Nonprofit news roundup for Sept. 19, 2008

September 19, 2008

Correction: An article from The San Francisco Chronicle summarized in the Sept. 17 roundup incorrectly reported the campaign goal at the University of California, Berkeley. The fundraising campaign aims to raise $3 billion over the next five years.

Indiana University sets fundraising record

Indiana University's fundraising campaign raised a record $408.6 million, eclipsing the previous 2005 record by $107.6 million, the Associated Press reported Sept. 18 (see record story). The largest gifts made to the Indiana University Foundation were $77 million provided by the estate of the late Jesse and Beulah Cox and $69 million from the Lilly Endowment. In 2007, the university ranked 19^th in the country in private support.

Gates, Buffett named two richest Americans

With an estimated fortune of $57 billion, Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, nabbed the top spot in Forbes' annual list of America's wealthiest people, InformationWeek reported Sept. 18 (see wealth story). Warren Buffett, Gates' philanthropy partner and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, came in second with $50 billion.

Bank of America gift provides wireless Internet

The Bank of America Charitable Foundation donated $500,000 to the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore to provide free wireless Internet access to its visitors, The Baltimore Sun reported Sept. 18 (see wireless story). The gift, one of the largest received by the library in its 126-year history, aims to make the Internet available to the 40 percent of households in the city without access to the Web.

 

In Brief:

* Nonprofits providing relief services after Hurricane Ike are facing a drop in donations as a result of "disaster fatigue" caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, The Houston Chronicle reported Sept. 18.

* Bobby Purcell, executive director of the Wolfpack Club at North Carolina State University, has built one of the most lucrative fundraising operations in college sports history, raising over $200 million for the university's athletic program since 1997, The Wall Street Journal reported Sept. 19.

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