Philanthropy News

Three Los Angeles philanthropists provided a $700,000 cash infusion to rescue one of the country’s biggest charter-school organizations from the brink of insolvency, the Los Angeles Times writes.

Jimi Heselden, a British entrepreneur who gave millions of dollars to veterans’ causes and organizations in his hometown of Leeds, was found dead Sunday following an apparent accident involving one of the motorized Segway scooters his company sold, the Yorkshire Post writes.

Houses of worship are reeling from a drop in donations that experts say has deeper roots than the current economic downturn, according to The New York Times.

A foundation that lost millions of dollars in Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme has sued the Securities and Exchange Commission, charging the regulatory agency with negligence for failing to uncover the multibillion-dollar fraud, Bloomberg and the Associated Press write.

Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker was expected to announced Monday he has raised $40-million toward matching last week’s $100-million pledge from Mark Zuckerberg, a founder of Facebook, to help the city’s troubled school system, says The Wall Street Journal.

Yale University’s endowment reported an 8.9-percent gain in the value of its assets for the year ending June 30, earning less than many other colleges and major institutional investors, says The New York Times.

New York’s newest stage, the 55,000-foot Drill Hall at the Park Avenue Armory, opens for performances next month as part of a $200-million conversion from warehouse to performance venue, The New York Times says.

Stanley Chais, a benefactor of Jewish causes who became a major figure in the Bernard Madoff scandal, died Sunday in New York at age 84, according to the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press.

Four Massachusetts philanthropies have started a five-year, $1.7-million program to help local charities work together more closely, writes The Boston Globe.

The investor Mario Gabelli has pledged $25-million to his alma mater, Fordham University, The Wall Street Journal reports.

A fledgling international health project backed by the world’s richest man, the Mexican telecommunications mogul Carlos Slim, has scaled back its original goal of covering all of Latin America, writes The Seattle Times.

The operations of the nonprofit advocacy group Americans for Job Security exemplifies the increasingly direct and active role of such organizations in political campaigns, according to The New York Times.

A debate over the financial health of nonprofit hospitals in the San Francisco Bay Area is being played out at a Mountain View, Calif., medical center that wants to lay off 140 workers, according to The Wall Street Journal.

I. Stanley Levine, a powerhouse Miami lawyer and a major force in building South Florida’s cultural scene, died this week, The Miami Herald writes.

A political-action committee is accusing three annual college football bowls of abusing their tax-exempt status by offering executives extravagant compensation and interest-free loans and doing undisclosed lobbying, the Associated Press writes.

General Electric will pump $50-million into community health clinics in cities across the country over the next several years as part of a drive started last year to slow the rapid increase in U.S. healthcare spending, reports Reuters.

Elite colleges are borrowing at unprecedented rates to make up for the plunge in their high-risk portfolios caused by the financial crisis, according to Bloomberg.

A women's group and a union representing health-care workers are stepping up pressure on trustees of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, in Boston, to fire its chief executive, Paul Levy, following a damaging report by the Massachusetts attorney general, The Boston Globe reports.

David Rubenstein, chairman of the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, pledged $10-million on Wednesday to the Washington institution, Bloomberg and The Washington Post report; plus: The Metropolitan Opera's new ventures, such as movie-theater simulcasts, are producing significant revenue for the organization.

The Jewish Federations of North America has reached a compromise with its two main overseas beneficiaries on the division of grants for international purposes, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency writes.