Ashton Hawkins, executive vice president and counsel to the trustees, said the museum had received about $58 million in year-end gifts.

Say, for example, you made a year-end gift of your stock and sent the certificates via Federal Express on Dec. 31, 1988.

Your year-end gift to the law school is an investment in the future quality of the legal profession and a significant way for you to remember your past, and I thank you, in advance, for your gift.

As you review the gifts you've made this year I please consider a year-end gift to Herron School of Art.

"There is a tremendous increase in year-end gifts in kind," said Lieut. Col. Leon Ferraez, the national communications director for the Salvation Army, which operates 1,322 thrift shops nationwide.

Museums, too, are in this category, since year-end gifts are more than simply a matter of beneficence.

That's what the tax break known as a bond swap amounts to - a year-end gift of otherwise-Federal dollars.

I urge you to make a year-end gift to the law school.

Your year-end gift to the law school is an investment in its continued excellence.

Despite cuts in public and private aid caused by the recession, museums - both big and small - are reporting a rush of year-end gifts of top-quality artworks.