Dominque: What advice do you have for somebody who has a nontraditional background and wants to get into fundraising?

Miller: Find an institution that supports causes and has objectives that you truly believe in. Internalize these objectives and develop the capacity to tell compelling stories that illustrate them. Perhaps do some volunteer fundraising in a related field before trying to turn pro. Read up on the basics. Be eager and prepared to meet with people, have a complete command of the institution's table of needs, and seek to understand what motivates each potential benefactor. Think strategically. Work hard and smart. Be courteously tenacious. Have patience and endurance for the long haul. Salesmanship is paramount, but often subtle, and you have to be able to sell yourself to an institution before you can sell that institution to donors. Do not be reluctant to write any letter, make any call, knock on any door. Learn from rejection; don't suffer from it. Plenty of pushback will come your way, which makes hard­-earned success all the sweeter.

Dominique: If you were fundraising for a much lesser-known entity than Princeton, how would you go about it to leverage success?

Miller: Many people look at Princeton with its billions in the bank and wonder why it needs more funding when there are so many other worthy charities and nonprofits operating on a shoestring. This is a valid question. The answer is that Princeton has so many world-­class faculty, programs, and initiatives that converge with donor interests. And importantly, people with wealth generally want assurance that their philanthropic gifts will have both a high profile and a high return on investment. So success generates more success. And talk about a long­-term investment: Princeton is older than the United States of America. So what if your institution doesn't have all these advantages? Promote the people, departments, and programs that are doing the best work. These might be electrical engineering, humanitarian efforts, or basketball. Emphasize alumni relations, starting when future alumni are students. If an institution is young or small and is somewhat thin on accomplishment, talk about ambition and aspiration. A donor should be proud to be associated with an institution. The font of philanthropy is not usually ego; it is love, loyalty, gratitude, and interest or equity in a specific endeavor.

Dominique: Free, universal higher education has been a contentious topic ​during the 2016 presidential election. What are your thoughts? Are American students placed at a disadvantage when they graduate with tuition debt?

Miller: Books can be and are written on these subjects, so all I will offer here are a few random thoughts: Today, a college education is about what a high-school education amounted to only a couple of generations ago. Can this country, so very deeply in debt already, afford another huge entitlement program? Has a college degree become so commonplace that its worth is badly debased? Is there a certain "scam" aspect to the high expense of college compared to the actual value students receive? And what about the enormous amount money that is being made by government and banks in the student-loan racket? And should more young people be seeking alternative forms of education, such as trade and technical schools, that would improve their chances for a decent and lucrative career?