Rising Donor-Charity Tensions

As donors grow more inclined to specify how they want their contributions to be used, cash-strapped nonprofit groups will struggle to honor those wishes. Organizations probably will continue to explore ways to use restricted endowments for more-general purposes.

"Donor-intent skirmishes are busting out all over," says Neal B. Freeman, chairman of the Foundation Management Institute, which advises donors. One of the reasons, he says, is that "the economic downturn has tipped the