Robert Egger, president of the D.C. Central Kitchen in Washington, an antihunger charity in Washington, warned nonprofit leaders gathered here that they face a tough fight to continue to get money from state governments.

Nearly 30 states are facing budget deficits totaling more than $47-billion when the next fiscal year begins on July 1, he said in a speech to the Nonprofit Congress today.

As a result, charities can expect to see significant cuts in government grants, Mr. Egger predicted.

“They can’t just put it off. They have to balance their budgets. To do that they have three options. They can raise taxes. They can start to lay people off. Or they can cut services,” Mr. Egger said. “The salad days are gone.. What’s coming now, this is real.”

The dire state of finances for many governments — plus increasing scrutiny of nonprofit groups — makes it crucial for nonprofit leaders...

Expect to see an increased push for a Small Business Administration-style government agency to help nonprofit groups improve their capacity.

About 130 participants at the Nonprofit Congress annual meeting in Washington are expected to meet with a similar-sized group of lawmakers on Wednesday to advocate for passage of the Nonprofit Capacity Building Initiative.

The agency created under the proposal would provide at least $25-million annually for three years to help nonprofit groups with budgets of less than $5-million annually to get training on how to improve their management, planning, and organizational structures.

Ann Beltran, a policy analyst at the National Council of Nonprofit Associations, said aides to Sen. Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, and Sen. Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa, are behind the concept. Those lawmakers are the senior members of the Senate Finance...

Kathryn A. Lynch, a legislative advocate from Sacramento, Calif., came to the Nonprofit Congress meeting this week with a major goal: to push for the end of Congressional earmarks to nonprofit groups.

Ms. Lynch said now is the time to begin discussions on how to stop lawmakers from doling out pork to charities and instead allow nonprofit groups themselves decide the most appropriate way to use federal money to tackle problems.

She said she believes nonprofit leaders have an opportunity to make earmarks an issue in the forthcoming Presidential election.

The Aspen Institute in Washington today unveiled a new document that highlights 10 possible public- policy efforts that it says would help strengthen communities and charities.

Many of the proposals are designed to generate more capital for nonprofit groups.

But one of the concepts that is getting significant attention at this week’s Nonprofit Congress meeting is a plan to encourage public service among students who are making the transition from middle school to high school.

The idea is to make volunteering a rite of passage for youngsters by offering them a $500 college scholarship if they give 100 hours or more to help their communities during a summer break.

The proposed “Summer of Service” would require $100-million in federal money annually — money that would encourage as many as 100,000 youths to volunteer. Of that money, half would go to nonprofit groups that provide...

The organizers of the Nonprofit Congress’ gathering in Washington have dedicated much of the early stages of the conference to showing how charities are making a difference.

During the morning plenary session, meeting participants heard the stories of people who have had their lives transformed through interactions with charities.

One of the speakers, Jennifer McDaniel, told a tear-filled story about how she has rebounded from her life as a heroin addict, prostitute, and thief. She credited the work of Friends of Guest House, an Alexandria, Va., charity that helps women who are leaving prison.

The luncheon presentation, which pulls together speakers from a range of generations, is offering speakers such as Florence Green of the California Association of Nonprofits and Sheri Brady of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation the chance to talk about what has inspired them to become involved with...

Nonprofit groups do not need to begin filing the Internal Revenue Service’s new Form 990 until next year.

But groups should already be making decisions about their operations in preparation for the new informational tax document, tax experts said today at the Nonprofit Congress’ meeting in Washington.

The new document includes a laundry list of questions about governance issues such as whether organizations have a whistleblower policy, whether they are keeping written records of their board meetings, and what policies they use for setting compensation of key employees.

To answer these questions properly, charities should make sure they are setting the appropriate policies now.

If an organization wants to be able to say that it is documenting its meetings, for example, it needs to begin documenting its meetings this year to be able to answer “yes” on the form, says Julie Floch, a...

The second gathering of the Nonprofit Congress begins this morning in Washington.

The meeting is hosted by the National Council of Nonprofit Associations.

The Chronicle will be providing regular online coverage of the event throughout the next two days. We’ll be covering many of the key sessions and interviewing some of the figures who are gathered here for the event.

If you are attending the event, please chime in with your observations about the meeting. And if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me by e-mail.

The exhibit-hall booths have been dismantled and most of the 3,200 foundation leaders who attended this week’s Council on Foundations annual meeting are heading home.

Some grant makers say they are leaving the meeting energized and eager to tackle social issues with a renewed vigor.

But at least one conference attendee says the lavishness of the event at the new Gaylord National Harbor conference center has left him with mixed feelings.

Albert Ruesga, vice president at the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation, in Washington, writes on his blog, White Courtesy Telephone, of the uneasy emotions that he felt as he listened to speakers talk about addressing human-rights abuses in an opulent hotel he says is “large enough to have its own zip code.”

“Sitting in this place, isolated as I am from the hurly-burly of the world, I’m in a fog,” Mr. Ruesga writes. “I forget that the wars we ...

Foundations that want to help the poor need to abandon short-term thinking and be much more flexible when they analyze grant applications.

That message was delivered repeatedly at a session here led by foundation officials who specialize in grant making in low-income communities.

“We have to be willing to take some risks,” said Kafi D. Blumenfield, chief executive of the Liberty Hill Foundation in Los Angeles. “This is a risky area of grant making. Not all of the seeds are going to sprout.”

The risky nature of working with small organizations in poor communities prompts many foundations to pour their grant making into more established charities.

But Ms. Blumenfield says foundations that take the time to get to know the people who work in those neighborhoods make smart investments and produce meaningful improvements.

The Liberty Hill Foundation, for example, has created boards ...

When foundations set out to diversify their board composition or grant-making efforts, they often focus on race, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.

But they often do not make those definitions based on geography. As a result, they limit their ability to become more equitable, Robert Ross. chief executive of the California Endowment, said in a session this morning at the Council on Foundations annual conference.

Dr. Ross, who oversees a foundation that has received national recognition for its work in helping close ethnic and racial gaps in health care, said the California Endowment has realized that it needs to expand its focus to also include largely white rural communities that have high poverty rates.

“There are a number of pockets of white rural poverty in California. Their face needs to be included in the photograph,” Dr. Ross said. “Poor rural white folks, they do ...