Jim Littlefield-Dalmares, director of marketing and development for The Cerebral Palsy K.I.D.S. Center in Louisville, KY, who put together a very successful Ask Event^™ on his own, talks about what happened after his team went to a workshop. This compelling audio clip is taken from a September 2005 conference call with Terry Axelrod, founder and CEO of Benevon.

The K.I.D.S. Center never had a development director before hiring Littlefield-Dalmares. When he came aboard, the organization had been going through budget cuts and was "on the cusp of knowing it had to do something different" but wasn't feeling right about spending a lot of money on training.

Littlefield-Dalmares said he got several copies of the Raising More Money book and shared it with the 28 board members. He said he practically memorized the book, and their first Ask Event was a huge success. They raised $380,000 in gifts and pledges from 290 people. But Littlefield-Dalmares said he knew he needed to learn more, so they sent a team to a Benevon 101 Workshop. "The difference was night and day," he said. The biggest differences, he said, were in how they now tell their Essential Story^™ and conduct their Point of Entry^® tours.

"The (Benevon) coaches just on the fly can take your story, turn it around, and retell it in a way, you're like, 'My God, that's amazing,'" he said.

And working together for two days with a team who shares the passion of the organization can work wonders, he said.

"You can love the program and talk about it until you're blue in the face with your volunteers, but there's just something magical about getting six people away for two days in a room where they are inundated and meet other groups and connect and see this is very powerful," he said.