Amid worsening inequalities, scholars have shown renewed interest in the role of elite philanthropy in shaping global society. Yet, research has focused largely on donors’ motivations, overlooking the professional work of fundraisers whose labor makes philanthropic giving possible in the first place. Drawing on 114 interviews with “major gift officers” employed at 72 colleges/universities, this dissertation uncovers the fundamental centrality of individual giving in shaping the institutional trajectory of US higher education as a charitable sector. Also called “development,” fundraising has today become ubiquitous yet remains poorly understood. Taking a historicized view, I consider the evolution of fundraising as an occupational field through several distinct lenses. For example, I build on Hughes’ tradition of studying “dirty work” by showing how respondents contested negative views of their work as begging or pressuring wealthy people to make donations. Rather than simply “asking for money,” respondents rearticulated their profession as matching donors’ priorities with institutional needs. Bolstered by faith in the meritocratic power of higher education, fundraisers asserted the impactful, prosocial nature of their mission. Yet, these ideological framings also served to legitimate wealthy donors’ position, paradoxically exceptionalizing and normalizing rich individuals who made gifts to higher education. Because development took the form of a luxury service personalized to donors’ wants and needs, institutional reliance on individual donations created unique challenges and risks for organizations, including the possibility of “bad gifts.” By calling attention to the conditions, complexities, and contradictions of fundraising geared toward wealthy individuals in the contemporary US context, my dissertation advances the fields of economic sociology, sociology of elites, and sociology of education. Future studies can build on these contributions by comparing philanthropy work across different sectors and by examining the relative importance of individual giving in educational systems around the world.