In the University Development Office (UDO), housed in a posh office building off Brattle Square, charity is big business.

For more than five years, Harvard has been immersed in its Capital Campaign--a quest to shake $2.1 billion from the pockets of its alumni and other supporters. Along the way, a team of professional fundraisers, administrators and alumni volunteers have turned the process of asking for money into a science.

It all starts, according to Campaign Co-Chair Rita E. Hauser, at the top.

President Neil L. Rudenstine, Provost Harvey V. Fineberg '67 and Campaign Chair Robert G. Stone Jr. '45 form an indefatigable combination that charms Harvard's biggest gifts out of its most generous donors.

Two weeks ago, at a luncheon to announce that Harvard had surpassed its Capital Campaign goals with a total of $2.325 billion raised, Hauser wryly explained how Harvard puts on the squeeze.

The wealthiest of Harvard's potential donors, Hauser said, first receive a visit from Stone.

"Bob takes you for lunch at the [New York] Yacht Club and orders a plate of oysters," Hauser says. "[The staff] all call him 'commodore' and at the end of the lunch he says, 'wouldn't it be nice if you gave a few million?'"

The next of Harvard's three envoys to visit is Rudenstine.