• Fundraising benefits continue in worsening economic climate.  [New York Times]

• A pitiable harvest in Afghanistan has left farmers facing acute hunger.  [New York Times]

• The Yale Endowment reports a return of 4.5 percent for its $22.5 billion endowment.  [New York Times]

• "Fruit philanthropists" voluntarily harvest surplus fruit and donate it to food banks, centers for the elderly, and other nonprofits in the Berkeley area.  [New York Times]

• Twenty-one Indonesians die in small town after beign trampled outside the gates of a wealthy family's home.  [New York Times]

• New York City Council standards committee to discuss requiring board members of nonprofits to submit long and detailed financial disclosures.  [New York Times]

• Two kidnapped employees of the World Food Program are released; 11 aid workers still remain in captivity in Somalia.  [Associated Press]

• Matt Damon and Wyclef Jean visit Haitian city after storms submerge parts of the country.  [Associated Press]

• The Children's Museum of the East End is struggling to meet its $1.8 million annual operating budget.  [New York Times]

• Executive Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center completes his first year.  [New York Times]

• Aid agencies say there are a few thousand people in South Asia who have no means to survive on their own.  [Reuters]

• Stand Up to Cancer, a fundraising and awareness-raising organization, will hold an unprecedented live telethon airing on ABC, NBC, and CBS tonight.  [Associated Press]

• Aid to poor nations has declined, according to a report by the U.N.  [New York Times]

• U.S. offers humanitarian aid to Cuban victims of Hurricane Gustav, provided it is through relief organizations and not the government.  [New York Times]

• Aid cannot reach Haitian city after Hurrican Hanna.  [Associated Press]

•   A Japanese aid worker kidnapped in eastern Afghanistan is found dead.  [Reuters]

•   An Iraq widow creates a nonprofit to group to help the newly widowed.  [New York Times]

• Pilot of plane carrying humanitarian workers reports trouble before crashing in Guatemala.  [Associated Press]

• Stanford University to severely restrict industry financing of doctors' continuing education at its medical school.  [New York Times]

• Farmers markets nationwide accept food stamps.  [Associated Press]

• The Peace Corps prepares to cut back on new volunteers.  [Washington Post]

• Developers and landlords in New York City may spend tens of millions of dollars renovating over 100,000 apartments to comply with federal housing laws.  [New York Times]

• A small plane carrying humanitarian workers crashes in eastern Guatemala, killing ten people.  [Associated Press]

• The Museum of the City of New York completes the first phase of its building project.  [New York Times]

• Alumni, parents, and students in Mount Vernon raise money to keep its high school's fall lineup of varsity and junior varsity sports, which had been eliminated during budget cuts.  [New York Times]

• Federal agents investigate a New Orleans nonprofit with faulty records.  [Associated Press]

• A new breed of charities allows donors to browse descriptions of specific projects online before funding them.  [Wall Street Journal]

• The World Food Programme will provide $214 million in food assistance to 16 impoverished areas.  [Associated Press]

• Twenty-two groups boycott Ben Stiller's 'Tropic Thunder' for its portrayal of disabled people.  [ABC News]

• Caryl M. Stern, C.E.O. of Unicef, talks about fundraising in a difficult fiscal year.  [New York Times]

• Helene Gayle, head of CARE, is part of an elite class of international decision makers who are shaping what the next 25 years of AIDS relief work might look like.  [Washington Post]

• Victor Pinchuk is engaged in a level of philanthropy unparalleled in Ukraine.  [New York Times]

• Clinton's Foundation to focus efforts on fighting AIDS in the United States.  [Associated Press]

• Coach Pat Summitt will donate $600,000 to the University of Tennessee.  [Associated Press]

• Citgo, the Venezuelan-owned oil company, is making a $1.5 million donation to the nonprofit group CASA to help fund programs for low-income workers.  [Washington Post]

• New York City's Health & Hospitals Corporation has signed a ten-year, $100 million contract with a profit-making medical school in the Caribbean.  [New York Times]