Rodney Bivens, the executive director of the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, had just spent a month in New Orleans helping with relief efforts and knew that his food bank was going to take a financial hit from the disaster efforts they were providing—a $170,000 hit, to be exact. So he decided to ask for some big money. After working on the content of his proposal, he got on his computer one Sunday night and wrote an e-mail asking a potential donor for a $500,000 leadership gift. But right before he sent it, he doubled the amount.

Within hours after receiving Rodney Bivens' plea for money, the donor wrote back with some questions and said it was a good proposal. Then, shortly thereafter, the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma received a million-dollar pledge from the donor to be paid over five years. The donor pledged $500,000 of his own money, and his company pledged the remaining $500,000. Meanwhile, a friend of the donor added another one-time gift of $100,000.

"It's the largest single individual or corporate gift we've ever received," said Bivens.

The donor had never visited the food bank or been to an Ask Event^™, but he had given $150,000 before to a capital campaign, and the donor's chief financial officer was on the food bank's board.

Bivens credits the Benevon coaching with preparing him to ask for such a bold gift. Benevon provides a system for recognizing and cultivating major donors and prepares organizations on how to communicate powerfully after receiving such a windfall.

One of the big factors in the food bank's success is knowing how to stay passionate and share that passion—a big challenge for many nonprofits struggling with bureaucracy and budget cuts.

Bivens' passion is infectious. When he went to the hurricane-affected areas and helped out for a month, he kept a Weblog that was hugely popular.

Bivens has spent his life on the front lines against hunger. He founded the food bank twenty-six years ago, after a childhood of his parents struggling to keep food on their table, but he never told his own story. At a workshop, Senior Instructor Lori L. Jacobwith pushed him to share and refine his story. Bivens responded that "It's kind of personal."

"I didn't feel I could tell my story," Bivens said in reflection. "No one had ever heard it."

Once he began to tell that story, though, Bivens saw that anyone who heard it was touched. He also found that telling it gave him renewed passion.

When Bivens grew up in southwestern Oklahoma, sometimes there was nothing to eat but "greens" made of a local plant called "poke." When his father became paralyzed in a car accident, his family relied on food from their church, friends, family, and strangers.

"When I see families struggling to put food on the table, I feel their pain and know what they are going through," Bivens said. He now tells his story more freely and invites others to share their own stories, like the man with emphysema who can no longer work and relies on a food pantry to keep him going.

Today, the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, whose slogan is "Fighting Hunger...Feeding Hope," works in fifty-three counties and distributes over 20 million pounds of food each year to 500 food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, senior centers, and other sites. The food bank also runs food programs for hungry children in school, after school, and even in the summer.

"I guess I've always had passion, but [Benevon] has re-ignited that passion," said Bivens. "It allows us to tell our story to so many people—many of whom had no connection to the food bank but who now feel a part of our mission."

In this podcast, Terry Axelrod, Benevon founder and CEO, talks about how the Benevon Model facilitates asking for major gifts.