The Dissemination Efforts Supporting School Improvement (DESSI) study examined the adoption or development and implementation in 146 schools in 10 states of 61 practices that were part of 4 federal or state programs. Local schools in the study sample were asked to identify those individuals (facilitators) who had helped them with a particular new practice. Based on data collected from 96 external and 78 local facilitators, this paper describes the distribution of facilitators by program and by site; looks at the general patterns of facilitator assistance; examines the activities included and emphasized in the assistance given by facilitators; and discusses the variation in certain outcome variables when different assistance configurations are present. Findings show that the sheer presence of facilitators in local sites attempting change is striking: of 146 local schools in the study sample, only 17 did not nominate either an external or a local facilitator. Assistance given by facilitators formed nine clusters of activity: (1) initiation/awareness, (2) support of teachers, (3) administrator adoption preparation, (4) teacher adoption preparation, (5) materials, (6) implementation specifics, (7) evaluation, (8) continuation/diffusion, and (9) allocating financial resources. Accompanying the text are 14 data tables. (MLF)