In 2003, the Cerebral Palsy K.I.D.S. Center in Louisville, Kentucky, was facing an $80,000 deficit. They had to cut fringe benefits and retirement contributions, freeze salary increases, and place several children on their waiting list. In their fifty years of existence, they had never had a development department, but the need for a new approach was growing urgent.

The K.I.D.S. Center, short for Kentuckiana Institute Developmental Services, formed in the early 1950s when there were no laws protecting the rights of children with developmental disabilities. A few parents got together and kept organizing until they formed a 501(c)(3) in 1958 with the mission of never turning a child away who could not pay.

When Dave Ramer, the K.I.D.S. Center's executive director, joined in 1979, their budget was financed completely from program fees and funders like the United Way. In 2002, they expanded their space by 60%, but then funders started "flatlining," and the K.I.D.S Center had to scramble to keep up with costs. They needed to raise 25% of their $1.75 million budget from individual giving and grants, but they kept falling short.

They knew they needed a development director, and they soon found Jim Littlefield-Dalmares. He had thirteen years of experience in fundraising, including ten with the local United Way; also, he had passion for their cause. His daughter, Sophie, was born prematurely, weighing just one-and-a-half pounds, and had mild cerebral palsy. At age three, she became a client at the K.I.D.S. Center, where she received medical treatment and help with exercises like walking in her braces and holding a pen.

When Littlefield-Dalmares was first hired two years ago, he conducted a mini-development audit and realized the K.I.D.S. Center needed to raise more from individual donors. A month into his job, he came across the Benevon Model and shared it with the organization's twenty-eight board members.

The board, facing budget cuts, wasn't about to allocate money for training, so Littlefield-Dalmares implemented the model on his own—very successfully. At their first Ask Event^™, the K.I.D.S. Center raised $380,000 in gifts and pledges and ended the fiscal year with a $30,000 surplus.

Many of the board members were convinced that they could continue this system on their own, but Littlefield-Dalmares and others didn't think they could sustain this success without feedback.

Ramer, the executive director, convinced the board to invest in training. "I told them what we had in 2004 was a very special event," he said. "If we didn't go forward with [Benevon], we'd end up with the Ask Event as another special event."

The K.I.D.S. Center wanted something much bigger: sustainable funding. Their goal is a $15 million endowment, so the interest and return on investment would cover their operating shortfall.

Not only has the K.I.D.S. Center attended a Benevon Workshop, they are now enrolled in the Five-Year Sustainable Funding Program^™. They are also part of a community of eight nonprofits in Louisville that support each other in implementing the Benevon system. Since their first Benevon Workshop, the K.I.D.S. Center has had two Ask Events raising more than $500,000, and they have seen the number of new donors giving $1,000 or more increase from nine to fifty-six.

Littlefield-Dalmares jokes that he sleeps with a copy of the Raising More Money book under his pillow, but the model has truly transformed fundraising for the K.I.D.S. Center.

"The [Benevon] system is stuff that great development staff and volunteers have been doing for years," he said. "But the difference is that the system makes that greatness not accidental. It becomes part of your culture to develop and nurture passion and engagement with your charity. And once people are engaged, they will do whatever they can to help you fulfill your mission."