Fund raising is filled with myths about what works — and why.

David Valinsky and Melanie Boyd, two fund-raising consultants, write in their book Raising Money Through Bequests that they don’t believe in giving up on people who have not given for a while.

They acknowledge that a lot of fund raisers believe if someone gave money to your organization in the past, but hasn’t done so in a number of years, you shouldn’t bother keeping them on your mailing list.

Mr. Valinsky and Ms. Boyd warn fund raisers not to be so hasty. “Our colleague Wayne tells a cautionary tale,” they write. “He was surprised when one of these lapsed donors, a woman who upon her husband’s death felt she couldn’t continue her annual support, left the organization with a significant bequest. In her mind, she wasn’t a lapsed donor. She was simply delaying her gift.”

Do you have a story of a lapsed donor who was really just delaying a gift? And if so, did that experience change the way you treat people who haven’t made a gift in several years?