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In accordance with plans laid out earlier, the Office of Membership and Development has been working to increase the numbers and sizes of gifts from individuals and to maximize gifts from corporations and foundations. Progress has been made in the Office's ability to identify, cultivate, and solicit donor and volunteer prospects necessary to the achievement of the Secretary's goals. The Secretary has decided to hold in abeyance the 1991 allocation of $1.4 million to the Office of Membership and Development until such time as a comprehensive and wholly integrated development plan has been vetted with the heads of bureaus and offices. An approach toward providing this detailed plan will be brought to the attention of the Regents' [[underlined]] ad hoc [[/underlined]] Advisory Committee on Planning and Development at its meeting on September 17.

With respect to other specific priorities, a fund-raising plan for the National Museum of the American Indian is proposed elsewhere in this agenda and plans for other projects are expected to be submitted to the Secretary in early September. 


(COPY)
[[underlined]] MEMORANDUM [[/underlined]]

August 8, 1990

TO: Management Council

FROM: Robert McC. Adams /s/

SUBJECT: Smithsonian Fund-Raising Policies and Priorities

The "town meeting" on June 26th signalled an important shift in the overall direction of the Institution's fund-raising efforts. A careful, explicit statement on the changed nature of the effort may help to assure that we are marching to the beat of the same drummer.

The need for this shift arises from a conjunction of recent adverse developments affecting both the Smithsonian's appropriated funds and the private or "Trust" side of its budget. With regard to Federal funding, deficit-related problems are sufficiently well known to need no further explanation. They are having an impact on all government-related operations, and the Smithsonian is not immune to them. Even though expenditure ceilings are still a subject of White House-Congressional negotiations, we ought to begin planning seriously by early Fall in case we are required to endure FY 1991 reductions below the level of our FY 1990 budget.

Meanwhile, forecasts for private or non-appropriated income during the next fiscal year will probably have to be lowered as a result of this year's lower than anticipated performance in a number of our auxiliary activities. Rather than providing any cushion with which to absorb Federal deficit operations, we may face a deficit of non-appropriated funds that must be corrected as well.