Hauser Draws Women To Fund Drive

The donors gathered in New York for Wednesday's capital campaign update had three things in common--money, white hair and neck ties.

Rita Hauser has neither white hair nor a neck tie. For the philanthropist and Harvard enthusiast, the preponderance of men in Harvard's fundraising push was a problem for the University.

"I asked at one of these meetings to see a list of the big donors," Hauser recounts. "Women were way behind in giving."

And so the feisty international lawyer and Nixon administration appointee set to work to change the situation. With the University, Hauser created a matching fund that would double every Harvard donation between $25,000 and $250,000 made by a woman.

Only by involving themselves in philanthropy, Hauser says, will women make their voices heard and their presences felt; in short, money talks.

"You don't get on the museum board because you know a lot about Picasso," she says wryly.

Still, Hauser has made herself heard on Harvard's board, stepping up to become one of the national chairs of the $2.1 billion campaign.

She and her husband Gustave, a cable television pioneer who helped develop the Nickelodeon channel aand pay-per-view technology, gave 14.5 million to the Harvard Law School, where they met, $10 million to establish the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations, and $5 million to the women's matching fund.

That fund, after 60 working days, was totally wiped out. After being replenished, it was emptied again in another 30 days.

The effort raised $40 million from women for Harvard. The result, Hauser says, is that women will be a central part of Harvard fundraising in the future.

Although she was not much taller than the lectern before her, Hauser nonetheless managed to captivate her audience as one of the speakers at yesterday's exclusive event. She offered toasts to all assembled and a saucy description of Harvard's "asking you for a few million."

Hauser, a self-described Rockefeller Republican, began her career in the Justice Department after law firms told her they were not interested in hiring women. Soon she was writing speeches for then-President Richard M. Nixon and was appointed to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.

Eventually, she made her way into law, but maintained an active interest in Israel and the Middle East--a fascination that has been shared via the opinion pages of America's newspapers.

A non-believing Jew, Hauser's involvement in the Middle East has been considerable.

In the late 1980s, she was one of five American Jews to meet secretly with Palestianian leader Yassir Arafat, helping to restart talks between the U.S. and the Palestinian Liberation Organization that had been stalled for more than a decade.

Fellow campaign chair Robert G. Stone '45 yesterday declared that "90 percent of us gulped" at the thought of raising more than $2 billion.

But for Hauser, it was a day at the beach.

"I never had a doubt that we would make the number," Hauser told The Crimson.