News Briefing: Retiring Microsoft Official to Run Gates Foundation

• Microsoft executive Jeffrey Raikes has been named the new chief executive of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  [New York Times]

• The United Nations presses the junta in Myanmar to accept international assistance.  [New York Times]

• Jeffrey Raikes speaks about the transition from technology to nonprofits.  [Wall Street Journal]

• The American Red Cross might relocate some of its employees to a satellite office in Northern Virginia to generate additional revenue.  [Washington Post]

News Briefing: First U.S. Aid Shipment Arrives in Burma

• The first U.S. aid shipment arrives in Burma, as international officials warn of a "massive health catastrophe."  [Washington Post]

• India's Green Revolutionary says the current food crisis offers the world a chance to put farmers on the right road to unending growth.  [Reuters]

News Briefing: U.N. Suspends Aid Supplies to Myanmar

• Massachusetts lawmakers eye private colleges with endowments over $1 billion as their exempt status is debated.  [Boston Globe]

• The U.N. suspends relief supplies to Myanmar on Friday after the military government seizes the food and equipment it sent into the country.  [New York Times]

News Briefing: US Disaster Relief Efforts Hampered

Aid workers and supplies from some U.S. nonprofits, blocked from entering Burma, funnel aid to groups already on the ground.  [Washington Post]

Four Nigerian NFL players return to Africa to help.  [New York Times]

The Landmarks Preservation Commission oppose St. Vincent's Hospital's plan to demolish nine exisiting buildings in the historic Greenwich Village district.  [New York Times]

Our Lady of the Lake University, in San Antonio, is substantially damaged in a fire.  [New York Times]

News Briefing: Bush Offers Navy Units, Criticizes Junta as Storm Aid Begins to Reach Rangoon

• A Long Island philanthropist and fundraiser for Israeli charities is at the center of a growing storm surrounding Ehud Olmert.  [New York Times]

• A nonprofit group releases its second annual ranking of 56 consumer companies on their green track records.  [New York Times]

• Myanmar authorizes the U.N. to send an aid flight.  [Associated Press]

• Bush offers U.S. Navy units to help in international relief efforts in Myanmar.  [Washington Post]

• A Tulsa businessman sues the Lance Armstrong Foundation in a trademark dispute.  [Associated Press]

News Briefing: Charity That Helped Pentagon Victims is Closing

• West Virginia University's Faculty Senate declares no confidence in President Mike Garrison in the aftermath of a degree scandal involving the governor's daughter.  [Associated Press]

• Save the Children issues its global report; more than 200 million children worldwide under age 5 do not get basic health care.  [Associated Press]

• The largest charity established to help Washington-area victims of the September 11 attacks is closing.  [Associated Press]

• The Smithsonian Institution rules out plans to outsource the renovation and operation of one of its oldest buildings on the National Mall. [Associated Press]

News Briefing: Gettysburg Park Pulls Plug on Huge Electric Civil War Map

• Thousands of Somalis protest in Mogadishu over food traders' refusal to take old currency notes.  [Reuters]

• Gettysburg National Military Park opens a new museum and visitor center.  [Associated Press]

News Briefing: Foundations Set Record for Giving in ’07

• Giving by foundations sets a record, hitting almost $43 billion in 2007.  [New York Times]

• Sam's Club revives food donations to local food pantries two years after stopping the practice in favor of cash donations.  [Associated Press]

• European peacekeepers in Chad search for the killers of a French aid worker.  [Associated Press]

• Bush asks Congress for $770 million in new global food aid.  [Washington Post]

News Briefing: Degree Scandal Costs WVU $2M Donation of Cash and Art

• The McGee Foundation withdraws its pledge of $2 million to West Virginia University after the school improperly awarded a degree to the Governor's daughter.  [Associated Press]

• Aid groups grapple with the global food crisis.  [Seattle Times]

News Briefing: Charities See Opportunity for Donations as Rebates Reach Taxpayers

• The Montana Supreme Court says the Board of the Charles M. Bair Family Museum breached its fiduciary duties, orders a new board to be formed.  [New York Times]

• Charities hope to capitalize on tax rebates.  [New York Times]

• Charities see potential in tapping young Web users to promote their causes online.  [Chicago Tribune]

• More companies subsidize donations of time and talent for employees looking to volunteer.  [Wall Street Journal]

News Briefing: Charities Feel Wall Street Pain

• Senate Democrats call for a swift increase of $200 million in foreign aid to address the food shortage crisis.  [New York Times]

• With turmoil on Wall Street, New York nonprofits worry about the future.  [Los Angeles Times]

News Briefing: As Newark Rebuilds, Help From Beyond City Limits

• Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark, aggresssively courts private capital to bolster his financially beleaguered city.  [New York Times]

• The board of the A.C.L.U. votes to take over the management and operations of its South Carolina affiliate.  [New York Times]

• Public radio tries to reignite its public.  [New York Times]

News Briefing: Rockefeller Gives Harvard $100 Million

• David Rockefeller donates $100 million to Harvard University.  [Associated Press]

• Olympic sponsors respond to Mia Farrow's Dream for Darfur group, which recently issued a report card criticizing corporate progress in confronting China's human rights policies.  [New York Times]

• UN announces a global initiative to fight malaria.  [Associated Press]

• Sharply rising food prices threaten UN-backed feeding programs for 20 million children.  [Washington Post]

News Briefing: After Big Gift, a New Name for the Library

• The Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts raises enough to keep a Thomas Eakins masterpiece in Philadelphia.  [New York Times]

• The New York Landmarks Preservation Commission agrees to change the name of the New York Public Library's main building to the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.  [New York Times]

News Briefing: Hollywood Eagerly Embraces Environmental Cause

• PETA to pay $1 million to the first person to produce in vitro meat that is commercially viable.  [Associated Press]

• On Earth Day, some wonder if Hollywood is doing enough for the environment.  [Reuters]

• Under pressure from parents, Congress, and one another, colleges tweak the financial aid model.  [New York Times]

• Arts institutions feel the pinch from the faltering economy.  [Associated Press]

News Briefing: Testing the Waters With Internships

• The Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington, Connecticut unveils a nine-month, $1.5 million restoration project.  [New York Times]

• Midlife and older adults explore internships in nonprofits as a way to try something new.  [New York Times]

• A new nonprofit institution plans to build a $115 million stem cell research facility in San Diego.  [Associated Press]

• Verna Dautervive donates $25 million to USC in memory of her husband.  [Los Angeles Times]

News Briefing: Buried Red Sox Jersey Is Up For Auction

• The Jimmy Fund, the official charity of the Boston Red Sox, auctions off the jersey that was buried under the new Yankees' stadium.  [Washington Post]

• Charities walk a fine line when wealthy benefactors don't pay off their pledges.  [Chicago Tribune]

News Briefing: AT&T Giving $100 Million to Fight Dropouts

• AT&T gives $100 million to address the problem of high school dropouts.  [New York Times]

• Diana and Stephen Goldberg donate $25 million to the Children's National Medical Center in Washington.  [Washington Post]

• The financial director of Guggenheim Bilbao is fired after embezzling more than $775,000.  [New York Times]

• Dorothy and Herbert Vogel will distribute 2,500 contemporary artworks throughout the country, with 50 pieces going to a selected art institution in each state.  [Los Angeles Times]

News Briefing: N.Y.U. Medical Center Gets Another $100 Million Gift

• Pilar O'Leary, head of the Smithsonian Latino Center, resigned in February after an internal investigation found that she violated a variety of rules and ethics policies.  [Washington Post]

• The Museum of Modern Art and the foundation that operates the Guggenheim Museum can proceed with a lawsuit aimed at proving their ownership of two famous Picasso paintings.  [Bloomberg]

• Ken Langone gives $100 million in unrestricted funds to New York University Medical Center.  [New York Times]

News Briefing: When Strings Are Attached, Quirky Gifts Can Limit Universities

• Universities' academic programs can be shaped by the interests - and restrictions - of their donors.  [New York Times]

• Billionaire bond trader will auction the Scandinavian portion of his international stamp collection, to benefit the Millennium Villages Project at the Earth Institute at Columbia.  [New York Times]

• Charities look for new ways to reach current and prospective donors as they brace for fewer corporate contributions during the economic downturn.  [New York Times]

• Thomas Jefferson's library is re-created at the Library of Congress.  [Washington Post]