According to the Voice, black community based organisations are quickly learning that "securing AIDS funding from government and private foundations isn't just about how good the programmes are, but how well they ask for money". Many smaller and less-experienced organisations are simply not equipped to deal with the expenditures of time and resources required to fill out applications and write grant proposals asking for foundation and government money.

In addition to the challenges involved in asking for money, the pool of funding available for AIDS causes has grown smaller.

Microsoft alumni donate $12.5 m to SETI
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and Nathan Myhrvold, the company's former chief technology officer, are together donating $12.5 million to the nonprofit Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project, which is dedicated to locating intelligent life elsewhere in the galaxy, reports Reuters.

SETI, based in Mountain View, California, will use the grant to construct a huge array of small radio dishes designed to pick up signals from space. The radio dishes, each measuring 15 feet across and numbering between 500 and 1,000, will be situated at the Hat Creek Observatory atop Mount Lassen, some 300 miles north of San Francisco. The University of California at Berkeley will help build and operate the system, to be called the Allen Telescope Array.

"For the first time in our history, we have the ability to pursue a scientifically and technologically sophisticated search for intelligent life beyond earth. At the same time, we are doing traditional radio astronomy," said Allen in a statement. Allen is providing $11.5 million for the project through his Paul G Allen Charitable Foundation; Myhrvold is donating $1 million.

Use of jargon in philanthropic world criticised
The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation has published In Other Words, a new booklet pleading for "plain speaking" by both grantmakers and grantseekers. Written by Tony Proscio, a foundation consultant and former editorial writer, the booklet warns against the use of trendy terms such as `benchmarking', `synergy', `modeling', and `targeting' by members of the philanthropic community.

According to Jack Rosenthal, president of the New York Times Foundation and author of the paper's On Language column, jargon is a problem for professionals in all fields, but particularly for grantseekers, whose use of trite or vague terms can "invite grant denials".

Writing on the subject for Foundation News & Commentary, a publication of the Council on Foundations, Proscio traces the use of many terms currently popular with the philanthropic community back to their roots in specialised fields, such as economics, social sciences and management theory.

Young donors express interest in philanthropy
According to a recent article in the Christian Science Monitor, which examines the increase in nonprofit membership rates and charitable donations among America's younger donors, 18-35 year olds now account for approximately 15 per cent of all members and 25 per cent of board members at the Jewish Funders Network, a grantmakers' group, which emphasises the ancient Jewish model of social philanthropy called tzedakah.

This marks a major shift in the demographics of the organisation, which, like many similar groups, has been governed by older members traditionally. In order to help attract a younger generation of potential donors, new philanthropic groups, such as the North Cambridge, Massachusetts based Resource Generation, are being created, many by young philanthropists themselves. Resource Generation works to link young, wealthy donors with progressive causes.