Appendix A: Glossary.

Annual Fund Aggregate non-endowment giving, unsolicited or solicited ongoing through telephone or mail, sometimes to special groups such as faculty and staff.

Ask (n.) (shudder) An explicit request for a donation, some times for a specific amount for a specific cause; also called the "solicitation."

Capital Campaign A major fundraising campaign by the whole institution, seeking to build its endowment and perhaps fund major projects (e.g., new construction). It has a quiet phase, a testing period before the campaign is officially announced and during which giving is significant enough to ensure success of the campaign goal (e.g., $50M, $400M); it can be either comprehensive or focused.

Case Statement A carefully crafted written argument for giving for a specific purpose, usually custom-designed for a specific prospective donor or group of donors. Depending on the complexity of the project and the size of the request, this document may range from one or two pages to five-to-seven pages or longer. A general case statement makes a broad case for supporting the entity (e.g., an honors program).

Contact Notes Notes written after every contact with a donor or prospective donor, recording the substance of the conversation, donor interests expressed, readiness of donor, questions to follow up on, and updated contact and personal information.

Constituent/Unit Development Officer A professional fundraiser with ongoing responsibility for a specific area or areas of the institution, such as a department, college, library, honors program, or athletics; if available, a useful partner in crime.

Cultivate No, this doesn't mean taking the hoe to the weeds in the carrot patch. Yet "cultivating our garden" (Candide's "cultiver notre jardin") metaphorically means taking care of business at home: getting needed financial support for our program by talking to potential donors and persuading them that they will be making an investment in quality. This term may offend, but it is common among fundraisers for the process of making purposeful fundraising contacts. The cultivation continuum moves from prospect discovery/identification through contact, solicitation, and commitment, to stewardship.

Development A euphemism for fundraising. An institution's development office and its foundation are two separate but closely related entities--one raises money and the other receives, keeps, invests, and disburses it. sometimes called "advancement," though that term is broader.

Endowment A fund of determined minimal size that is invested by the institution's foundation in order to earn interest in perpetuity. The institution determines how much interest (e.g., 5%) can be paid out annually to the beneficiary (e.g., an honors program) in a spendable account, with the option of putting some of it back into the principal to help it grow.

Giving Clubs Groups of donors classified hierarchically according to their lifetime giving and often publicized in a newsletter or display. Each club or tier has a name, and higher levels offer special privileges. Also called "recognition societies," they may offer lifetime membership or, say, a three-year term, requiring renewal of gifts for continuing membership.

Lead Gifts Major initial gifts in a fundraising campaign, usually a capital campaign, whose size up front helps predict success in achieving the campaign's target amount.

Major Gifts These are defined by the institution in monetary terms, often as the minimum amount (perhaps $10K, $25K, $50K) needed to create an interest-earning endowment.

Move (n. & v.) An increase in interest, commitment, or giving level by a donor or prospective donor; as a verb, to persuade a donor or prospective donor to progress toward a commitment or to a higher level of giving.

Naming Opportunity This is an available entity, physical (e.g., a center, room, or garden) or programmatic (e.g., an honors college, a scholarship, a study abroad program, or a speaker series) that for a specified level of giving can bear the donor's name or the name of his or her choice.

Payout The percentage of interest earned by an endowment fund that is available to spend, often set at 4 to 5 percent, on a 5-year rolling basis.

Planned Giving Also called "deferred giving," this term refers to bequests, charitable trusts, multi-year pledges, insurance policies, and other methods by which the donor postpones a gift but with promises expressed in official documents. Some financial instruments provide a living dividend to the donor and to the institution. Development offices often have specialists in these matters. Formerly referring only to bequests, the term has assumed a broader meaning.

Pledge A commitment toward a gift total to be paid in installments (e.g., a pledge of $50K to be contributed in five annual installments of $10K). We hope that the donor does not renege! It is not legally binding, merely a statement of firm intention.

Prospect A person or organization that has some likelihood of becoming a donor.

Prospect Identification Research that discovers or qualifies donor prospects and is a necessary prerequisite to a fundraising campaign; often performed by a development office but aided by directors' own ransacking of their alumni files and their contacts with parents, faculty, community leaders, business people, plumbers, and others with cash.

Stewardship The tender loving care exercised over funds donated and over donor relations, another term used in development offices: using the funds in accordance with the donors' wishes, reporting to donors how the funds benefited the program and its students, writing prompt thank-you letters, inviting donors to events, getting donors together with students and faculty, sending donors points of pride and publications, generally keeping in touch with donors (telephone calls, greeting cards) and recognizing them as integral to the honors mission.

Underwriting Guaranteed partial or full support from a business or individual that will enable a project or event to occur.

Larry R. Andrews is Dean Emeritus of the Honors College and Professor Emeritus of English at Kent State University. He has served on the National Collegiate Honors Council Board of Directors, has been a member of NCHC's Publications Board since 2001, and is a past president of the Mid-East Honors Association. At the NCHC national conferences, he has led several sessions on fundraising and other sessions on a variety of topics. He serves on the editorial board for Honors in Practice (HIP) and has written for the National Honors Report (NHR), the Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council (JNCHC), and the monograph The Honors College Phenomenon. He has also served as a consultant and program evaluator.