Celebrity Services/Endorsements

LATE last month, tens of thousands of runners who are registered for this year’s New York City Marathon got an e-mail from Mary Wittenberg, the president and chief executive of New York Road Runners.

She implored the runners to join a social networking Web site that Mr. Norton and three partners started in May that she says has the potential to revolutionize charitable giving. It’s called Crowdrise.com.

As part of a new long-term alliance, Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) is gearing up for its next Team Fundraising Challenge by joining forces with one of television's most popular shows, Survivor on CBS. For the first time ever, Survivor will stand up and issue the "Challenge The Odds" Team Challenge with Stand Up To Cancer Ambassador and winner of Survivor: Africa, Ethan Zohn. Zohn, whose Hodgkin's lymphoma is in remission, appeared on CBS News's The Early Show this morning to announce the partnership and his new role as spokesperson for the Survivor team's SU2C fundraising efforts. CBS

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, basketball legend and the NBA's all-time leading scorer, is asking his supporters to join him in taking a shot at beating cancer by joining his team — Team Kareem.

Abdul-Jabbar was diagnosised with Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia. Now, he and Novartis Oncology have partnered with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) to create Team Kareem, a national team whose aim is to raise money for cancer research, through participation in LLS's annual Light The Night® Walk.

America’s richest people should commit at least 50 percent of their net worth to charity, three of the nation’s wealthiest citizens said today.

Warren Buffett, who has committed 99 percent of his fortune to charity, along with Bill and Melinda Gates, who have given more than $28-billion to their foundation and say they plan to give a significant portion of their remaining wealth to good causes, issued the pledge.

LEOGANE, Haiti -- Bill Clinton returned to Haiti on a new mission Tuesday to invigorate recovery from January's devastating earthquake and help millions end lives of poverty and danger.

On his first visit since becoming co-chairman of the committee overseeing more than $5.3 billion in international reconstruction aid, the former U.S. president visited the seaside town of Leogane, next to the Jan. 12 epicenter. Less than a fifth of its buildings survived, and thousands of residents are at risk from floods and high winds.

England’s footballers will donate their World Cup match fees to charity for the first time.

In doing so, Fabio Capello’s squad, which left Heathrow for their training camp in Austria this morning, will raise more than £1 million for charities such as WellChild, Children’s Hospices UK, the Bobby Moore Fund, the PFA and the Team England Footballer’s Charity Outreach Programme.

The players have also launched a poster campaign to raise awareness of theirn chosen charities with a motto ‘Together We’re Stronger’.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - For actor Edward Norton, philanthropy and activism are practically in his genes so launching a website on Wednesday to encourage charity fundraising seemed natural to him.

Norton, 40, joined forces with a couple of Internet savvy friends to create Crowdrise (www.crowdrise.com) that gives people a free way to create their own fundraising pages to share through social networks, winning points and prizes along the way.