Jennifer Hudson, an Academy Award-winning actress and singer, is establishing a foundation with her sister, Julia, to help families who have lost relatives to violent crime, Music-News.com reported Nov. 4 (see crime story). The Hudson-King Foundation for Families of Slain Victims will provide food, shelter, clothing and grief counseling for victims of tragedy. Hudson's mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew were found shot to death in Chicago in late October.
American Lung Association cuts ties with chapterThe Northwest chapter of the American Lung Association is fighting back after the national charity threatened to dissolve it over alleged policy violations, the Associated Press reported Nov. 3 (see dispute story). The lung association tried to sever ties after the Seattle-based chapter sold its $3.2 million headquarters for $10 to an organization set up by Mike Alderson, the chapter's chief executive. The association also accused Alderson of trying to change the organization's mission statement and forbidding staff members from communicating with national headquarters.
Kansas charities prepare for worstKansas nonprofits are bracing for a chilly holiday season as foundations, corporations and individual donors cut back on giving, The Kansas City Star reported Nov. 4 (see giving story). Though charitable giving increases an average of 4.3 percent per year in a stable economic climate, it drops an average of 1.3 percent per year during downturns, says a report by the GivingUSA Foundation.
In Brief:
* Tuesday's Children, which provides mentors for 1,700 children who lost parents in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, is one of many New York nonprofits struggling to stay afloat in the wake of the Wall-Street crisis, The New York Daily News reported Nov. 3.
* Corporations predict that their charitable giving will stay flat in 2009 as they try to overcome financial-market woes, Reuters reported Nov. 4.