For donors, a gift is a tool, a symbol, a means to perpetuate and create meaning. The enduring quality of values especially appeals to people who are approaching the end of their life. It is a time which clarifies the perishable quality of physical accumulations and urges people to find something that will live on after they're gone. When people choose to talk to you about such enduring experiences, that conversation is almost without exception filled with donor signals. A value that triggers many signals is the potential donor's feelings about money.
Money has many symbolic meanings for people.
It represents a lifetime of work, periods of struggle, and choices that were made that shaped the direction of their lives. Their view of how wisely a child, a relative, a friend, or an organization uses money as a means to gain certain ends is very important to potential donors. When people have worked 40 or 50 years to accumulate what they have, they want to know that others appreciate those efforts, and they want to make the right decision, a satisfying decision regarding how to distribute the fruit of their efforts. It is because of mixed feelings concerning heirs and values that potential donors find it difficult to make satisfying distribution decisions. If they know what to do, they would not be sending out signals.