The economic fallout of Covid-19 means administrators will be killing more ideas than they approve. But you can lessen the odds that your no will be taken as a personal or political affront.

The Covid-19 crisis is forcing academic administrators to pivot from their usual reliance on face-to-face engagement with donors.

As an academic leader, your style of asking for things must fit what works — politically, culturally — at your institution.

You won’t be the one deciding to close down the campus, but you do have a key role to play as leader of your department, program, or college.

Administrators who conflate alumni outreach with fund raising do so at the risk of their own programs and careers.