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Smithsonian's Federal appropriations had increased to about 80 percent of the Institution's total operating support. It has remained around that proportion until the present time.

Beginning in about 1950, a new source of support began to be received in the form of grants and contracts from government agencies to fund a great variety of special scientific projects. After reaching a peak in the late 1960's, these grant and contract funds have tended to remain relatively constant. The level of these grant funds, combined with a steady growth of Federal appropriations, has not been matched by a similar growth of trust funds. Gifts and grants from private sources for restricted purposes have increased steadily, but there has been no corresponding additions to unrestricted trust funds. As a result, a definite policy has been adopted by the Board of Regents to rebuild unrestricted trust fund support for the Institution to a proportion more closely approximating that which had existed in earlier years.

The Institution has, therefore, three major groups of funds:
-- Federal Appropriations
-- Contracts and Grants
-- Trust Funds.

Concerning each of these groupings, it should be noted that employees are either on the Federal roll or on the trust rolls of the Institution, depending on the sources of funds of the activities in which they are engaged. The funding of employment for supporting services reflects this same principle. Employee salaries and benefits