Finding Money and Raising Funds 77 connections with your supporters is to put a personal note on such communications before they are mailed. We recommend this touch after you research prior contributions over a threshold you have iden- tified, or for people you want to cultivate. The note can be extremely brief: e.g. “Thanks for your support—please let me know what you are doing.” In an era of mail-merged, form-letter responses, a personal note of thanks appended to a letter can be a powerful acknowledgement. If you have the technological support, print newsletters should be supplemented with electronic communications. E-mail updates to constituents about events and ongoing activities are still important. Because frequency of communications is the real issue, we invite alumni and supporters to events even though we know that people are unlikely to travel distances to attend them. As with invitations, Facebook pages further your goal of helping your constituents feel they remain part of the college family. The use of Twitter additionally moves that goal forward. The guiding principles behind these communications are staying in people’s lives so they feel good about being connected to your college and its successes. What you say is less important than commu- nicating frequently. How do you Identify New Donors and Gradually Expand the Pool of Donors? Consider the different groups of individuals who, for different reasons, may want to support a College or University. In our experience the primary categories, in relative order of importance, are: Former students or graduates who are deeply grateful for the educa- tion they received, with an impulse to “give back.” Very often they are first generation graduates, or students whose education was made possible by scholarships, or students whose lives were irrevocably and positively touched by particular faculty or staff. This group also includes legacy families proud of a multi-generational relationship with your University, one which should be specially cultivated in communications, publications, and direct outreach. These natural donors will be enor- mously valuable to an institution when properly cultivated. (At one of our institutions, the largest donor to the University speaks eloquently