What is“Development?” 19 donor and the college or University to get worked out ahead of time. Then signing the legal document is a formality. Major gifts to name an office or classroom may require a simple pledge card that can be signed at the end of your meeting. Remember that 80 percent of the gifts to higher education are “restricted,” that is, they go for specified purpose or aspect of the institution. As the dean, find out the protocol your Univer- sity’s Development Office uses, learn it, and stick with it. Avoid accepting gifts that will actually cost the University money, known as “gifts that go on taking.” My favorite example is a dean with a wealthy donor who wanted to make a major gift to support the teaching of a certain Asian language. The money would have supported one posi- tion. But the donor wanted the language position to be the foundation for broader teaching on that part of Asia. The University offered no major for which this language would have been an appropriate complement, and the only way to have an effective Asian studies program around this language would have been hiring faculty in related fields of polit- ical science, history, and religious studies. These departments had other needs and did not see teaching on this part of Asia as a high priority. Like this dean, in these situations you’re confronted with trying to persuade the donor to broaden or alter the terms of the gift, or convincing the provost and Vice President for Development that you have to turn the gift down. This example points out why it is absolutely essential that the proposal for any major gift intended for your college be seen by you or your development officer before it goes in front of a prospect. Prospects will sometimes ask for control over a gift. This is some- thing that a charitable organization cannot and must not give. A gift is a gift. Your institution’s status as a 501c(3) charitable tax-exempt orga- nization depends on not allowing people to “give” you money, get a tax deduction, and then control the funds in the institution’s accounts. If a foundation or company wants to specify how its money is to be used, then they should give a grant, not a gift. Typical contentious issues involve having the donors help select students for scholarships, chose faculty for professorships, and dictate course content for classes in an endowed program. Donors can specify—ahead of time—the purpose their funds will support, the name on the fund or building or portion