Although NET's Development Office was not officially established until April 1, 1959, and the office of Vice President for Development came about even later, George L. Hall was functioning as a development officer as early as 1956. His activities are recorded in the Early Central File of the president's office and to a lesser extent in the files of the Vice President for Network Affairs.

As the title suggests, Development was charged with the responsibility of developing the financial resources of NET, including the generation of immediate short-term funds to offset the cost of program production, and the attraction of outside long-term endowment or investment funds to make NET financially secure and independent. “Outside” in this context meant other than Ford Foundation money.

In October 1963, when NET dropped participation in radio and in television station activation in order to concentrate their resources more fully on quality programming, it was decided that the Development office would no longer seek funds for NET's “survival”; instead it was to seek funds to bring additional programs into the schedule. Armed with elaborate and often sophisticated proposals, as well as the statistics of the ETV viewing audience, development officers contacted industries, advertising agencies, foundations and agencies of the federal government to secure the funding for research and production of programs concerning special interest topics of importance to a larger audience. For example, the American Automobile Association might be approached for funds to support a program on safe driving. The research was often as important and costly as the actual production; often a company would underwrite the research into a problem, and then, if the results looked promising, would separately underwrite the production. Series or expensive programs might have a number of underwriters. The only credit the underwriter received, unlike sponsors in commercial television, was an announcement with the final credits of his financial support.

The office of Development was never completely successful, having to compete with the commercial networks and local ETV stations for the funding dollar; and as early as 1961, NET proposed to the Ford Foundation that a permanent endowment of $500 million be established in NET's behalf.

As with many series, these files are fragmentary. For the period covered, however, they offer an adequate picture of the range of activities of the Development Office.

The files are composed of 60 per cent correspondence and 40 per cent reports, proposals, and an occasional script or script outline. They are arranged in three basic files: memoranda; a general correspondence and subject file; and underwriting correspondence. This was probably the arrangement employed by the office for development.

The memoranda are arranged according to the officer in development receiving them. They cover 1963-1966 and show how the development office functioned within NET. There is much that is routine, but almost nothing trivial. One finds here not just information about fund raising, but reactions to specific programs and program ideas from development and other NET personnel. There was much candor between departments over the quality and pertinence of prospective shows, and one sees the origin, critique and culmination of ideas.

Memos of unusual significance within this file include four to Winter D. Horton in 1966:

• January 6 - Pointed critique of educational television from Edwin R. Bayley.
• January 25- Possible program on hazards of smoking
• June 15 - Problems of color production
• September 23 - Lengthy report on Midwest trip in quest of underwriting.

The general correspondence and subject file contains correspondence, statistics, proposals, reports, and budget materials for 1959-1968 (mainly 1962-1966). Arranged alphabetically, most of the material relates to individual programs, specific underwriters, NET Film Service, and the Ford Foundation. As in the Memoranda File, internal NET operations are also revealed here, but the information is more pointed toward a specific program, subject or underwriter. One can see the progress of a program from an idea to actuality, from the development perspective.

In the folders kept and arranged by program, one can readily see the efforts made by Development in behalf of individual programs, often with several underwriters before achieving success. In addition to correspondence with underwriters and program prospectuses, there are many internal memos here too, documenting more fully and specifically what the Memoranda File indicated, namely Development's need for very close relationships with both Programming and Public Information in order to be aware of programming needs, to know prospective programs thoroughly in order to sell them to underwriters, and to gain additional help in the presentation of ideas about prospective programs. Occasionally, there is an unusual amount of outside correspondence with persons other than underwriters, as for example, reactions to “Dynamics of Desegregation 1960-63,” Box 4, Folder 12.

The underwriters correspondence covering the years 1957-1966 is arranged alphabetically by underwriter with more than one firm or institution per folder and with the O-Z segment largely missing. The types of documents are basically the same as those contained in the program folders. However, one can see here the approach taken with a given underwriter over a number of months and years, rather than merely in behalf of a specific program. One can examine methods of approach and failures as well as successes. These files complement those arranged by program then, in documenting much more fully the actual process of fund raising. The failures often tell us more about NET than the successes, as to its rise and eventual demise.

Items of specific or singular interest in the general correspondence and subject file include:

• The extensive file on ETV Audience Survey, which one would normally expect to find in the files of the Program Utilization Department.
• Minutes of Board of Directors Meetings, 1960-1966.
• The folder on Children's Programming. One of few in entire collection.
• Folder--“Development Office Reports” contains memo 8-2-1961, W. Kraetzer to J. White entitled, “Random Thoughts on The Development Office; Its Past, Present and Future.”
• Ford Foundation--Basic Financing Proposal, box 2 folder 14, submitted by NETRC September 1961. Excellent document containing statement of NETRC's purpose, accomplishments and future plans, along with request for $500 million permanent endowment.
• Ford Foundation--Proposal for National Instructional Television Materials Service, box 2 folder 15, describes NET as the “natural home” for such a service and stresses need for quality and “other-than-local” programming.
• NET Film Service Inc. folders contain the number of bookings of some films July-December 1959.
• The Face of Sweden, box 7, folders 4 and 5, contains an unusually large amount of correspondence documenting the complex production and fundraising aspects of this program. Also includes some viewer reaction.
• Program Suggestions, box 7, folder 12. This folder allows one to see what NET rejected as well as what they produced.
• Requests for Promotional Films--box 8, folder 1-3 and box 7, folder 13. Films are “Knowledge and Ideas”, and “National Educational Television”. Requests are routine and repetitive, but serve as an indicator of interest in ETV. They include some reactions to the films.