• Wesleyan creates a student endowment with surplus from the activity fees paid by students. [New York Times]

• Plans for the arts center at ground zero move slowly and fundraising for it has yet to begin.  [Associated Press]

• James Cuno, president of the Art Institute of Chicago, oversees the completion of its new Modern Wing.  [New York Times]

• Some Habitat for Humanity chapters have seized buying opportunities in neighborhoods affected by the mortgage meltdown.  [Associated Press]

• The deadliest disaster in a generation has touched off an unprecedented outpouring of charity, especially among newly wealthy and urban Chinese.  [Associated Press]

• International Red Cross says lack of clean water will be the biggest killer in Myanmar in the coming days.  [Associated Press]

• China’s decision to request outside aid reflects the fact that the search for the survivors of Monday’s massive earthquake is too much for the country to handle alone.  [New York Times]

• One of Chicago’s wealthiest foundations changes its name to reflect its independence from the company in which it used to be a major stockholder.  [Chicago Tribune]

• Individual giving blooms in China, long a society that was taught the state – and the state alone – would take care of its citizens.  [Washington Post]

• United Way’s announcement that it is refocusing its giving around education, income, and health stirs anxieties among leaders of Washington’s arts groups.  [Washington Post]

• The Knight Foundation awards $5.5 million as part of its Knight News Challenge.  [Washington Post]

• The J. Paul Getty Trust eliminates 114 jobs.  [Los Angeles Times]

• Charities are facing hurdles putting their relief funds to work in China and Myanmar.  [Wall Street Journal]

• Teach for America sees applications jump by more than a third this year.  [Associated Press]

• The directors of several relief organizations in Myanmar believe that some of the international aid arriving into the country is being stolen, diverted, or warehoused by the military.  [New York Times]

• Dozens of colleges and universities seek funding from donors to overhaul their aid programs.  [Wall Street Journal]

• Jennifer Lopez will host and help coordinate the third Noche de Ninos gala benefitting the Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.  [Associated Press]

• 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]

• 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]

• 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]

• 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]

• According to Grand Bayou residents, post-Katrina government aid has been nearly nonexistent to this region of Louisiana.  [Associated Press]

• Remittances - the money that migrants send home - exceed $300 billion a year.  [New York Times]

• Georgia Institute of Technology President G. Wayne Clough is named 12th secretary of the Smithsonian.  [Washington Post]

• San Diego residents who volunteered with the Red Cross during the wildfires in October are frustrated with more than just the money spent on unused hotel rooms.  [San Diego Union-Tribune]

• To many public health leaders, Bill and Melinda Gates' call to eradicate malaria is both inspirational and quixotic.  [New York Times]