken Bennett, Wake Forest U.Andy Chan, vice president for career development at Wake Forest U., talks with seniors. Mr. Chan envisions an advising program that can help students find their true paths early in their college years.

What do you plan to do after graduation?

For thousands of college students accepting diplomas this spring, it’s a question loaded with expectations and pressure to make good use of a costly degree.

Wake Forest University wants students to think differently about how they answer, focusing on what kind of work is meaningful to them rather than what pays the most or what others want. To do that, the Winston-Salem, N.C., university is reimagining its career-development program to help its 4,600 undergraduates figure out who they are and what they want out of life long before they get to commencement. From their first days on campus, students will explore their personal interests and how those might translate
into a job.
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By Carol Kino
The New York Times
May 11, 2010

In the last 20 years or so, “engage the public” has become one of the most common mantras of the museum business, an injunction to curators and designers to court their audiences with ever more seductive video displays, computer interactives and exhibition architecture. But here in a crime-challenged corner of the Bay Area, a modest civic institution dedicated to the art, history and natural sciences of California has been focused on its own version of that mission for a good deal longer.

The Oakland Museum of California was known as “the people’s museum” even before it opened in 1969, in part because it took pains to consult with and otherwise reach out to its intended audience. Nearly four decades later, when the museum embarked on a four-and-a-half-year, $62 million renovation, its goals included an expansion of the art galleries, a rethinking of exhibits that had changed little since opening day and architectural improvements. But more than anything, said Lori Fogarty, the museum’s director, the renovation was seen as “a huge opportunity to rethink how we’re engaging the community.”

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Kellogg Foundation Promises $75-Million to Counter Racial Inequity and Heal Racial Divides
By Caroline Preston

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation plans to announce today that it will give $75-million over five years to fight racism, a commitment it is calling the most ambitious ever by a philanthropy to promote racial equity.

The money will support efforts to reduce gaps in education, health care, and economic opportunity for people of minority groups and to raise awareness about the effects of racism.

Approximately 119 nonprofit organizations in 29 states and the District of Columbia are currently receiving money through the grant program, called “America Healing.” The foundation will announce additional grantees this fall.

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Cleveland’s The Plain Dealer
$20 million gift to Case Western Reserve University will kick-start plans for new student center
By Janet Okoben
May 03, 2010, 6:28PM

A $20-million gift from an already familiar name at Case Western Reserve University will bring a new student center to campus.

Tinkham Veale II, through the Veale Foundation, pledged the gift announced Monday night. Two buildings on the CWRU campus — the Veale Convocation, Recreation and Athletic Center and the Veale Natatorium — already are named for the 95-year-old donor.

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The Wall Street Journal
May 3, 2010

Gift Shows China Philanthropy Has Reached the Big Leagues
Charity Surges on the Mainland as Donations Fall in the U.S.; ‘Time for Us to Give,’ top Chinese Philanthropist Says.

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