Lorie A. Slutsky, president of the New York Community Trust, responds to readers.

Following is the second set of answers from Lorie A. Slutsky, president of the New York Community Trust , on community philanthropy, the value of many different approaches to charitable giving, and their importance in maintaining a strong democracy.

While the broad issue areas that your organization funds contain common threads, I have noticed that these issues affect people differently neighborhood by neighborhood.

New York has always been a city of neighborhoods, and that fact underlies our grantmaking. We focus on the poorest communities in all five boroughs, with an emphasis on funding local nonprofits that understand the needs of their residents and how best to help them.

Pierre Omidyar (oh-MEED'-yar), eBay's founder and chairman, and his wife, Pam, have donated $50 million to the Hawaii Community Foundation.

The charitable services and grant-making organization said Tuesday that a portion of the six-year commitment will be used to launch several community initiatives.

It says the rest of the money will support the Omidyars' ongoing philanthropic interests through their Omidyar Ohana Fund at the foundation.

Hall of Famer and Baltimore native Pam Shriver approaches her annual charity tennis classic in much the same way the U.S. Postal Service goes about delivering mail. Nothing is going to stop it.

"I think there is still a great desire to have that one fun night of tennis in Baltimore, and I'd like to see us reach 25 years," said Shriver, who will host the event for the 24th time Dec. 9 at 1st Mariner Arena. "And if it has to stop, I want a better reason for not having it than that the banks are having an economic downturn. We still have to go out and have our fun."

Shriver is the event's major guarantor this year, a shift from the past 23 years, when one bank or another -- five of them all together -- sponsored it. But this year, PNC Bank declined to renew its sponsorship, and no else has stepped forward to attach its name to the event, which benefits the Baltimore Community Foundation in partnership with children's charities.

Community foundations suffered steep investment losses last year, ending a five-year streak of positive returns and damaging their purchasing power, according to a new report from the Council on Foundations, an organization that represents grant makers.

Stocks accounted for just over 53 percent of community foundations investment portfolios last year, down from 61 percent in 2007. Alternative investments, such as hedge funds, accounted for more than 20 percent of foundation portfolios last year, up from less than 1 percent nine years earlier.

The Council on Foundations report, 2008 Investment Performance and Practices of Community Foundations can be ordered from the councils Web site, by faxing an order form to 703-879-0988

Douglas Jansson, the president and chief executive officer of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation , has announced that he will retire next year.

Jansson said he will retire Sept. 30, 2010. He has led the Milwaukee community foundation for 16 years, a tenure that has seen the foundation's assets grow from $114 million to $574 million as of December 2007.

During the past decade of his tenure, Foundation investments have outperformed two key benchmarks, the S&P 500 and the Morningstar Balanced Mutual Index Fund, the foundation said.

When George Creel was getting ready to retire 12 years ago, he and his wife decided to invest in charities, but knew they didn't have the $5 million it takes to start a private foundation. Their financial adviser suggested a community foundation, where the cost to set up a fund is affordable.

Creel read about the Maryland-based National Catholic Community Foundation in The Catholic Review, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, and he knew he found the right place to start his philanthropy. It took $10,000 to set up a donor-advised fund with the foundation.

This means the Creels, of Davidsonville, Md., can tell the foundation which charities they would like to invest in. Unlike other funds, theirs is not bound by geography.

There was so much interest in last month’s post of 90 Foundations That Tweet that I wanted to expand on it by sharing a list of funder networks on Twitter.

What is a Funder Network?

According to the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers:

Funder networks consist of grantmakers organized around a specific funding issue, geographic location, or identity-based community that come together to build their skills, capacity, and impact.

Sometimes a little can go a long way. Like the endowment left to a local community foundation by a Danville author who passed away in 2007.

Richard Brown, author of the book, “The History of Danville and Boyle County,” died in December 2007. But he left behind some money for the Wilderness Trace Community Foundation, money that the foundation expects will be helping area communities for a long time to come.

Paul Elwyn, with Wilderness Trace, said the money Brown left behind was put into an endowment in his name. The endowment is invested, and the return on investment is used partly to fund grants and partly to grow the endowment for future grants.

Northland AEG announced today that the Hartford Wolf Pack Community Foundation is partnering with Trinity College to launch a "Ryan Gordon/Hartford Wolf Pack Community Foundation Learn to Play Hockey Program".

The program will be conducted at Trinity College's Koeppel Community Sports Center and is open to children aged 4-16 who are residents of the City of Hartford.

The stated mission of the Hartford Wolf Pack Community Foundation is to help fund charitable and non-profit endeavors that offer support to inner-city youth, amateur sport, and promote the health, education and well being of Connecticut's children.

Even in the face of the citys deep recession woes caused by the decline of the automotive industry, Detroit's citizens are still passionately committed to giving back to their community.

In just 11 hours, donors raised $3.75 million in support of 75 arts and cultural organizations in southeast Michigan, through the Community Foundation Challenge - Arts & Culture.

The challenge, which was sponsored by the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan and the Cultural Alliance of Southeastern Michigan, featured matching contributions for all donations up to the $1 million mark, provided by the Community Foundation.