Every major gift is planned, and every planned gift is major, so this book is written intentionally blurring those lines with the premise that if you know how to identify, evaluate, cultivate and finally ask for the gift, it does not matter if it is a major gift or is a will inclusion leaving the details of bequests to the donors, their lawyers and accountants. Clergy and others need help learning how to 'make the ask' before the remaining generous generations of capacity (anyone over 60 especially) die, having given their gifts to the non-profits and schools so willing and prepared to ask for them. LaFond recounts, "I remember sitting with a beloved, dying parishioner who turned to me in her last three hours and quietly said 'I wish I had remembered the church in my will.' I asked why she had not and she said, sweetly, 'They never asked, and everyone else did, and so thoroughly.'" Clergy and lay leaders are terrified of asking for major and planned gifts while parishes need them and donors need to give them. Clergy are not taught in seminary how to do this essential work of ministry. LaFond, in his various roles, is filling that educational gap.
