The New York Times

Anyone who has visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art is familiar with the pay-what-you-want concept that has obvious appeal to those unwilling or unable to handle full price.

For more than half a century, charities have been barred by federal law from making contributions to political campaigns.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has announced that it will lay off more than a quarter of its merchandising staff, eliminating 74 jobs in addition to the 53 it cut last year, the New York Times reports.

Until November, Lisa Traina had a classic New York glamour job: organizing private parties in the Art Deco opulence of the Rainbow Room. Now she spends 10-hour shifts walking down gritty sidewalks trying to persuade homeless people to go to the Bowery Mission for food and shelter.

Despite a worldwide economic decline, the nine-figure gift is not dead.

Like many for-profit companies, charities are seeking help from the government, and they are upset that policy makers do not understand how much the recession has hurt them.

In the Gilded Age of the 1890s, when the local opera company held a benefit, it might have included world-class singers and ice sculptures ringed with caviar. Tickets would have been steeply priced, and the bedizened guests would have lined up to spend lavishly on games of chance that helped the charity.

On Monday, Robert L. Corcoran, president of the GE Foundation, stood cheerily alongside three other corporate-philanthropy leaders on the balcony above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to ring the opening bell.

Charitably inclined people are anxious. Charities, like businesses and families, have suffered in the economic maelstrom, while their services are needed more than ever. But donors fear they can no longer afford to give as much as they once did.

The New York Times Company announced today the 10 semifinalists for the 2009 New York Times Company Nonprofit Excellence Awards. Now in its third year, the awards honor outstanding management practices and encourage innovation and communication among New York's large and diverse nonprofit community. In 2007, The Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York (NPCC) and the New York Regional Association of Grantmakers (NYRAG) joined the Times Company in the establishment of this program. All nonprofit organizations based in and serving New York City, Long Island and Westchester are eligible to apply. The application period ended for the 2009 submissions on Nov. 21, 2008. The organizations, which vary in size and in the types of services they offer the community, were chosen by the program's selection committee for their outstanding management.