"Top Five Ask Event Mistakes" by Terry Axelrod

Here is a list of the five most common mistakes groups make when putting on an Ask Event^™.

1. Not starting on time—buying into one of the many reasons for waiting a few minutes to start.
   
   
2. Having empty seats—not managing the Table Captain process sufficiently to fill all the tables.
   
   
3. Being too vague about what the money is needed for rather than citing concrete examples like "It costs us $1,000 per student per year to provide that special math curriculum."
   
   
4. Having a big name Pitch Person who doesn't understand the complete Benevon Model and thinks they need to entertain and motivate people rather than stick to the pitch script.
   
   
5. Not having the program be emotional enough—having it be just "lovely" and "nice" versus "knock your socks off" fabulous!