Finding Money and Raising Funds 73 considered in light of, and adapted to, the circumstances and resources of your college or school. As chapter authors we write from the perspective of institutions that 1) do not necessarily have mature devel- opment or advancement operations; 2) have fundraising support staff who are limited in number and, sometimes, experience and ability; and 3) have deans tasked with donor cultivation and asks, but generally lack resources or training for this role. Thus, an important first question to ask is, how engaged currently is your institution with its donors, and how robust are its fundraising efforts? If the institutional track record is modest, initial expecta- tions need to be pegged at similar levels. Traditionally, private colleges and universities have relied more heavily on fundraising, donors, and payouts on existing endowments, and have tended to have more robust fundraising programs sustaining these efforts. But as state support has dwindled, more public universities have instituted fundraising programs, often starting from a very limited base of activity and with little or no prior contact with alumni, the prime base of potential donors. This situation is not a problem just for state colleges with limited fund- raising histories; ironically it also affects institutions that for many years relied upon the support of a small but generous group of major donors. The development offices at such institutions can be lulled into a compla- cency that hinders them from vigorously developing the infrastructure of communications, donor research, and stewardship necessary to a healthy advancement operation. For twenty years at the University of Michigan, Flint, devel- opment operations consisted of one vice-chancellor, a secre- tary, and sometimes an annual giving officer. Focused on “old money” from the community, this vice-chancellor was highly successful in securing major gifts. But she neglected annual and planned giving and the cultivation of mid-level donors who might one day be moved to make larger gifts. When she retired, there was little infrastructure, no staff, and no insti- tutional history of dean-level involvement with major donors. In effect, the institution needed to start from scratch since,