Lay-ups and Tip-ins

Blog bits today, for those of you lacking the attention span to read even full-size blog entries:

• I wrote in January about the new kid in the environmental fund-raising game: the National Parks. And as I predicted, this kid ain't fooling around--$300 million pledged already.
  
• I wrote in July about the Citi Center's attempts to lie to their donors. They might have gotten away with it, if they hadn't done it at the same time they were annoying the art critics. Now, there's hell to pay.
  
• A nonprofit worker wanted her daughter to have a nice wedding and couldn't afford it. So, she stole a few bucks from the disabilities rehabilitation center where she handled payroll. How much? About $1.3 million. Wish I'd been invited to that reception.
  
• Harvard's endowment is now $35 billion. It grew by $6 billion last year alone. Coincidentally, $6 billion is how much was given by all the charities in the world to Hurricane Katrina relief. This amount, equivalent to what Harvard's endowment grew in one year, was the largest one-time philanthropic outlay in the history of the world.
  
• In a related story, anyone else see that commercial on Sunday night's pre-season football game on NBC (sue me, I'm a football freak) where New Orleans Running Back Reggie Bush vowed to "rebuild New Orleans, one win at a time?" Two things: 1) Can we as a nation stop with this nonsense? New Orleans is still reeling, and as I wrote in February, the success or failure of a football team has no bearing on the quality of the schools, the mental health of the populace, or the number of places where families can actually live. 2) Given that there are neighborhoods in New Orleans that still lack electricity, 2 years after Katrina, is there any chance that this is indeed the actual rebuilding policy of our federal government? For every Saints win, we will restore another basic public service?