WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 (AP) - America's leading charities raised more than $38 billion last year, an increase of 13 percent over 1998, a philanthropy journal reports in this week's issue.

The Salvation Army led the 1999 survey of the top 400 charities for the eighth straight year, receiving $1.4 billion in cash and donated goods, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, the weekly "Newspaper of the Nonprofit World," which began compiling contribution statistics in 1991.

Top 20 Charities Charities and their income from private contributions Salvation Army, $1,396,877,000 YMCA of the USA, $693,271,000 American Red Cross, $678,320,787 American Cancer Society, $620,033,000 Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, $573,426,582 Lutheran Services in America, $559,041,141 United Jewish Communities, $524,262,231 America's Second Harvest, $471,816,003 Habitat for Humanity International, $466,716,000 Harvard University, $451,672,023 Catholic Charities USA, $446,266,726 Nature Conservancy, $403,484,807 Boys and Girls Clubs of America, $362,336,978 American Heart Association, $357,769,173 Gifts In Kind International, $346,533,993 Cornell University, $341,359,263 World Vision, $331,449,000 Duke University, $330,991,502 Stanford University, $319,590,155 Campus Crusade for Christ International, $314,959,000

The top 400 accounted last year for about a fifth of charitable giving nationwide, which has steadily increased over the past decade, especially in the last three years.

"Giving flows and grows with the economy," Eugene R. Tempel, director of Indiana University Center on Philanthropy was quoted by the Chronicle as saying.

"If the stock markets are not doing as well people are not going to be making these large transfers of assets," he said.

The YMCA of the USA ranked second with $693.3 million in donations, followed by the American Red Cross, which saw a 25 percent increase in contributions to $678.3 million.

Many charities experienced sudden growth because of a single, large donation.

Contributions to the San Diego Museum of Art in 1999 were 28 times greater than the year before because of a $30 million gift from the estate of Rea and Lela Axline, said Chronicle spokesman Harvy Lipman.

The San Diego couple's fortune came from Rea Axline's patent on a process for coating metal alloys onto other metal objects that was used on tanks and submarines in World War II. Their estate also gave $30 million to another local art museum and $60 million to the California Institute of Technology.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy gathers financial data on cash and in-kind donations from individuals, foundations and corporations. Only private donations are tallied, not money from the government or fees charged by organizations.

On the list were 133 colleges and universities, 40 international groups and 25 hospitals and medical centers. Educational institutions received the most support, bringing in $12.7 billion, a 9.7 percent increase from 1998.