• Warren Buffett's second annual gift of Class B shares totals $2.12 billion; Gates Foundation receives majority of the stock. [Associated Press]

• New York City school system delivers free meals in housing projects, libraries, day camps, and church groups to become one of the country's largest summer soup kitchens.  [New York Times]

• Residents of the Washington region volunteer at a rate higher than the national average.  [Washington Post]

• Benefit songs no longer raise the funds they used to.  [MTV News]

• The Case Foundation begins new grant program today; offers public a role in deciding who receives some of its money.  [New York Times]

• Specifics of the will of philanthropist Brooke Astor released; New York Public Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art to receive millions.  [New York Times]

• Bush's faith-based initiatives program wins victory in Supreme Court ruling.  [Washington Post]

• For the fifth year in a row, bidders on eBay can win a lunch with Warren Buffett; proceeds to go to the Glide Foundation in San Francisco.  [Associated Press]

• Gates Foundation is readying for Buffett's money, due to take full effect in 2009.  [Omaha World-Herald]

• CARE's new program strategy attracts women donors.  [New York Times]

Mario Morino is one of the smartest people working in "new" philanthropy these days, and this week he provides a somewhat delayed but interesting take on Warren Buffett's decision to give his fortune to the Gates Foundation.

Since Warren Buffett announced plans to give a large portion of his wealth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, countless analysis and commentaries, both favorable and unfavorable, have been offered. The wide range of comments, criticisms, and postulations clearly illustrates that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

To me, however, it is a much less complicated deed than most have suggested. Buffet’s action, at least on the surface, appears to be consistent with a man who has made well-grounded, common sense decisions in amassing his wealth over the years. Let me quickly qualify that the comments that follow are pure conjecture, as I’ve not met either person nor been privy to their views or thinking.

To me, the beauty and value lie in the clear focus and sheer simplicity of the action. And, Buffett has set a path for others to consider, regardless of the size of the donation.

Morino was himself a technology entrepreneur who made his fortune early in life and has bene dedicating himself to various philanthropic investments ever since. In analyzing the Buffett gift, Morino focuses on what Gates will do. For one, he hopes it will continue to take big risks and not aim to play it safe. He also worries about the costs of spending the money:

I hope the Foundation will not rush to build up the organization in order to “move the money” required for annual distribution and instead stay focused on wise philanthropic investing. The reality is that the type of talent the Foundation needs to bring onboard is scarce and the price of getting the wrong talent is steep. The private sector world of investing has shown how difficult it is to scale a venture capital or private equity firm to go from investing $500 million to $1 billion annually (comparable to Buffett’s gift which in some sense more than doubled the Foundation’s “philanthropic investment capital”). Staying with large investments of capital into several, very important initiatives is one way to help smooth this difficult transition.

His last point is perhaps his best: there's a troubling trend of governments giving up their responsibilities to private entities, including philanthropies. The sheer size of Gates eclipses what many governments can spend.

The Age: They're made of money and they're giving it away in billions to charity. As the world's super-rich discover the joys of philanthropy on a massive scale, Greg Morago reports that giving is on the up, giving is dynamic and giving can even be cool. Brother, can you spare a dime? What about 310 billion dimes? Now that's a pretty penny.

New York Times:  Valley County, not far from the center of Nebraska, seemed to be one of those Great Plains communities that was dying. From World War II to 2000 it had lost almost half its population, and the decline was gathering speed at the end of the century. The I.G.A. and Jack & Jill grocery stores closed, as did most mom and pop gas stations and the local dairy processing plant.

White Courtesy Telephone: It’s no accident that grand philanthropic gestures coincide with moments in our history when wealth becomes concentrated in very few hands and the gap between the rich and the poor becomes intolerably wide.

It was during the time of the great robber barons of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that the first—and some of the largest—American foundations were created.  In our own Gilded Age, the captains of industry try to outdo one another with their philanthropic gifts as corporate profits soar and wages continue to shrink as a proportion of the nation’s GDP.

Some observers argue that now, as in ages past, philanthropy has functioned as a social safety valve, redistributing just enough wealth to keep people in low-income communities from picking up their torches and pitchforks and storming the mansions of their overlords.

NYTimes: The ambitious founders of Google, the popular search engine company, have set up a philanthropy, giving it seed money of about $1 billion and a mandate to tackle poverty, disease and global warming.But unlike most charities, this one will be for-profit, allowing it to fund start-up companies, form partnerships with venture capitalists and even lobby Congress. It will also pay taxes.

Charity Blog Network: There is absolutely no denying the fact that Warren Buffet's extremely generous donation to the Gates Foundation should be applauded - the foundation has enjoyed widespread acclaim for its global health and educational programs. But it should be kept in mind that there is a responsibility involved with any sort of philanthropy and with a gift this large, it is important to keep in mind that there are a few issues that should be kept in mind, just before everyone gets a little too self-congratulatory.