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.