From donating millions of dirhams to fighting hunger to personally delivering emergency aid to a cyclone-hit island, HRH Princess Haya bint Al Hussein’s charitable endeavors are many and often. [...] And now the royal is urging others to do their part – today in particular. September 5 marks the International Day of Charity, an occasion declared by the United Nations back in 2012 to help encourage fund-raising for worthy causes.

The organizers of one of the biggest draws at the Edinburgh festival, the military tattoo, are hoping to expand worldwide, eventually holding the event across Asia, the Middle East and North and South America. [...] The tattoo, which began in 1950 and is a charity, has become a showcase for British forces and their counterparts from around the world and been a sellout for the last two decades, attracting audiences of about 220,000 at the event and 100 million on television.

Earlier this year model and actress Lily Cole founded a social business to encourage gift culture through a social network. Writing for the Guardian recently, Cole said: "My vision for Impossible – for what is possible – is rooted in the ever-present existence of possibility by which we are all individually, collectively, empowered."

After warning that Islamic extremism is the “most deadly” threat to charities in Britain, the UK’s Charity Commission on Wednesday detailed its proposed crackdown on groups of concern to it. In statements earlier this week, the Charity Commission’s chairman William Shawcross told the Sunday Times the regulator is taking action against charities sending money to various groups in Syria.

When Qatar’s royal family was looking for advice on charitable giving, it turned to a well-regarded professor named Abd al-Rahman al-Nu’aymi. The 59-year-old educator had a stellar résumé that included extensive fundraising experience and years of work with international human rights groups.

Taliban militants gunned down and killed six people in Afghanistan working on a government-backed literacy project in the northern province of Faryab, officials said on Wednesday. The insurgent group is stepping up attacks on state workers ahead of presidential elections due in April 2014, fanning security concerns as foreign troops prepare to withdraw from the country by the end of next year.