Next year is expected to be one of the toughest ever for grant seekers, as foundations cope with huge losses in their endowments.

Last year alone, The Chronicle of Philanthropy found, assets at the nation's biggest foundations totaled $163.4-billion, compared with $213.8-billion in 2007, a loss of $50.4-billion in just one year. Such figures might automatically mean many foundations must reduce the amount of grant money they can award.

So how are grant makers coping with a diminished pool from which to give? Have they found ways to give as much as they did in the past? Or are they drastically reducing how much they give and the number of organizations they support? And what might grant makers face in the coming months and years, and how might they prepare?

Read the transcript of our discussion with Bradford K. Smith, president of the Foundation Center, an organization that conducts research on grant-making trends, who offered a range of tools to help grant seekers.

Click on the window below to view the replay of this archived discussion.