# Community fundraising across the Pond

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2006/10/22/community-fundraising-across-pond/
- Published: 2006-10-22T23:00:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

US fundraiser Terry Axelrod is hoping to bring her model of community fundraising
to middle and high value donors across to Europe and the UK in the not too distant
future.
Axelrod, who heads up Benevon (formerly known as ‘Raising More Money) in
Seattle, has spent 14 years building the model which has so far helped to raise 
millions of dollars in the States for a number of charities from poor inner-city
schools to large children’s charities.

In a session at the International Fundraising Congress, Axelrod emphasised the importance
of completing the whole cycle of the model otherwise it won’t work. The idea in
a nutshell is to introduce prospective donors to your organisation with a ‘Point
of Entry’ – maybe a tour around a school or a hospital, which Axelrod stressed must
be fantastic rather than just OK or mediocre, then follow-up the contact with a 
personal phone call. Only when you are sure the prospect is ready should you ask
them for money.

At the end of the cycle comes more contact, inviting donors to introduce others 
to the organisation.

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The model is taught through a two-day workshop, the cost of which also includes 
coaching for a year and a tailor-made model for your organisation. Axelrod said 
she no longer trains just one person from an organisation as it tended to fall down
when that one person left and no-one understood the process and the thinking behind
it. She now recommends that seven people from each organisation attend the training.

The company is hoping to work with an organisation in the Netherlands at the beginning
of 2007, but has yet to bring the model to the UK.

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