The AT&T Gives Back program recently selected the Wilkerson family of Petersburg to receive a $5,000 cash award to help pay bills. Richmond’s AT&T Gives Back program accepts nominations for a person, family or charity that needs help. The program awards a deserving recipient with $5,000 in cash or services. Carolyn and Gerry Wilkerson were nominated by their pastor, Rev. W. Doug Gilfillan of Woods United Methodist Church.

Susan Brown Davis Susan Brown Davis, 59, senior vice president, Community Leadership Initiatives at The Community Foundation Serving Richmond & Central Virginia.

Branch Banking & Trust Co. of Winston-Salem, N.C., has awarded a $350,000 grant to establish and maintain a program on business morality at Hampden-Sydney College. The BB&T Program on the Moral Foundations of Capitalism includes a new course offering; a student research fellowship; the BB&T Distinguished Lecture Series on capitalism; and the free distribution of Ayn Rand’s book “Atlas Shrugged” to all entry-level economics students at Hampden-Sydney’s Center for the Study of Political Economy.

Efforts to lower dropout rates in Richmond and Hampton received a major boost last week with an announcement that the AT&T Foundation will award a grant for $400,000 over four years to Communities In Schools of Virginia. The grant aids in the opening of a second Performance Learning Center in Richmond and the launching of one in Hampton.

Computers, college students and community service—connecting all three is the aim of a major federal grant to a Virginia nonprofit group. Learn and Serve America, a division of the Corporation for National and Community Service, will award The Phoenix Project $550,000 to increase service and civic participation by college students throughout the United States.

“A man has at least a start on understanding the meaning of life when he plants shade trees under which he knows he will never sit.“ That statement by D. Elton Trueblood, a 20th century author and theologian, has fueled Sharon Larkins-Pederson’s passion for her work. “I used the quote in the context that all the money raised on my watch, as it were, both here, at Duke and United Way these past 20 years, had laid the groundwork for care and cures that I would never see,“ she said.

Some area shoppers bought more than groceries last winter. Their purchases generated cash for their favorite nonprofits. Ukrop's Super Markets Inc. distributed $400,000 to 1,693 charitable organizations last month as part of its Golden Gift program. Recipients of the charitable payout are nonprofit organizations in Richmond, Williamsburg, Fredericksburg and Roanoke, all cities where the family-owned business operates.

Amemorable and final trip to Lake Gaston for William Cook of Ashland and his family will soon get under way thanks to a program started by AT&T, CBS6 and Lite 98. Richmond's AT&T Gives Back program accepts nominations for a person, family or charity that needs help. The program awards a deserving recipient with a donation of $5,000 in cash or services.

Athoughtful donation may help save lives in Hopewell. Using a $31,000 grant from the Hopewell chapter of the Daughters of Penelope, the Hopewell Sheriff's Office purchased 12 automated external defibrillators. The portable devices are used to restore normal heart rhythm to patients in cardiac arrest. Ten are in deputies' vehicles; two were installed in the Hopewell Courts Building.

Those who do good works inspire others, even after their death. W. Joe Hoppe, who was the senior assistant city attorney for Richmond, passed away on July 26. A Richmond Times-Dispatch obituary about Hoppe moved a local philanthropist so much that she anonymously made a $6,200 donation—representing 62 years of Hoppe's life—to The Community Fund.

Bertha C. Rolfe of Henrico County has spent much of her 82 years donating her time, talent and money. Her volunteerism has benefited the MCV Foundation, VCU School of Pharmacy and VCU Massey Cancer Center for decades. Her consistent support is why all three entities are throwing her an 83rd birthday party tomorrow. "I had people say 'Thank you for the invitation to your party.' I said, 'Well I didn't invite you,'" Rolfe said laughing.

The University of Richmond will get something this fall that no other Virginia college will have: a resource-monitoring system. The Dominion Foundation has awarded $100,000 to the University of Richmond to purchase and install an energy-monitoring system in all 14 campus residence halls. The Web-based hardware and software system displays how much energy students use.

People who donate money come in different types. Your type dictates how you handle money, from saving, spending or giving it away, says Brent Kessel, the CEO of Abacus Portfolios and president and co-founder of Abacus Wealth Partners. He's also the author of "It's Not About the Money: Unlock Your Money Type to Achieve Spiritual and Financial Abundance."

Early last Monday morning, a story in the Richmond Times-Dispatch about volunteers struggling to come up with gas money caught Peter Kaufman's eye. And his heart. The sun hadn't risen yet when the co-founder of The Hoople Group, a local advertising and public-relations firm, decided to act. Kaufman and his partner, Heidi Workman, issued a challenge to every ad agency, public-relations firm, Web developer and freelancer in Virginia to donate $100 to a nonprofit needing help.

Is each of us capable of practicing philanthropy, regardless of our age or means? Depends on whom you ask.