‘Bunny’ Mellon Estate Sale Brings $218-Million for Charity
Proceeds from an auction of Rachel Lambert Mellon’s vast collection of art, jewelry, furniture, and decorative objects will go to the foundation that supports a library at the late Listerine heiress’s Virginia home, writes The New York Times.
Rockefeller U. to Get $150-Million for Campus Expansion
David Rockefeller has pledged $75-million to the New York City university founded by his grandfather, and the foundation of the late shipping billionaire Stavros Niarchos is matching the gift, according to Forbes.
Bern Museum Accepts Bequest of Nazi-Era Art Collection
An art museum in the Swiss capital said Monday that it has agreed to accept a trove of works bequeathed by the son of a Nazi-era art dealer that is believed to include hundreds of pieces looted from Jewish families, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg report. Kunstmuseum Bern pledged to cooperate with a German government effort to return works found to have been stolen and to exhibit only those shown to have been legitimately acquired.
Minn. Attorney General Questions Company’s Solicitation of Noncash Gifts for Charities
Savers LLC, a for-profit thrift store chain that works with charities to collect used items for resale, regularly fails to let donors know how much of their gift goes to charitable causes and how much is profit.
By Michael Anft
Contributor
Ethics Group Seeks IRS Inquiry Into Pro-McConnell Ky. Nonprofit
Watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is calling on the Internal Revenue Service to investigate a conservative Kentucky nonprofit that spent millions of dollars from undisclosed donors on advertisements boosting Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell’s re-election bid, the Center for Public Integrity writes.
Head of N.Y. Korean Charity Pleads Guilty in Fraud Case
The president of the Korean American Service Center admitted to stealing from the group’s elderly clients by charging them for advice on Medicaid and Social Security and taking payments for false promises to secure them placements in an affordable-housing program, the Associated Press reports.
Little Is Known on How New Band Aid Song Is Funding Ebola Fight
Rocker Bob Geldof’s Band Aid 30 has raised more than $1.5-million for the war on Ebola through a new version of the 1984 charity song “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” but is saying little about how the money is being spent, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.
Obituary: William H. Scheide, Longtime Donor to Arts and NAACP Legal Defense Fund
The heir to a Pennsylvania oil fortune, Mr. Scheide supported some of the most important court fights of the civil-rights era donor as a key donor to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, The New York Times writes.
GoDaddy Founder Doubles Up His Year-End Donation for Veterans’ Care
Bob Parsons, who was wounded in the Vietnam War before going on to create a popular web-hosting site, helps the Semper Fi Fund end 2014 on a high note.
By TOM HELD
Contributor
IRS Watchdog Recovers 30,000 Missing Lois Lerner Emails
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said it has found as many as 30,000 thought-to-be-lost emails to and from Lois Lerner, the former head of the Internal Revenue Service nonprofits unit and the central figure in the controversy over the tax agency’s alleged targeting of conservative groups, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal report.