This year, last-minute donations from Johnson & Higgins, a major insurance brokerage, and the New York Road Runners Club essentially saved the unit.

Only in December, the United States made a last-minute donation that enabled the government to buy the chemicals that keep the municipal drinking water used by more than two million people in Harare and Bulawayo pathogen-free.

Others were hastily soliciting last-minute donations and haggling over the price and arrival time of a generator.

Mr. Ferrer kept to a lighter public schedule of four events yesterday, as he spent time behind the scenes calling supporters and seeking last-minute donations.

If Mr. Ross had not made the last-minute donation, his wife's campaign would have been left with $45,000, according to campaign financial records.

So when staff members for Communities in Schools, a national nonprofit group based in Alexandria, Va., gathered a few months ago to prepare for their second auction, the focus was on the pesky details of generating publicity and rallying for last-minute donations.

Corporate America is already thinking beyond Election Day, increasing its share of last-minute donations to Democratic candidates and quietly devising strategies for how to work with Democrats if they win control of Congress.

The News Corporation figure includes a last-minute $250,000 donation to the National Republican Senatorial Committee by Anna Murdoch, the wife of the company's chief executive, Rupert Murdoch.

Campaigns' scramble for last-minute donations seem desperate because they are.

A7 NATIONAL A9-12; 16 Corporate America Ready To Work With Democrats Corporate America is already thinking beyond Election Day, increasing its share of last-minute donations to Democrats and quietly devising strategies to work with Democrats if they win control of Congress.