As the campaign for the White House kicks into high gear, a growing number of charity leaders are pushing for the federal government to create an agency that matches nonprofit programs to government priorities, bolster national-service programs, and provide money to help charities grow, reports The Washington Post.

Problems such as poverty, climate change, and lack of access to high-quality health care and education for the needy are so great that they “cannot be solved by the public sector alone,” says Jane Wales, founder of the Global Philanthropy Forum, in San Francisco.

Both Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama have been receptive to working with nonprofit groups on these issues.

Some caution, however, that increased government involvement may complicate a nonprofit group’s mission.

“We don’t want an agency that is going to over-regulate us,” says Alan J. Abramson, a professor of public and international affairs at George Mason University and a senior fellow in the nonprofit sector and philanthropy program at the Aspen Institute.

To learn more about the issues affecting nonprofit groups in the 2008 campaign, see this special section of our Web site.

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