Children/Youth

Measured by the bottom line, a merger between White-Williams Scholars and Philadelphia Futures seems hardly noteworthy.

After all, the two Philadelphia nonprofit groups are worth barely $12 million, couch-cushion change when compared, say, with the $68 billion Pfizer Inc. spent to buy Wyeth last year.

Still, the thought of a marriage of the two college-prep programs gave Susan Segal goose bumps.

The merger will mark a rare coming together of two well-established and financially stable nonprofit organizations with a goal of serving more students more effectively.

Toms Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie's dream came true when the company donated its millionth pair of shoes, a few weeks ago.

The milestone is "an opportunity to say thank you to the million people who have bought Toms Shoes," Mycoskie told The Associated Press while visiting Argentina. "We see it as the beginning of what we hope will be something greater — we're helping kids avoid diseases like hookworm in Guatemala, and podoconiosis in Ethiopia — a terribly debilitating disease that's completely preventable with shoes."

Amy Heller has found the answer to the question on every charity executive and board member's mind: How do nonprofits engage the next generation of donors?

"It's about making philanthropy fun, social, relevant and transparent to donors," says Heller.

WGIRLS, which works to provide underprivileged women and children with a quality education, financial independence and self-sufficiency, was started by Heller and a group of other professional women in New York who initially came together to socialize, with a bent on doing something good for their community.

Collaboration is a catalyst for nonprofit growth and improvement. And the newly formed Catalyst Fund for Nonprofits was created to help foster that collaboration.

Wednesday is World AIDS Day, and many celebrities will stop communicating via Twitter and Facebook. They will not be resuscitated, they say, until their fans donate $1 million.

It’s all part of the latest gambit by the singer-songwriter Alicia Keys to raise money for her charity, Keep a Child Alive, which finances medical care and support services for children and families affected by H.I.V. and AIDS in Africa and India.

The Virginia Early Childhood Foundation (VECF) announced today that the Danville Regional Foundation (DRF) has awarded an unprecedented five-year grant of over $5.4 million for Smart Beginnings Danville-Pittsylvania County to dramatically expand the region’s commitment to school readiness for thousands of young children.

Barbara Allen will receive $50,000 as one of 10 winners of the Purpose Prize, given to Americans over 60 who have reinvented themselves, tackling social problems in this latter stage of life.

As founder of Fresh Artists, Allen, 62, of Lafayette Hill, in just two years has put more than 400 pieces of bold, lush, gorgeous "refrigerator art" from Philadelphia schoolchildren into corporate boardrooms and surprising spaces around the region and nation.

A philanthropic watchdog group is hoping to light a fire under charitable foundations that support education by releasing a report Wednesday that points out how few of them focus enough attention on helping the most needy students.

The study by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy said that only 11 percent of American foundations devoted at least half their grants to programs that benefit vulnerable students. It looked at 672 foundations that gave at least $1 million to educational causes from 2006 to 2008.

The parents of a boy who lost his battle with cancer have donated $30 million to the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto with the goal of helping more children survive the disease. The donation, believed to be the single largest private gift to pediatric cancer in North America, will establish the Garron Family Cancer Centre and fund research into childhood cancer.

Aaron’s Staff, a nonprofit organization in Helena, is getting many people’s goat this month by threatening to deliver an unruly goat to their front door. The goat giveaway is a fundraiser for the organization where unless participants buy fictional goat insurance, their name will be entered into a raffle to win a goat — whether wanted or not. Aaron’s Staff assistant director Marilyn Shultz said the fundraiser is a fun and different way to raise money for a good cause.

Aaron’s Staff provides respite care for children with disabilities and special needs, she said.