Andy Markowitz

The Denver public-television station KBDI has announced plans to develop a nonprofit investigative operation with its own program and Web site, says the Associated Press.

The proposed Colorado Public News will start operations once the station has raised $400,000 for the project. KBDI will seek money from foundations, corporations, and local residents.

Plus: One of the best-financed and highest-profile nonprofit journalism start-ups, The Texas Tribune, a politics and policy daily, started publishing on Tuesday to mixed reviews, according to the San Antonio Express-News.

The Olympic figure-skating champion Scott Hamilton is returning to the rink at age 51 to skate in a fund-raising event for the Cleveland Clinic, where he was treated for testicular cancer and a brain tumor, The Tennessean reports.

The men’s gold medalist at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Mr. Hamilton retired from skating in 2004, when he underwent radiation treatment for the tumor. He began training last fall to prepare for the clinic event, to be held Saturday in Cleveland.

Calling the comeback “the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Mr. Hamilton said that whether fans attend out of “a real sense of support or morbid curiosity … if I can build that interest and build some sort of momentum through events that will raise more money, then I’ve won.”

The Seattle Foundation, under the leadership of the city’s former mayor, is seeking to broaden its pool of supporters from hundreds of wealthy donors to hundreds of thousands of residents of the region, according to The Seattle Times.

Norm Rice, who served two terms as mayor from 1989 to 1997, took office in July as head of the organization, the country’s fifth-largest community foundation, with assets of $570-million and some 1,200 philanthropic funds under its umbrella.

As part of the outreach effort, the foundation will begin accepting online donations and is outfitting its Web site with detailed profiles, reviews, and Amazon-style recommendations of the programs and nonprofit organizations.

See this article from the latest issue of The Chronicle about other community funds that are creating online town squares to help charities attract support.

(A paid subscription or temporary pass is required to view the Chronicle article.)

Richard Moe, who oversaw a major shift in the culture and financing of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is stepping down after 16 years as the organization’s president, reports The Washington Post.

Citing a need for generational change, Mr. Moe announced on Tuesday that he will leave the post as soon as a replacement is found. He is the longest-serving president in the trust’s 60-year history.

Soon after taking office in 1993, Mr. Moe spearheaded the successful fight to prevent Disney from opening a massive theme park near Manassas National Battlefield Park in Virginia. In subsequent years he shifted the trust’s financial focus, reducing its dependence on federal funds and leading two major capital campaigns that swelled its endowment from $33-million in 1993 to $232-million in 2007.

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

In the nearly three years since he took office, California Attorney General Jerry Brown has raised nearly $10-million for charities he oversees, including more than $100,000 from gambling establishments regulated by his office, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Five Los Angeles-area “card clubs” have donated to two Bay Area charter schools that Mr. Brown founded during his tenure as mayor of Oakland. Corporate giants such as Pacific Gas & Electric, AT&T, and Wal-Mart have given $50,000 or more to the schools.

Mr. Brown, a two-time Democratic presidential candidate and former California governor who is viewed as a leading candidate to reclaim his old job in next year’s state elections, said the donations have no effect on his public work, asserting, “I have an unimpeachable record of integrity.”

(Free registration is required to view this article.)