Is gambling really a vice if you donate your $3 million lottery ticket to a church in need? The growing True North Community Church, which Newsday says was about to hold services in "rented ballrooms and school gyms," received a blessing when an anonymous donor gave them a winning Ba-Da Bling scratch-off ticket's winnings. The Port Jefferson Station church will received $150,000 a year for 20 years. Taxes will be taken out, but since the......

Photos by Spencer T Tucker/NYC.gov Late New York composer and Broadway writer Richard Rodgers became world-renowned, but as The NY Post notes, "never forgot his Harlem roots." Yesterday his family donated $1 million to restore the neglected bandshell at Marcus Garvey Park, and as Bloomberg reminded everyone at a press conference--Rodgers also donated the original funds (to the tune of $150,000) to build the facility in 1970. The city has also put forth $4......

David H. Koch, the richest man in NYC with a net worth of $17 billion, is donating $100 million towards the renovation of the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center. The City Opera and New York City Ballet perform in the space, and Koch told the NY Times, “I’ve been going to the New York State Theater for 40 years. I can assure you, I would not make a gift of this magnitude unless......

The NY Post's big cover story is a look at the corporations who donate money to the Reverend Al Sharpton's National Action Network. Sharpton's organization, a non-profit founded to promote black civil rights, holds a yearly, influential conference in April (last year a who's who in the Democratic party attended, from former President Bill Clinton to Senator Barack Obama, from Senator Hillary Clinton to DNC chair Howard Dean) and attracts corporate sponsorship. However, the Post......

How much did you spend on lunch today? $10 for a salad at Chop't? $7.50 for a sandwich at Pax? A whopping $175 on the lunch tasting menu at per se? Regardless, if you set that amount of money aside tomorrow, May 14th, and donate it to City Harvest's Skip Lunch, Fight Hunger campaign, you can make a difference in the lives of hungry New Yorkers. That $5 you'd ordinarily spend on two slices of......

Following the announcement of a $100 million donation for the New York Public Library, The Whitney has just announced their own sugar daddy: Leonard A. Lauder. Lauder is the chairman of Estée Lauder cosmetics, and through his American Contemporary Art Foundation he'll be donating $131 million (the largest donation the museum has received in 77 years, and one of the largest ever to a New York museum’s endowment). Endowment donations are notoriously difficult to solicit,......

A number of staffers at Queens Intermediate School 73 became upset when they discovered "new or slightly used books tossed into a Dumpster" outside. The Daily News has a photo of the books, which include "Little Women," "Sarah, Plain and Tall," and "Treasure Island," and one staffer said, "Those books, you open them up, they still crack, they're so new. Why not give them away or hold a book drive at least?" It's unclear why......

Mayor MIchael Bloomberg's largess makes him the country's seventh biggest charitable donor. The Chronicle of Philanthropy's Top 50 Donor List (less sexy than the Forbes list, but possibly more worthy) notes he committed $205 million to various institutions last year. Bloomberg's giving has been generous ever since becoming mayor, prompting the Sun to note that "the largest jump in his contributions [occurred] last year, amid mounting speculation he will run for president." And as if......