Washington, D.C.—Eight years ago, when Ronald Reagan first suggested that charitable giving could go a long way toward replacing parts of the federal budget, he was regarded as unrealistic at best, and heartless at worst. Yet, according to estimates reported recently by the American Association of Fund-Raising Counsel, gifts and bequests in 1988 topped the $100-billion mark, more than double what they were in 1981 and considerably more than the $83 billion the Federal Government spent to purchase non-defense goods and services. Adjusted for inflation, giving rose by a hearty 30 per cent during the 1980s, following a decade of hardly any growth at all. Indeed, the increase even exceeded the most frequently cited estimate of the amount that nonprofit organizations lost in federal grants and contracts because of budget cuts.
Mr. Lenkowsky is president of the Institute for Educational Affairs, a nonprofit organization that provides assistance to grant-makers. Mr. Frumkin is a vice president of the Institute.
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