The organization of culture and the language of gift-giving used by a university development office were studied using an ethnographic approach. Attention was directed to the way that an academic institution selects, designs, and expresses its written and oral fund-raising messages, as well as the variety of factors that precede, structure, and encourage gift-giving. The texts of the institution's fund-raising messages and the contexts in which they are stated were also analyzed. A seven-step process to structurally analyze academic fundraising messages was employed. Data were gathered that describe a university's fund-raising program and that consider their relationship to the larger institutional setting. The texts revealed that alumni, parents, and friends of an academic institution are considered responsible, dues-paying members of the academic family. Totemism, or the belief in kinship through a common affiliation, does operate in the academic community. The language and images were integral, recognizable parts of the institution's culture, and they were presented in texts in order to help the institution survive. Members of the academic faculty were called upon to give time and funds to help perpetuate the life of the institution. (SW)