No other book on the market plumbs the psychology of giving as Mega Gifts does.Jerold Panas, hailed by Newsweek as "the Robert Schuller of Fundraising," explores the motives and pressures that drive men and women to make gifts of consequential size. Scores of books dwell on the techniques for soliciting donors, but only Mega Gifts focuses on the human dimension of giving ? questioning the donors themselves to uncover their underlying motivations.For his research, Panas interviewed dozens of notable philanthropists, each of whom has given million-dollar gifts (some many times over). A sampling of the individuals: Alex Spanos, owner of the San Diego Chargers professional football team, who contributed a quarter of a million dollars on the spot, in response to a three-minute phone call from someone he had never met.James Gamble, grandson of the founder of Procter and Gamble, who recalls his father talking to him about ?DB's? ? Deductible Benevolences. Leo Beranek, co-founder of one of the world's largest acoustical consulting firms, tells of his longstanding interest in music, leading eventually to his major support of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.Malin Burnham, San Diego's Philanthropist of the Year and America's Cup luminary, discusses how he prefers to be asked for philanthropic gifts. The reader will also find fascinating stories about:-Paul Galvin, founder of Motorola -Cyril Magnin, department store magnate-Dewitt Wallace and Lila Acheson, co-founders of Reader's Digest-Clement Stone, the guru of the Positive Mental Attitude-Edwin Whitehead, founder of the Whitehead Institute at MIT-Gerald Jennings, creator of the wheelchair prototype-Walter Haas, Jr., who for years headed Levi Strauss & Company, founded by his great grand uncleJerold Panas is the ?800 pound gorilla? in the field, a respected iconoclast who has written nine books on fundraising and board development ? many of them classics in the field.A great storyteller, Panas is as comfortable quoting Dilbert as he is Doetoevsky, and draws as nimbly from Dr. Seuss as he does from Dr. Sweitzer.