Regardless of whether you have ever heard of the Benevon Model, the idea of putting on a Free One-Hour Ask Event^™ can be very seductive. The opportunity to gather a large group of people for one hour to focus on the mission of your organization and generate unrestricted multiple-year pledges is more than most dedicated staff and board members can resist, especially when this event has the power of raising over a million dollars. But as long as the context in which the Ask Event is held is one of scarcity and survival, this elegant, simple, abundance-based model for building sustainable funding from lifelong individual donors will never fully take hold in an organization.

Before you launch into this blindly, take to heart the following cautions:

1. Look at your deeper motivations for putting on this event. For most people who care about a nonprofit organization, special events have traditionally been a way to save the day, bring in some fast money, and then get back to the real work of fulfilling the organization's mission. If this type of short-term, "treadmill" thinking characterizes your reason for wanting to put on an Ask Event, you should not proceed; rather, you should continue with the successful special events that your group has been doing to date.

The Free One-Hour Ask Event is not another stand-alone special event for your staff and volunteers to add to the list. It is the third step of a four-step, circular model for building lifelong donors who will provide sustainable funding for your organization's mission. In other words, the Ask Event is part of a comprehensive system.

2. Look at your own long-term commitment to the organization considering putting on this Ask Event. On a scale of 1-10, how passionate are you about their work? How long do you see yourself being involved there? Are you willing to do the work it will take to alter the course of fundraising there forever?

I know this may sound a bit extreme. After all, you may be new to the organization or may have several nonprofit groups you might like to try this with. But you need to step into this with your eyes open. The Benevon Model is a major shift from the old hand-to-mouth, one-year-at-a-time, scarcity-based, "treadmill" fundraising mentality to a rational, abundance-based system. Although that sounds like something most groups want theoretically, they often are not willing to make such a major change in practice. If you are planning to be the champion of this model for your organization, you will, in all likelihood, encounter significant resistance for a long period of time. If you see your involvement with this organization as short-term (less than two years), you should not proceed. Systemic change takes time.

3. Read my first book, Raising More Money—A Step-By-Step Guide to Building Lifelong Donors. In the few hours it will take you, you will get a far deeper appreciation for the entire model and the role the Ask Event plays in the process.

4. Put together a team. Do not think you can be the exceptional person who pulls this off alone. We have had many other Benevon "devotees" who have gone to great lengths to put on stellar Ask Events, single-handedly. As wonderful as that one event may turn out, it rarely lives on at the organization.

To be successful in the long term, you must have a team of seven people—board, staff, and volunteers—who truly understand the larger implications of the model and are not just "helping out" by putting on your new exciting event. If this event is perceived as Sally's or Bill's new wild idea for an event, it is destined for a short lifespan and you will have missed the whole point of this model.

Take the time to get people on board with the entire Benevon Model. Choose your team carefully. Select long-term players—people with a deep dedication to the mission. That way, as natural attrition occurs, there will be ongoing champions among the board, staff, and volunteers to carry on the plan.

5. Do not skip over doing Point of Entry^® Events. Use Raising More Money—The Point of Entry Handbook to help you customize yours. Design a great Point of Entry Event and put one on at least monthly. If you are not doing this, you are not really using the Benevon Model. These Point of Entry Events will be your real legacy. With all the glitz and focus on the money, and the temptation to pick the fruit too early, people forget that they need to tend and water the tree. Your Point of Entry is that tree; it will keep the entire program self-sustaining. Twenty years from now, if you are to be remembered for anything at your organization, have it be for that inspiring one-hour tour or meeting that everyone in your community still invites people to attend.

6. Don't pressure anyone to do this. As soon as board members hear a new event is on the horizon, they may retreat to either "I hate fundraising" or "I've already asked all my friends." You need to treat your board members just as you would treat brand-new guests at a Point of Entry and slowly bring them through the process. Don't assume that just because they are on your board, your organization's mission is their number one passion. Even if it once was their true passion, it may have grown stale in the face of day-to-day board life.

The same is true of your staff. Program staff have their own jobs to do. At best, if they will be supportive of your efforts, move forward. Even a hint of "we need you to get on board with this" will add an air of desperation that will ultimately backfire. Instead, share your excitement about this more mission-centered approach to fundraising and ask for their input in designing your Essential Story^™.

7. Come to our two-day Benevon 101 Workshop with your team. Let our highly-skilled instructors and coaches work with you to customize and implement this system for sustaining the mission of your organization through lifelong individual donors. Your group of six—often reluctant—souls will be transformed into an inspired and focused fundraising team. They will understand and appreciate the deeper impact of sticking with the entire model. In the year of follow-up coaching that is included in the workshop, we can approve every detail of your program, scripts, printed materials, and pledge levels, and we can even rehearse your Ask Event speakers. Having tracked results closely, we know that the investment in attending our workshop pays for itself many times over.

8. Finally, I recommend that you take a deeper look at the legacy you are committed to leaving this organization. Consider the possibility that you could leave the legacy of a system that generates sustainable funding for the mission of your organization from lifelong donors—donors who truly understand the value of this organization's work and are not giving because they have been tricked, strong-armed, manipulated, or made to feel guilty, but because they are dedicated to the fulfillment of the organization's mission.

Think for a moment about your own giving. We each have our own short list of what I call our "default charities." These are the groups we give to in good times or bad. What is it about each of these organizations that gets us to give and feel great about it? There is almost always some deeper connection to their work, often a personal connection. I still give every year to a search and rescue team that airlifted my sister out of the mountains when she got lost on a hiking trip many years ago. Perhaps one of your friends or family members had that disease this organization is working to eradicate. It may be your alma mater or faith organization.

In every case, it is a group you choose to give to; you actually want to be giving to this organization because you so value their work.

This is what you are committing to if you take on the Ask Event. You are implementing the third step in a four-step, circular process for positioning your organization on the short list of more and more individual donors who truly care about your mission and are giving to you for the right reasons.

Having said all that, I will consider you forewarned. Best of luck as you lead your organization into the new abundance-based fundraising reality.