Debra Ashton has worked in planned giving for 25 years, first as deferred giving administrator for a trust company, and then as head of the planned giving program for four charitable organizations.

Most recently ('93-'00), Debra ran the planned giving program for Boston College, one of the largest Jesuit universities in the country with 120,000 alumni and eleven schools and colleges. Prior to that, ('91-'93) Debra held the same position for Boston University's 15 schools and 220,000 alumni. She also ran the Planned Giving Program for Wheaton College in Norton, MA. ('85-'91)

Debra launched the planned giving program for WGBH, ('78-'85), Boston's public television station establishing the first pooled income fund in public broadcasting. While at WGBH, she also produced two television programs on estate planning that aired nationally on public television. She began her career in 1975 in the Charitable Trust Department of Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company.

Debra's articles have appeared in "Nonprofit World," "Contributions," "The Whole Nonprofit Catalog," "The Chronicle of Nonprofit Enterprise," "CASE Currents," "Endowment Builder," and "Planned Giving Today.

She taught a graduate level course in fund raising at Lesley College, Cambridge, MA and for many years, authored a column, "The Planned Giving Clinic," in New England's fund raising publication, Contributions. She was a founding advisory board member and frequent contributor to Planned Giving Today, a newsletter for practitioners published in Seattle.

In 1988, she collaborated with four other national experts to create a 3 1/2 hour video training series called "The Planned Giving Executive Workshop."

Debra has spoken to many groups in the past 25 years including C.A.S.E., N.A.H.D., N.S.F.R.E., NCPG, the Planned Giving Groups of New England, Cape Cod, Kentucky, Hawaii, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Portland, OR, Albany, NY, Salt Lake City, Honolulu, and to many other local and national fund raising organizations and charities.

Debra is best known as author of planned giving's "Blue Bible," THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO PLANNED GIVING: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW TO COMPETE SUCCESSFULLY FOR MAJOR GIFTS. The revised third edition is now available at www.debraashton.com.

Debra can also be reached at (617) 472-9316 or by email at debra@debraashton.com