Book excerpt: Raising More Money is an organization based in Seattle that coaches nonprofits on a system for raising sustainable funding from individual donors. Axelrod, the group's founder, here lays out the rules of engagement for the Ask Event, a one-hour gathering of a large group of people that focuses on an organization's mission in order to generate multiple-year pledges for operational funding. The goal is to get away from the hand-to-mouth, burnout-generating reality of most nonprofits, which often focus on a single year's financial goals at the expense of long-term survival. Axelrod's guide puts the event into a larger fund-raising context, explains how to prepare for and hold an Ask Event, and shows how to sustain the cycle.