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 to become active and aggressive in communicating with elected officials and candidates for office, he said.

“You represent leadership to our country,” Mr. Egger said. “If not you, who else? Who else is going to go home and organize in your state, in your town?”

Mr. Egger said he is trying to coordinate nonprofit groups to communicate directly with candidates for every political office in the country. He said nonprofit leaders need to be pushing their agenda to mayoral candidates, those campaigning for statewide office, and those competing for the White House.

In many cases, they face an uphill fight.

Nonprofit advocates, for example, spent seven weeks attending events run by Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama when they campaigned this spring in the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania. They received no response from the candidates when they asked them what they thought about nonprofit issues.

The 2008 campaign, however, represents just the first step in a much larger push.

“The real race for us is 2012,” Mr. Egger said. “Each party needs to have a plank dedicated to the nonprofit sector.”