Fearless Major Gifts

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.

Take the fear out of "the art of the ask." Every major gift is planned, and every planned gift is major. This book is written 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 a will. Clergy and others need help learning how to 'make the ask' before thedr major gifts have been allocated to other 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.

Financial Management in the Sport Industry provides readers with an understanding of sport finance and the importance of sound financial management in the sport industry. It begins by covering finance basics and the tools and techniques of financial quantification, using current industry examples to apply the principles of financial management to sport. It then goes beyond the basics to show how financial management works specifically in sport - how decisions are made to ensure wealth maximization. Discussions include debt and equity financing, capital budgeting, facility financing, economic impact, risk and return, time value of money, and more. The final section focuses on sport finance in three sectors of the industry - public sector sports, collegiate athletics, and professional sport-providing in-depth analysis of financial management in each sector. Sidebars, case studies, concept checks, and practice problems throughout provide practical applications of the material and enable thorough study and practice. The business of sport has changed dynamically since the publication of the first edition, and this second edition reflects the impact of these changes on financial management in the sport industry. New to this edition are changes to reflect the global nature of sport (with, for example, discussions of income tax rates in the Premiere League), expanded material on the use of spreadsheets for financial calculations, a primer on accounting principles to help students interpret financial statements, a valuation case study assignment that takes students step by step through a valuation, a new stadium feasibility analysis using the efforts of the Oakland Raiders to obtain a new stadium, a new economic impact example focusing on the NBA All Star game, and much more.

Considering how essential fundraising is to ministry, many church leaders remain terrified of asking for or talking about money. Fearless Church Fundraising removes the terror from stewardship, urging leaders to focus on deep spiritual conversion and a clear, compelling mission before they design the pledge cards. In this rich resource part handbook, part workbook, part spiritual guidebook former monk and popular consultant Charles LaFond combines road-tested strategies and sample campaign documents with a spiritual director's sensitivity. The result is an irresistible, user-friendly text that promises to transform your ministry's fundraising and its spiritual life.

Considering how essential fundraising is to ministry, many church leaders remain terrified of asking for or talking about money. Fearless Church Fundraising removes the terror from stewardship, urging leaders to focus on deep spiritual conversion and a clear, compelling mission before they design the pledge cards. In this rich resource part handbook, part workbook, part spiritual guidebook former monk and popular consultant Charles LaFond combines road-tested strategies and sample campaign documents with a spiritual director's sensitivity. The result is an irresistible, user-friendly text that promises to transform your ministry's fundraising and its spiritual life.

Available for the first time in paperback, Seven Faces of Philanthropy introduces to you the Seven Faces approach—a powerful tool that enables development professionals to maximize their effectiveness when approaching major donors for gifts. The authors identify and profile seven types of major donors and offer you detailed strategies on how to approach them. Both novice and expert fundraisers will find this framework a valuable supplement to existing strategies and techniques.

Providing a step-by-step approach to raising large and repeat gifts, this book shows charities how to diversify their fundraising portfolio, get a high-return, cost-effective income stream, and attain sustainability through relationship-building and planned gifts and legacies.

Like the instant classic The Last American Man, Fearless is the story of a remarkable individual who accepts no personal limits—including fear. Freya Hoffmeister, a forty-six-year-old former sky diver, gymnast, marksman, and Miss Germany contestant, left her twelve-year-old son behind to paddle alone and unsupported around Australia—a year-long adventure that virtually every expert guaranteed would get her killed. She planned not only to survive the 9,420-mile trip through huge, shark-infested seas, but to do it faster than the only other paddler who did it. As journalist and expert kayaker Joe Glickman details the voyage of this Teutonic force of nature, he captures interminable days on the water and nights camped out on deserted islands; hair-raising encounters with crocs and great white sharks; and the daring 300-mile open-ocean crossing that shaved three weeks off her trip. For 332 days Glickman followed Freya’s journey on her blog—along with a far-flung audience of awestruck, even lovesick, groupies—as she took on one terrifying ordeal after the next. In the end, he says, “her vanity and pigheadedness paled next to her nearly superhuman ability to master fear and persevere.”