Working with Benevon: Information for Funders

Thank you for your interest in Benevon. 

This private section of our Web site is designed for funders who are considering providing funding to grantees to participate in Benevon's training and coaching programs for building long-term sustainable engagement and funding from individual donors.

We have designed this information in a question-and-answer format, including many links to resources on our Web site, www.benevon.com, which you may choose to visit for more in-depth information and to see how we present our work to the public.

  1. What is Benevon? What do you do? How long have you been around? What is your track record with nonprofits?
  2. What is the best way to learn the basics of the Benevon Model?
  3. How does Benevon work with nonprofits? What programs do you offer?
  4. What's behind all this? How did you get started and what are the philosophical underpinnings of Benevon?
  5. How does Benevon work with funders?
  6. How do you select the groups? How will you know if our groups are ready?
  7. What are the reasons for failure?
  8. Should the funder pay 100% of the tuition for each group?
  9. How do your private training and coaching programs work?
  10. What results can a funder expect?
  11. Can we talk to other funders about how this has worked for them?
  12. What other resources does Benevon have available for funders?
  13. What's next? How should we get started?

 

What is Benevon? What do you do? How long have you been around? What is your track record with nonprofits?

Benevon trains and coaches nonprofit organizations to implement the Benevon Model, a mission-based system for engaging and developing relationships with individual donors.

When customized to the unique needs of each nonprofit organization, the Benevon Model builds passionate donors who are committed to the nonprofit's long-term financial sustainability and become involved in many other aspects of the organization.

Benevon has trained and coached over 4,000 nonprofit teams over the past seventeen years in the United States, Canada, and several countries in Europe.

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What is the best way to learn the basics of the Benevon Model?

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How does Benevon work with nonprofits? What programs do you offer?

People refer to Benevon as an evidence-based social enterprise organization. Our model and method of delivery have been developed and refined, week by week, year by year, as we integrate data and best practices learned from the diverse range of nonprofits we train and coach.

Benevon 101: We do not deliver on-site consulting services to nonprofits. Rather, each nonprofit sends a team of seven people—board members, staff, and volunteers—to a two-day, highly engaging, "public" Benevon 101 Workshop, which we offer in several cities in the U.S. each year. Following the workshop, each group receives five hours of telephone coaching over the next year to ensure their successful implementation of the model.

Results: The average first-year group raises $200,000 in cash and pledges and engages hundreds of new individuals in their work. Groups report that over 60% of this money came from new donors.

2013 Tuition: $15,000 per team of up to seven participants. Tuition includes follow-up coaching over the next year. Tuition does not include travel and lodging expenses.

2014 Tuition: $16,000 per team of up to seven participants. Tuition includes follow-up coaching over the next year. Tuition does not include travel and lodging expenses.

Sustainable Funding Program: Upon completion of the first year's training and coaching program, most groups choose to continue by joining Benevon's five-year Sustainable Funding Program. This program includes five successive years of annual two-day workshops with gradually up-leveled content, additional coaching time to focus on donor cultivation, major gifts, and endowment building, and the ability to train up to fifteen additional team members over the five years at our live, online Benevon New Team Member Intensive.

Results: By the third year, the average group in the Sustainable Funding Program has raised a cumulative total of $1.5 million in cash and pledges from using the Benevon Model. By the fifth year, the average group in the Sustainable Funding Program has raised a cumulative total of over $3.5 million in cash and pledges from using the Benevon Model.

2013 Tuition: $110,000 per team (paid in annual increments of $22,000). Tuition does not include travel and lodging costs.

2014 Tuition: $115,000 per team (paid in annual increments of $23,000). Tuition does not include travel and lodging costs.

We have a rigorous application, interview, and screening process to ensure each group has clear goals for financial sustainability and is truly ready to make this level of commitment to the hard work ahead.

Find more detailed information here about our Curriculum for Sustainable Funding, which includes Benevon 101 and our five-year Sustainable Funding Program. (Please note that our website is designed for individual nonprofits wishing to send a team to one of our public workshops in the U.S.)

For funders wishing to train ten or more nonprofit organizations, private workshops can be customized for cohorts of grantees by mission type or geographic area, upon request.

Printable PDF.

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What's behind all this? How did you get started and what are the philosophical underpinnings of Benevon?

Benevon was started in 1996 in Seattle, Washington, by Terry Axelrod, a social worker and founder of three nonprofits—each of which had to accomplish the seemingly impossible: become financially self-sustaining! She realized early in her career that the only path to sustainable funding was to systematically connect donors to the mission of the organization, then involve and cultivate them until they were clearly ready to give—in short, to treat donors the way you would treat a close friend or family member, someone with whom you planned to have a lifelong relationship.

Terry created the Benevon Model after serving as Development Consultant to a private inner city school from 1992 to 1995. There she designed and implemented the fundraising and marketing programs which yielded $7.2 million in two and a half years as well as national recognition of the program, including a cover story in The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Author of seven books including  The Benevon Model for Sustainable Funding: A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting it Right and Missionizing Your Special Events, and several DVDs, Terry is a sought-after speaker, both nationally and internationally.

Her goal, and the purpose of Benevon, is to shift the culture of nonprofit fundraising from the scarcity-based "treadmill" of direct mail, grant writing, and special events to the abundance-based world of mission-focused individual donors who truly want to sustain the long-term operations of the organization.

For a straightforward statement of what the work of Benevon is really all about, read the Eight Guiding Principles of Benevon. For more background you may also wish to read what we believe and the Benevon Story about the origins of Benevon as told by founder Terry Axelrod.

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How does Benevon work with funders?

We take our time to get to know one another, learn about the objectives of your foundation, and assess whether Benevon can in fact be effective in helping you attain those objectives.

Phase I: Due Diligence

  • In this initial due diligence phase, we meet with foundation staff and board members as often as necessary, face-to-face, by webinar or conference call, to address your questions about the process and to be sure you understand and are comfortable with how we work.
  • Although we encourage funders to start by funding groups to attend our one-year Benevon 101 training and coaching program, during this initial phase, we want to ensure your foundation's commitment to supporting your chosen grantees through the longer-term process of becoming financially self-sustaining, assuming they are successful the first year.
  • We know that most groups will stay with Benevon for at least five years to be coached through the entire process. Therefore, we regard this as the start of a long-term relationship with each funder.
  • From the perspective of an individual nonprofit organization, embarking on the Benevon process requires a major commitment to shifting the fundamental culture of the organization, because the model requires them to tell their story to individuals in the broader community, many of whom will want to become involved!
  • Although most nonprofits say they want to attain sustainable funding—philosophically—in practice, the process can be uncomfortable and non-linear. Benevon staff are highly accustomed to working in this environment with board members, staff, and volunteers from individual nonprofits, and coaching them through the process so that, in the end, they feel as if they have done this themselves.
  • This is why we take the time on the front end of our relationship with each funder to be certain that your staff and board are comfortable with the process and will stay with us to support a grantee when they encounter the inevitable challenges.

Phase II: Grantee Selection

The grantee selection phase happens in one of two ways:

  • Some funders pre-select a few groups to fund for Benevon training and ask us to interview them to be sure we feel they are ready.
  • Most funders ask for our help in screening and recommending grantees for funding. The process includes:
    • Offering a Benevon introductory session to introduce the model to the larger group of potential grantees, at an in-person two-hour introductory session or one-hour webinar or conference call. Individual groups requiring further follow-up may receive a conference call with their board or development committee.
    • Working with you to develop an application and timeline for the entire selection process, involving your staff as much as possible. This application is usually a hybrid of the funder's standard application and Benevon's standard application.
    • Conducting Readiness Assessment interviews with all applicants and presenting you with our ranking of the applications in terms of readiness and likelihood of long-term success (as best we can predict). During the interview, Benevon will review the "non-negotiable" aspects of implementing the Benevon Model with each group.
    • Supporting your foundation in selecting the final grantees if needed.
    • Providing sample agreements regarding the Benevon components of the grant, if desired. We strongly recommend that funders have a signed agreement with all grantees. We are available to create and facilitate this process.

Phase III: Implementation

Once your grantees have been selected, the implementation phase begins.

  • During this phase, some funders prefer to have little or no contact, providing financial support and waiting for a written report of the outcome.
  • Other funders want to be highly hands-on, including attending the Benevon workshop with their groups, participating on coaching calls, and attending Point of Entry Events and Ask Events.
  • We encourage funders to be involved to whatever extent they prefer. Our only caveat is that funders not inadvertently step into the coaching process after the initial workshop by offering suggestions or advice that may be counter to Benevon's advice.

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How do you select the groups? How will you know if our groups are ready?

Like many aspects of implementing the Benevon Model, this process is somewhat counter-intuitive. Rather than looking at the strength of each nonprofit's existing donor lists, size of budget or prior fundraising history, we look first at the passion of the group for the mission and their ability to put together a diverse team of staff, board, and volunteers who will come to the two-day workshop and stay with the process for one year. These two factors tell us a lot.

While it may seem like a daunting task for a nonprofit to assemble a team to be trained to implement the model, Benevon has trained over 4,000 nonprofit teams in the past fifteen years. Each of those groups has sent a team, including a mix of staff, board members, and volunteers. Our staff are skilled in helping each group assemble the ideal team that accesses many different aspects of their community, which is a key determinant of long-term success.

Initially, nearly every group we work with feels that they could never find a great team to bring to the Benevon 101 Workshop. Yet most nonprofits have a board, board committees or advisory groups, former board members, program volunteers, fundraising volunteers, and family members of clients whom they could invite to be on their team.

Our goal is to work with each group to select people who are, first and foremost, "raving fans" about their work. Team members must each be willing to give as much as five hours per week for one year to serve on the team. They must be people who have the time, will give the time, and will follow through on what they say they will do. They do not need to be particularly wealthy or well-connected, so long as they have passion and a willingness to work.

We make sure that each applicant organization is able to field a diverse team that meets these requirements: passion, available time, and follow-through.

  • One of the team members, usually the development director, is designated as the Team Leader, who coordinates the work of the rest of the team, delegating as much as possible so the load is shared by all.
  • Collectively, the seven-member team should expect to work twenty to thirty hours a week on implementing the model.
  • It is not necessary to have a development director in the first year of using the model, however having a full-time development director is essential beginning in the second year.
  • Other board members who do not join the team are invited to participate in many ways after the training. The primary role for all board members is to invite guests to the group's one-hour Point of Entry Events, which will be held twice a month.

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What are the reasons for failure?

We take each group's results very seriously. We have found that groups do not succeed for one or more of the following three reasons:

  1. Team composition does not meet our requirements. Team requirements: seven-person team of two to three staff including Executive Director/CEO; two to three board members; and two to three volunteers.
  2. The team does not use the telephone coaching hours that come with the workshop package.
  3. The team does not follow the recommendations of the coach—they "get creative"!

Having said that, for a group to come to our workshop, follow the model and raise, for example, $100,000 from a 250-person Ask Event, is still a major success for most groups. Above and beyond the money raised, every group reports great pride in having the story of their real work known in the community.

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Should the funder pay 100% of the tuition for each group?

While we have worked with funders that offer a wide range of funding options, we highly recommend that yes, ideally, the funder pay for the full tuition for all of the five to six years that the group is with Benevon.

To clarify, we firmly believe that the nonprofit must have "skin in the game." This is paid by the nonprofit in the form of the many other costs associated with implementing the model. For example, the travel costs to send seven people to a two-day training often include airfare, hotel, and meal costs. Beyond that, there are costs of producing a video, putting on an Ask Event, and minor costs at each step of the model. Over time, most groups add development staff, which is another significant cost. These costs borne by the nonprofit can add up to $10,000 to $20,000.

Those funders who have tried funding 50% or 80% of the tuition have sometimes found it to be a barrier, especially if the group must pay heavy travel costs to attend a workshop in another region or part of the country. While the group may put forward a good effort and find their share of the funding the first year, we find that—almost universally—those groups do not continue with Benevon after the first year.

Even if a group raises $200,000 in the first year of using our model, that number includes both cash and five-year pledges. In other words, in this example, the $200,000 only yields $40,000 in cash received the first year. Most groups need every bit of that precious cash and they do not want to spend more than $20,000 of it to come back for the second year of Benevon training and coaching. Understandably, they presume they know enough to go forward on their own. In fact, they have not grasped the inner workings of the model well enough yet, nor how it must be up-leveled systematically in the second year to cultivate the new donors in their Multiple-Year Giving Society (who have made pledges of at least $1,000 a year for each of the next five years) to become major donors over time.

Benevon would greatly prefer that the funder stand beside the nonprofit and provide full tuition assistance for the five to six years that the group might be in our program, to ensure their long-term success. The nonprofit will be expending a significant number of dollars in staff time, travel expenses, and hard costs of implementing the model, above and beyond the tuition.

If a funder has a limited budget for supporting groups in coming to Benevon, we have found it to be far more effective for the funder to send fewer groups and fund them for longer, rather than funding many groups for just one or two years.

Having said that, we are happy to work with you to discuss other funding options.

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How do your private training and coaching programs work?

We offer private, two-day Benevon 101 workshops for groups of ten nonprofits or more. These work well if you have ten or more groups that share the same geographic area (particularly if it is an area where Benevon will not be offering our public two-day workshops) or mission-type (e.g., all health clinics, arts organizations, advocacy groups, schools, etc.).

Additional costs: the funder pays for the costs of the venue, meals, and materials.

Additional benefits: funder chooses location, may add dinner or other social event, excellent team building for board members and volunteers, additional customization of content is possible. Ask us for details.

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What results can a funder expect?

Here are two Benevon Sample Funder Investment Scenarios showing the expected rate of return of $200,000 per year in cash and pledges and $100,000 per year in cash and pledges.

The minimum return on a six-year investment in one nonprofit organization of $120,000 is $705,000.

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Can we talk to other funders about how this has worked for them?

Yes. Once we know more about your specific thoughts and needs, we will refer you to other similar funders.

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What other resources does Benevon have available for funders?

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What's next? How should we get started?

Be sure you know how the model works.

Once you are satisfied that this process is a fit for your foundation and your grantees, we will work with you to craft a plan and timeline for implementation.

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