Investment clients of PNC Advisors got a first-hand snippet from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on their computers last week.

The unit of PNC Financial Services Group has sounds from the symphony - with music director Paavo Jarvi prominently pictured - wafting from its Web site for about 30 seconds as its Monthly Market Commentary loads.

Ed Arbaugh, managing director of the wealth management unit at PNC Advisors and also a CSO trustee, said the bank uses the time to spotlight organizations it supports.

And for you classical-music geeks, the snippet is from the CSO's recording of Sibelius Symphony No. 2, recorded in Music Hall and released in 2002.

At least that's what the CSO tells us.

Give, give, give

Giving away billions of dollars is not a simple task. That's where Cincinnati's KnowledgeWorks Foundation comes in.

The charitable foundation, an outgrowth of Student Loan Funding Corp. five years ago, is among the largest education partners with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation nationally.

That means it's an intermediary between the foundation set up by the Microsoft Corp. founder and the school districts nationwide that are tapping into its billions of dollars in grants.

KnowledgeWorks officials just returned from Chicago, where they organized a "practitioners forum" to help school districts learn from each other, said Harold Brown, program director for school improvement.

Brown said the Gates Foundation "wants to take on the intractable issues that others want to stay away from." This particular cause is the "big, bad high school," he said.

Cleaning up

Imagine children racing a Swiffer across the floor at the world's most famous sports arena. Now that's marketing.

It will happen this Saturday at Madison Square Garden during a first-half break in the Women's National Basketball Association All-Star Game. It's the first installment in a deal that will join Swiffer owner Procter & Gamble Co. and the WNBA for years to come.

The sponsorship deal was announced the day after Memorial Day, but the details are just now hitting the marketplace.

In the All-Star Game Swiffer "enhancement," one adult will ride a tricycle the length of the court, a child will "Swiffer" back, and a second adult will dribble down in the final leg of the relay race, WNBA officials said.

WNBA vice president of marketing partnerships Mary Reiling Spencer said the league wants the spread as wide as possible, hoping to tap into the millions of female consumers that buy Swiffer and other P&G products.

"We have P&G, the No. 1 company when it comes to products that reach women and families," she said. "They're going to help us get our brand into homes across the country."

E-mail cpeale@enquirer.com