* Former U.S.President Bill Clinton has created a sprawling business and charitable empirewhose complex ties are attracting criticism as wife Hillary's presidential campaignheats up, The Wall Street Journal reportedFeb. 14 [subscription only]. His assistance in networking provided to Canadianbusinessman Frank Giustra, who has donated $100 million to Clinton'sfoundation, extends from Kazakhstanto Colombia.
* Bill Gates'snew focus on "creative capitalism," as revealed at the recent World Economic Forum, fails to takeinto account the wonders that profit-motivated capitalism has done to decreasepoverty, wrote William Easterly, economics professor at New York University, ina Wall Street Journal opinion column Feb. 7. Easterly argues thatthe recognition garnered by corporate philanthropy is too weak a motivator toeffect great change and that "picking winners" in foreign economies is toounpredictable a business for outside philanthropists.
* TheInternet has changed philanthropy by increasing accessibility and the general exchangeof information and by encouraging engagement and accountability, The FinancialTimes reported Feb. 12. The greater philanthropic promise ofsocial networking and virtual communities may lie not in fundraising, but inincreased involvement, Georgia Levenson Keohane wrote in an opinion piecefor Slate Magazine Feb. 11.
* Nonprofitnewspapers have been springing up lately, with the goal of fillinggaps in coverage and integrity, The Christian Science Monitor reported Feb.12. Pablo Eisenberg, seniorfellow at the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute, suggests in aFinancial Times opinioncolumn Feb. 9 that a move toward nonprofit journalism could preservejournalistic integrity at a time when growing newsroom staff cuts and newspaperbuyouts are threatening media transparency and its clout as a nonprofitwatchdog.
* Arab philanthropy ison the rise, but excessive scrutiny by American counterterrorism agents may bestunting its growth, writer Ian Wilhelm said in an opinion column in the ChristianScience Monitor Feb. 8. A recent report by the JohnD. GerhartCenter for Philanthropy and CivicEngagement at the American University in Cairo says post-9/11suspicion of Arab charities is pushing philanthropic efforts underground that mightotherwise inspire followers.
* In the mounting mortgage crisis, many nonprofitgroups have become the first responders to the growing numbers of homeownersfacing eminent foreclosures, Reuters reported Feb. 13. Some are holdingweekly standing-room-online foreclosure prevention classes.
* Somestudent-loan authorities are "seriously evaluating" the viability of theirprograms as losses in the current credit crunch cause the Michigan HigherEducation Student Loan Authority to end a loan program, The Wall Street JournalreportedFeb. 13. Student loan groups in Mississippi and Montana are also struggling,and experts fear others will follow suit.
* Veteran- andmilitary-related charities like the Coalition to Salute America's Heroes thatspend 70 percent or 80percent of donations onoverhead costs are an "intolerable fraud," the Washington Post said in an editorial Feb.8. The Post attributes the abuses of the military-related charities, adozen of which received a failing grade in a recent American Institute ofPhilanthropy December study,to loose nonprofit regulatory practices.
* Fisk Universitycannot legally share ownership of an art collection donated by Georgia O'Keefe,a Tennessee judge has ruled, tabling a dealthat would have brought the struggling university over $30 million, Northwest Arkansas' News Source reportedFeb. 10. The historically black college based in Nashville,Tenn., had sought to share The AlfredSteiglitz Collection with the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas,a museum founded by Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton and scheduled to open in2010.
* Four 19th century paintings valued at atotal of $163 million were stolen at gun-point from a Zurich museum, The New York Times reportedFeb. 12. Three men entered the E.G. BührleCollection on February 11 and took the four major works, a Cézanne, a Degas, a VanGogh and a Monet, in what is reported to be "the biggest art robbery inEurope."
* Wealthy British taxpayers should pay a 10 percent surcharge on anyincome above 150,000 British pounds, or nearly $300,000, that would go tocharitable causes, said Frank Field, the British Labor Party's former welfarereform minister, The Financial Times reportedFeb. 12. The levy would funnel money from those who failed to choose aparticular cause into a national endowment and would raise 3.6 billion Britishpounds, or $7.1 billion, annually.
* Grant Oliphant has been chosen as the new CEO of ThePittsburgh Foundation, the 14th largest community foundation in the U.S.,with funds totaling more than $750 million, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reportedFeb. 12. Oliphant is vice president of programs and planning at The HeinzEndowments.