`It's what i do," Peggy Kim Meill explains pragmatically. "It's a set of skills I have. I wish I were an artist - but I'm a fundraiser." Meill has been in her job - chief executive of DCU Education Trust (the fundraising arm of the college) - since August.

She's arrived from the US at an unpropitious time, when the university is between presidents. Despite the cultural and legal differences between the two countries - notably the favourable tax relief structure for charitable donations in the US and the strength of planned giving and individual gifts there - fundraising is fundraising wherever you are, she says.

"It's about the strength of the brand; it's about acquaintanceships and how you develop them; it's about marketing so that people know what's going on. It's about ongoing relationships between the donor and the universities."

Although philanthropy is less developed here than in America, "the tendency and the spirit do exist," Meill observes. "The question is, how do you begin to transform that spirit into traditional fundraising?. That's the task of our volunteers. Our second task is to diversify the portfolio."

Meill is part of a new wave of fundraising professionals who have appeared on the Irish university scene in recent years. She comes to DCU with impressive credentials. Korean by birth, Meill has spend most of her adult life in the US. A graduate of the prestigious Vassar College, with a master's degree from Ivy League Brown University, Meill says she "bumped into fundraising" after stints in teaching and publishing.

"My husband was attending Dartmouth medical school in New Hampshire, and I found it difficult to get a job there," she recalls. "I literally bumped into development at Dartmouth College, which had just embarked on a campaign to raise $200 million. At the time, it was a notable amount for a college of that size."

At Dartmouth, Meill became acquainted with fundraising from all sides, including "foundations, corporations and major gift individuals. I helped to develop the fundraising infrastructure there.

"Fundraising is in fact a business rather than an art. As the paradigm shifted, there were changes to be made in the infrastructural needs. It was wonderful to be involved at such an early stage."

After Dartmouth, Meill moved to Stanford University in California. "It was the mid-1980s and Stanford was embarking on a $1 billion-plus campaign. Coming from the Boston area, I found peninsular, north California faster, more focused and less prone to conversation. The first time I met a key volunteer, he said: `Welcome to California. What's the agenda?' It was a very good lesson."

Meill was then recruited by the University of California, San Diego, to set up its fundraising operation. "San Diego was a new university but had a very strong mission. It's part of the world's largest public university system. I was recruited as a core team player in the construction of a traditional fundraising operation.

"They had `done' fundraising before, but for example, they had no tracking system, no method of generating acknowledgement letters."

After San Diego, Meill took her skills to the national stage. The Boys and Girls Clubs of America is a nationwide organisation which provides support to children from disadvantaged backgrounds. "It's not just about play afternoons," Meill stresses. "The clubs offer a range of programmes required to make children productive citizens." Her considerable fundraising experience notwithstanding, Meill's thirst to extend and broaden its range was still not quenched. When the DCU job came up, she jumped at it. "I'd always talked about seeing philanthropy outside the US, but this came sooner than I thought - and my daughter said `go for it'."

Meill says she has been encouraged by her visits to companies in the Dublin area. "They're quite open about discussing the kinds of things they are interested in. In that, things are not too different from what I see in the US. "Companies are beginning to look at corporate giving in a more strategic fashion and that's very exciting."

American companies began to be more strategic about their philanthropy five years ago, she says. "Philanthropy was viewed as being good for the health of the company. It's exciting to see companies here talk like that and I believe more will follow." The real importance of an initial gift from a donor of, say, £50,000 lies in the ongoing relationship that will develop as a result. "You have to look at how the gift enables you to begin to develop a relationship that will benefit both partners in terms of their long-term strategies."

COMPANIES HAVE different agendas. "Some companies are interested in our graduates - in Ireland's next generation of brain power. Others are more specific: they know how difficult it is to recruit good graduates in specific areas. Some have a general interest in education and Irish youth."

A major difference between Ireland and the US is the low level of individual giving here. "In America, 90 per cent of the $160 billion which goes to philanthropy comes from gifts made by individuals. The remainder comes from corporations and foundations. Fundraising here is more heavily dependent on corporations.

"Part of our task will be to begin to diversify that portfolio. We want to lift the bar and break the glass ceiling. When I was in San Diego, the largest gift was $5 million. I bet the next gift was $10 million. Whoever breaks the glass ceiling - it's good for philanthropy across the board. If it's another university and not DCU, I'll be the first to celebrate."