Organization Overview

Benevon trains and coaches nonprofit organizations to implement a mission-based system for raising sustainable funding from individual donors. This system ends the suffering about fundraising and builds passionate and committed lifelong donors.

Through free introductory sessions, workshops, books, DVDs, fundraising software, a Web site, and an electronic newsletter, nonprofit organizations learn to customize and implement a step-by-step fundraising model that ensures sustainable funding for their mission.

The Benevon Model teaches nonprofit organizations how to gain lifelong individual supporters by educating them about the organization's mission and work. Benevon has trained and coached over 3,000 nonprofit organizations to implement this low-pressure, high-results formula for success. Staff, volunteers, and board members appreciate this natural approach to asking for money, and donors appreciate the opportunity to become involved with the organization in a truly meaningful way.

What makes Benevon different?

The Benevon Model is the only comprehensive system that provides nonprofit organizations with a step-by-step system for long-term financial sustainability through relationships with individual donors who really understand and support their missions. By training each nonprofit to customize this system to their unique structure and then coaching them to implement it successfully over time, Benevon empowers nonprofit organizations to take their financial future into their own hands, rather than relying on year-to-year grants and special events. This is a system that teaches people to fish, rather than going fishing for them.

History and Growth

Benevon was founded in 1996 by Terry Axelrod, a professional fundraiser and social worker who committed herself to teaching others her proven, successful model for fundraising from individuals so that all nonprofit organizations can become financially self-sustaining. After over 25 years in the nonprofit world, raising funds for many nonprofit organizations, the Benevon Model took form in 1995, during the time Terry spent at an inner city school in Seattle. She designed and implemented the fundraising and marketing programs which yielded $7.2 million in this 2 1/2 year period as well as national recognition of the program including a cover story in the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Since then, organizations of all types and sizes have demonstrated that the Benevon Model can provide a pathway to financial sustainability for any and all nonprofit organizations.

Benevon began in 1996 with two full-time staff and one part-time assistant, with workshops held primarily in Seattle and Washington, D.C. The organization has grown to over 40 full-time employees. The main office is located in Seattle, and Benevon instructors and coaches live throughout the United States. Introductory sessions and two-day workshops are held all over the United States and Canada. Teams from approximately 500 organizations attend the two-day workshops each year for customized training and coaching, and nearly 20,000 people attend introductory sessions each year. The free, bi-weekly, electronic newsletter, the Benevon E-New$, currently has a circulation of approximately 23,000 people in over 60 countries.

The day to day operations of Benevon are structured around the same model taught in the two-day workshops, with a focus on building lasting customer relationships with the nonprofit organizations served. Staff at Benevon take great pride in knowing that their work allows nonprofit organizations all over the world to achieve the financial resources necessary to fulfill on their missions.