Fund raising 1
Making money and making friends:
Corporate ideology and friendship in university fund raising
Abstract
This study expands communicative understandings of fund raising by analyzing the
discourses of university fund raisers. We found potentially problematic juxtapositions
between the language of corporate ideology and friendship. Specifically, we argue that
fund raisers frequently rely on friendships of utility (Aristotle, Trans. 1999), suggesting a
colonization (Deetz, 1992) of fund raising in higher education. While we question this
colonization, we also find evidence that fund raisers are moving away from the language
of friendship. Therefore, new questions arise about what fund raising processes will look
like communicatively without the language of friendship.