The Petrus Development Show

In this episode Andrew visits with Chris Hanzeli about two of his different roles in development and his masters research. Executive Director of Institutional Advancement for the Western Dominican Province, Chris Hanzeli has a Masters of Philanthropy and Development through St. Mary's University in Winona, Minnesota.

Director of Campus Ministry for the University Catholic Center at the University of Texas at Austin, Fr. Larry Rice discusses his role at the UCC and also his previous role as Chaplain and Director of Campus Ministry at St. Thomas More Newman Center at the Ohio State University. He compares and contrasts working in campus ministry at these two schools. Fr. Larry just celebrated his 30th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood with the Paulist Fathers. He understands campus ministry and the principles of development and takes his role as supervisor seriously. Share this episode with a priest.

Evangelical Catholic has been forming missionary disciples since the early 1990s. The Evangelical Catholic works nationally to support dioceses parishes and university campus ministries to lead self-sustaining evangelization movements through their customized coaching service and online learning management system. Evangelical Catholic currently works with over 100 Catholic ministries across the nation.
Jason Simon is the President of Evangelical Catholic. In this episode he discusses his journey through Evangelical Catholic, his faith journey, and how that relates not just to fundraising but to running an organization.

Dennis and Marie Wierzbicki, benefactors to the "One Church, Many Disciples" Capital Campaign for the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City sat down with Peter de Keratry at the 2019 Petrus Leadership Conference to share about their experience as donors. Dennis is the president of Ditch Witch and Marie is a volunteer for many nonprofit organizations in and around Oklahoma City. Dennis and Marie shared lessons they have learned along their philanthropic journey, how they have encouraged their children to be philanthropic and what their experience getting involved and giving to the "One Church, Many Disciples" campaign was like.

Dennis and Marie were part of a donor panel at the 2019 Petrus Leadership Conference in Oklahoma City on June 23-26. This is the audio recording of their presentation.

James Baxter, Co-Founder of Exodus 90, has served as its Executive Director since 2015. He attended St. John Vianney Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota and St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in St. Meinrad, Indiana before discerning God was calling him to marriage and secular life. In 2015, supported by his Board, James assumed responsibility for scaling Exodus 90 from a seminary formation program into a spiritual exercise for the renewal of the Church. James presented at the 2019 Petrus Leadership Conference in Oklahoma City on June 23-26. This is the audio recording of his presentation.

John Flynn, Vice President of Advancement for the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), presented at the 2019 Petrus Leadership Conference. This is an audio recording of his presentation.

John discussed the nine virtues of Catholic development officers and the "five rights" of making an ask. To view the slides from his presentation, visit www.petrusdevelopment.com/plc

David Pederson has been the Director of Development for the Catholic Community Foundation for the Diocese of Phoenix since 2013. He has worked in development for over ten years at multiple Catholic campus ministries and the Diocese of Phoenix. In this episode, Andrew and David explore the basics of planned giving: What is it? What types of gifts are made in this type of giving? As well as how to approach donors about planned giving and how to begin a program like that at the Catholic Community Foundation for the Diocese of Phoenix. David offers practical advice for the development professional wanting to explore planned giving as an option for future growth of their ministry.

Mary Hernandez is the Executive Director of Advancement for Our Lady of Wisdom Church and Student Center at the University of Louisiana - Lafayette. Mary is an alum of UL and was a member of the parish prior to receiving an invitation by Fr. Bryce Sibley to help with a fundraising project. Mary accepted and turned a temporary assignment into a full-time position running communications and eventually the development program. In their conversation, Mary and Andrew discuss how the growth of the ministry really spurred growth in their development efforts and how a long-term vision for serving the students of UL has led them to launch a $22M capital campaign to build a new student center.

Show Notes:

Mary’s first job after graduating from University of Louisiana - Lafayette was as a high school teacher. She left that job and went to work for the university in recruitment and orientation. Mary left the job so she could stay home with her children but went back to work when Fr. Bryce Sibley called and asked her to help with a big event at Our Lady of Wisdom.

Mary worked in Communications for OLOW for a number of years before moving into the role of Director of Development.

One of Mary’s early solicitations was with a long-time donor named Kirby. Mary presented Kirby with a large request and he agreed. A few weeks later, Kirby personally thanked Mary for all the work that she was doing and for asking him to take a larger role in development. This demonstrated to Mary that donors are thankful to be invited to give.

A friend of Mary once referred to her as the “Minister of Finance” for the work that she does to minister to donors and for her role as a true part of the Ragin Cajun Catholic ministry.

Fr. Bryce Sibley’s favorite quote is “No money, no mission.” Fr. Bryce is a visionary and pushes the others on staff to be bold and think bigger. This moved Mary to be mindful of the financial health of the ministry and ensure that gifts and donors are appropriately stewarded.

Our Lady of Wisdom converted databases a few years ago and now uses Salesforce to manage their mailing list and giving history. They have 20,000 records but primarily communicate with their “All Givers List” which is approximately 5,000 individuals who have given in the past 5-7 years. They apply additional segments depending on the purpose of the mailing. They send out 3-5 appeals per year.

OLOW has a very active social media presence but have to change their strategy every 12-18 months to adapt to the changing platforms. Their primary focus is to communicate with the students of UL but alumni, parents and donors are cultivated because this content demonstrates the active nature of the ministry.

“The best development work that we can do is to have a strong ministry.”
Fr. Bryce and the staff was interested in exploring a capital campaign to build a new church and student center. They approached their Leadership Council to start discussing a project and the Council surprised them by voting unanimously to start a campaign immediately. They approached their local bishop and he invited them to be a part of the diocesan-wide centennial capital campaign. This ensured that they would have $5M toward their building project.

They have currently secured $9.2M toward the $22M goal but have taken a slight pause while they work to secure land for the new facility.

OLOW has an in-house coffee shop. They were managing the coffee shop for a while but it got to be too much to sustain. Fr. Bryce closed the coffee shop to search for and identify a good partner to manage it properly. Their goal is for the coffee shop to be revenue neutral so that it can be strictly an evangelization tool and not a money maker.

Recommended books:
Searching for and Maintaining Peace - Fr. Jacques Philippe
Conducting a Successful Capital Campaign - Kent Dove

For more information about Our Lady of Wisdom or to connect with Mary, visit www.ourladyofwisdom.org or email her at [email protected].

In this episode, Andrew visits with Keith Myers, the Director of Advancement for St. John XXIII College Preparatory in Houston, Texas. Keith and Andrew discuss the importance of tying the ministry of development into forming stewards with intentionality of purpose. They highlight the importance of Christ at the center of that intention. Keith learned valuable strategies for success in development though his career, which included IT supercomputer sales. These strategies include setting clear goals and tracking your data. Ultimately, being truly present to another person is of utmost importance.

In this episode, Andrew visits with Fr. Ben Hasse, the Pastor of St. Albert the Great University Parish in Houghton, Michigan and St. Anne Catholic Church in Chassell, Michigan. St. Al's is an active and vibrant parish and home to students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends of Michigan Technological University, Finlandia University, and Gogebic Community College in the Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In addition to being pastor of two parishes, Fr. Ben is the vocations director for the Diocese of Marquette. During their conversation, he joyfully tells of his experience in ministry and development for the university parish. He speaks of the practical concerns of running a parish and student center while also emphasizing the importance of relationship.