NEW YORK -- With the economy in a slump, this year has been a bad one for charities, but few have had such rough going as philanthropies that learned a year ago that part or all of their endowments had been wiped out in the Bernard Madoff scandal.
Friday marks the one-year anniversary of Madoff's arrest on charges he orchestrated the multibillion-dollar fraud.
Scores of charities lost hundreds of millions of dollars. Some, like the $1 billion Picower Foundation, closed almost immediately.
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Others survived but have spent a lean year cutting staff, curtailing grants and hoping new donors would step in and help replenish what they lost.
Even some charities that didn't invest money with Madoff say they suffered because some of their major donors were wiped out.
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