Yes, the conversation about a major gift can get more complicated if family members are included. But if the donor wants to include them, it’s much better to do so than have the gift crash and burn later due to important voices not being heard.

How can we understand whether and how the donor's family is important to our work with the donor? How do we respect the donor's privacy while exploring ways to include family members in the gift discussion that might make the gift more meaningful? Or in ways that might enable the gift to happen at all?