Benevon Community Workshops give funders the opportunity to collaborate with other funders to make sustainable funding possible for a select group of local nonprofit organizations. One or more funders agree to underwrite full or partial scholarships for a minimum of 25 local nonprofit organizations to participate in a private five-year Benevon Curriculum for Sustainable Funding^™ series offered in your community.

The fast-paced, intensive workshops train team members to create a system that bridges the gap from the "old reality" methods of fundraising into the world of major gifts. This puts the organization on the path to sustainable funding, allowing the organization to take its financial future into its own hands.

For more information about the content of Benevon Workshops, visit our Five-Year Sustainable Funding Program page.

Special Benefits for Funders

In addition to the training, coaching, and other materials that are normally included in a workshop in the Benevon Curriculum for Sustainable Funding, funders and participating nonprofits will receive the following special benefits:

• Each funder establishes their own criteria for selecting participant organizations. Most funders select prior grantees that are well-positioned with board and staff leadership to build capacity using the Benevon Model. Other funders have established a modified Request for Proposal (RFP) process.
  
  
• Funders themselves are encouraged to attend the two-day workshop either as observers or as participants with one of the organizational teams they are supporting.
  
  
• Funders are encouraged to be involved in the implementation process after the workshop, including attending Point of Entry^® Events, Ask Events^™, and other related activities, in order to experience each aspect of the new system firsthand.
  
  
• Funders may select the workshop location and help to organize as much (or as little) of the actual workshop logistics as they choose.
  
  
• Each participating organization may send a team of as many as eight people from their board, staff, and volunteers to attend each year's intensive two-day workshop, at a tuition either partially or fully paid for by the funder.
  
  
• Each team leaves the workshop with a customized plan, timeline, and schedule of successive coaching calls over the next year to ensure the successful implementation of their plan.
  
  

Results

• In 2007, groups in the Five-Year Program (local office) raised an average of over $400,000 in gifts and pledges
  
  
• By the third year, groups in the Five-Year Program had raised, on average, a cumulative total of $1.5 million in gifts and pledges through using the Benevon Model
  
  
• By the fifth year, groups in the Five-Year Program had raised, on average, a cumulative total of over $3.5 million in gifts and pledges through using the Benevon Model
  
  
• A dramatic increase in the number of new individual donors (60%–80%)
  
  

Criteria and Requirements

• An individual funder or group of funders selects the location and commits to provide the financial support for 25 nonprofit organizations to participate in the Benevon Curriculum for Sustainable Funding over the next five years.
  
  
• 2008 tuition is $85,000 per team. (Tuition is paid in annual increments of $18,000, $18,000, $18,000, $16,000, $15,000.) Please note that tuition does not include travel and lodging costs.
  
  
• 2009 tuition is $90,000 per team. (Tuition is paid in annual increments of $20,000, $19,000, $18,000, $17,000, $16,000.) Please note that tuition does not include travel and lodging costs.
  
  
• Funders pay all or part of the tuition and expenses. Some funders cover 100% of the costs to the organization; others require each organization to pay a portion of either the tuition or the related expenses.
  
  
• The terms and conditions of any community workshop are formalized in a written agreement between the funders and Benevon.
  
  
• If funders require follow-up reporting and tracking of results of the organizations they fund, they are responsible for making arrangements with each organization directly to provide them with the necessary tracking information.
  
  

More Information
We are happy to provide you with names of prior funders who have offered to serve as references for community workshops. They are quite pleased with the results and eager for other funders to realize the leveraging potential of training local nonprofit organizations to become financially self-sustaining.

For more information about Benevon Community Workshops, please contact us at 206-709-9400 or info@benevon.com.