22 DEANS AND DEVELOPMENT donors. Indeed, it is often the case that major donors and alumni leaders are two distinct groups. Most major donors are not inclined to take time from their busy careers or their philanthropic activity to get involved in a local alumni chapter or the Alumni Association, or even to attend homecoming. Typically, only a few Alumni Association leaders are major donors. Nonetheless, the Alumni Office can play a useful role in communicating information about Arts and Sciences, in honoring prominent alumni, and encouraging annual giving, that is, cash gifts given each year, and planned gifts, a bequest or estate gift given through a will. Communications is a crucial support for development. It also poses a major decision for an arts and sciences dean. Should you set up your own communications operation within Arts and Sciences or rely on the central administration’s Communications Office? The Univer- sity Communications Office—whether it’s called University Relations, Marketing and Communications, or something else—is the single most important outlet for getting out your story from Arts and Sciences to prospective donors. If you and University Development can get Univer- sity Communications Office to run stories on your highest needs, you have ready-made handouts to use with prospects. While Arts and Sciences may never have a full-service communica- tions effort, most of the deans who have been successful at development also have had some kind of communications efforts—ranging from a half-time media specialist to a several-person office with a director. One critical area for such a staff person to begin with is the depart- mental websites for Arts and Sciences. Typically, University commu- nications controls the content management system and the template for all sites on campus, but the actual content is under your control, and it presents a major source of information for development. Every department or interdisciplinary program site should be updated with an eye to what a prospective donor might think. I have told prospects about wonderful things that a department was doing with students, and been met with the reply, “That’s funny, their website doesn’t make them sound like that at all.” Back in my hotel room, I checked the department site and found it horribly out of date, focused on scholarly