Due to the fact that I have hundreds of students each year and literally thousands of fomer students, it is impossible for me to respond positively to all the requests that I receive. The hard thing is to know which people to support and which to say "sorry" to. To reduce this conflict in my life, I've created the following policies. I trust you will understand.
1. If you are racing, dancing, walking, dunking, diving, eating, sitting or whatever in order to raise money for some charity or organization or person or whatever and are seeking donations from me, I'm sory but I will not be able to participate. I also won't be making any other donations to causes requested by students, regardless of how worthy it is. I carefully choose the places and individuals to whom I wish to donate, and never agree to donate on the basis of external appeals.
2. If you work in sales and would like to sell me something, or make a presentation to me to try and sell me something, I'm sorry but I'm going to have to say "no." Sorry folks, I just can't do it for the hundreds of requests that I receive each year. And if I did it for one, I'd feel I had to do it for all. This is true for internships or for your regular job.
3. If you work in sales and want me to help you get started by my giving you the names and contact information of my friends and business associates so you can sell to them, I'm going to say "Nope, I'm sorry, but I just can't." My friends have asked me to enact this policy, by the way, and I agree with them totally. This is true for internships, also.
By the way, these policies hold true for faculty and staff as well.