10 DEANS AND DEVELOPMENT than with other parts of University Development. It is, however, important to make certain that you know what the annual fund is saying about Arts and Sciences. Their information may be out of date, inaccurate, or misleading, and yet the Annual Fund’s communications are one of the most common ways your alumni are getting news about Arts and Sciences. Annual fund offices have been known to list Arts and Sciences programs with out-of-date titles, list as minors programs that have become majors, and, inaccurately, indi- cate that gifts to the Annual Fund are going directly to departments or students. Make certain the annual fund is telling your story the way you want it told. Reviewing their materials can be one of the tasks of an Arts and Sciences development officer, or of an Arts and Sciences communi- cations director. Some Annual Fund offices will create a Parent Annual Fund, an Athletic Annual Fund or Faculty and Staff Annual Fund in order to segment audiences and present a more personal message. The biggest issue for an Arts and Sciences dean vis-à-vis the annual fund, is whether ornottocreateanannualfundortheequivalentwithinArtsandSciences. Most professional schools have their own “Friends of Engineering,” or “The Law Society.” Because Arts and Sciences graduates often make up a large portion of the University’s alumni, the president or provost may prohibit an Arts and Sciences dean from creating an annual fund that would undermine the University’s effort. Be mindful of the reality that such efforts can take significant investments of time, personnel, and energy over a number of years before they pay off significantly. Many donors to the University’s annual fund give gifts of only $100. Chasing these is a questionable investment, unless one is doing this on a large scale and is investing for the long term as a University level annual fund should be trying to do. Even though the gifts are small, Annual Fund donors may be very important to you in the future. It is well known that donors who give early and often to the Annual Fund are among the best candidates to become future major gift donors to endowments or facilities. One compromise is to have an unrestricted “Fund for Arts and Sciences,” or “Dean’s Society,” which recognizes $1,000 or more annual gifts to Arts and Sciences with a special letter from the dean, invitations