What is“Development?” 23 issues for other academics, or almost completely devoid of news about working with students. As Steve Otto, the veteran Communications Director in Arts and Sciences at the College of William and Mary used to say repeatedly, “Every department website should have a great story about a student, a faculty member, and an alum, and the story about the student should have faculty member in it, the one about the faculty member should have one or more students in it, and the one about an alum has to mention having worked with a faculty member.” Prospects are looking for what it is we say we care about the most—close interactions between faculty and students. Yet, academics can be amazingly insular about what they put on their departmental websites, focusing on faculty schol- arship, what they think their academic counterparts at other institu- tions want to read, or department business—faculty meetings, grant deadlines, and turning in advising schedules. Prospects, like potential students, want to hear about innovative work that students are doing with faculty members, how departments are planning for the future, and success stories about how faculty members helped shape alumni’s careers and lives. A good development or Communications Officer can help departments re-shape their messages on websites and ensure that there is always a prominent link: “Want to help more great students and faculty like this? CLICK HERE.” What Not to Do: Event Planners, Lone Rangers, and Crying Poor Why are some Arts and Sciences development offices unsuccessful in raising funds? Three common mistakes are: first, having your Develop- ment Office become mired in planning events and doing alumni rela- tions; second, allowing individual faculty members or departments go off on their own to try to raise money—the Lone Ranger phenomenon; and, third, trying to raise money by “crying poor,” i.e., telling prospects about the imminent failure of Arts and Sciences and its departments, rather than their successes, as a way to encourage donations. Wisely organized receptions, lunches, dinners, get-togethers for guest speakers on campus—all of these have a place in development. If you can get a group of prospects together in one place at one time, you