Kristine Frost and her team at the Children's Institute for Learning Differences (CHILD) were first inspired to implement the Benevon Model after attending an Introductory Session with Terry Axelrod, Benevon founder and CEO. At the session, Frost found herself inspired by the model and eager to give it a try. With an event to be held in less than a month, the CHILD team began implementing the model on their own.

"We bought the books and crammed as much [Benevon] process as possible into the luncheon. It turned out to be pretty successful, but all of our lead-up work had been sort of sketchy," says Frost, CHILD's director of resource development and the leader of the group's fundraising team.

Just five months later, Frost and her team found themselves at a 101 Workshop. "We just thought, wow, if we can do relatively well not really knowing anything, just imagine what we could do if we were trained properly," she recalls.

Fundraising was not a new concept to the board and staff at CHILD, a school founded in 1977 for children with special needs on Mercer Island, Washington. The institute's mission is "to create a world in which every child succeeds," but connecting all their fundraising efforts to the mission was new to them. "We were event-based, and those events took so much time and so many volunteers," says Frost. "To me there is no comparison to how we used to fundraise. Everything is mission-based now."

The team's results more than tripled after attending their first workshop and making the shift to focusing on the model year-round.

Frost attributes that success to the workshops. "I don't think when you do it on your own that you get the essence and importance of really turning people on and hooking them emotionally," she says. "It seems obvious—building and keeping relationships—but it can be easy to forget that without coaching and ongoing education."

Now in their third year of implementing the model, Frost says her team is united in a way that she couldn't have foreseen before she attended the workshop, and that translates to an elevated level of service for the children. "We've left the workshop three times in a row now, feeling so excited and full of ideas," she says. "We've been able to enhance how we are able to continue our services, and we've expanded our horizons on what we can offer the kids."

Money aside, Frost maintains that using the model has created a buzz around their school, and with time, the awareness continues to grow. The true value that Frost finds, however, is in their continued coaching. "Coaching is what keeps us focused and on the straight and narrow," she claims.

With their projections steadily climbing and morale around the school at an all-time high, Frost and her team received the ultimate reward this year—a million-dollar donation from a parent.

"We've become so much better at building our family here," says Frost. "I just see no reason to self-implement, because you can make so much more money once you learn the system. It quickly pays for itself. My advice, and the lesson that I learned, is that there is no point to try and do it yourself, because it isn't as effective and certainly not as fun."