The Petrus Development Show

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RAISE24 - The Catholic Fundraising Conference | June 24-26, 2024 | San Antonio, TX

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It's time for another change!  We continue our Petrus Development Show Q+A series on important development topics, but this week's episode features a new voice from the Petrus family.  Join us as Rhen interviews Matt Bond, Petrus consultant and executive director of the Santa Fe Family Life Center in Oklahoma City.  Matt and Rhen discuss a variety of potential donor events, and they share their thoughts on which events are most worth the time and effort.   


Rhen and Matt are very clear about the challenges of beginning large fundraising events such as galas and golf tournaments.  Instead, they share ideas about events that are smaller, more manageable, and potentially even more successful in the long run.   


Specifically, Matt answers the following questions: 

• What types of donor events can an organization consider?  Do different events have different purposes?
  
  
• What kind of time and investment should you expect for large events like galas?
  
  
• Why might several smaller events be better than one large event where you can raise a lot of money at once?
  
  
• If you go for smaller events, how do you decide who to invite?  What does a sample agenda look like for the event?
  
  
• Is there a best day of the week for donor events? 
  
  
• Can events be an organization's main source of revenue? 

The idea of a capital campaign can be a daunting one.  Capital campaigns require an organization's full attention for an extended period of time, and the campaign's monetary goal can seem an impossible task.  Good news!  Petrus can help.  Listen as Andrew and Rhen discuss the basics of what a capital campaign looks like and what organzations can to do begin preparing for a campaign.   This is an episode about campaign logistics, but it's also a message of encouragement for organizations who may be considering a capital campaign in the near future. 


Specifically, Andrew answers the following questions: 

• What is a capital campaign?  
  
  
• Why choose a capital campaign over normal fundraising?  Will a capital campaign hurt our annual fund?
  
  
• How does an organization determine the amount for their capital campaign?
  
  
• What does the capital campaign process look like?
  
  
• When is an organization ready for a capital campaign?  What can be done beforehand to prepare for a campaign?  

 
Listen to this episode and learn the answers to these questions and more!  As mentioned at the end of the episode, Petrus is offering free access to a virtual summit on capital campaigns.  If you're interested, click here to sign up!

In this week's episode of the Petrus Development Show, we continue our Q+A series with Petrus president, Andrew Robison.  Listen as Andrew and Rhen outline the intial steps for beginning a sustainable fundraising program.  Yes, we know this is a very quick primer - it's 30 minutes on the best ways to get started. 


Andrew offers detailed answers to the following questions: 

• What is sustainable fundraising?
  
  
• What does it mean to fundraise based on relationships?  
  
  
• Where do you start when building a fundraising program?  What are the layers of a good development program?
  
  
• What activities should you avoid when you're just getting started?
  
  
• Where should a new fundraising program start with staff allocation and time management?
  
  
• What should you look for in a first-time development staff member?

Listen to this episode and learn the answers to these questions and more!  As mentioned at the end of the episode, Petrus Development's BOAT (Basic Online Advancement Training!) program will begin it's spring cohort in the next few weeks.  Would you like to get an idea about what BOAT involves?  If so, click here to access a free BOAT preview course.

In this week's episode of the Petrus Development Show, we continue our Q+A series with Petrus president, Andrew Robison.  Listen as Andrew and Rhen discuss the special blessing that monthly donors are for organizations.  


Nonprofit and ministry leaders tend to underestimate the power of monthly donors.  Fundraisers receive pushback asking why they are focusing on monthly donors when they should be going out and making asks for big major gifts.  In this episode, Andrew and Rhen clearly state the case for growing a strong monthly giving program. Specifically, Andrew answers the following questions: 

• Why should fundraisers put effort into monthly giving?
  
  
• What can you expect in terms of monthly gift size?  Do you send monthly tax receipts for donors?  
  
  
• What would a monthly giving society look like?
  
  
• What should you do when a monthly donation fails?
  
  
• What are some methods you could use to encourage more monthly donors?  How do you get people to sign up?
  
  
• What is a senior class gift program?

Here we go again! We continue our Petrus Development Show Q+A series on important development topics, but we're changing things up this episode. This week, Rhen interviews Tara Doyon, director of operations and senior consultant at Petrus, and Tara shares about all things major gifts.


Together, Tara and Rhen have decades of fundraising experience, and they come together to chat about their advice for fundraisers who are working to increase their major gifts solicitation. Specifically, they discuss the following:

• What is major gifts fundraising? Does a major gift need to be a specific amount to qualify?
• Why do fundraisers go out and ask people for gifts? How do you decide who to meet?
• What is the donor cycle? What is the typical progression for a donor to go from a first time gift to a major gift?
• How do we get face-to-face meetings? Where should we hold meetings? What happens in these donor meetings?

Welcome back to the Petrus Development Show! We continue our Q+A series with Petrus president, Andrew Robison, and this week's discussion is about personality strengths and weaknesses and how those traits affect your fundraising.


Andrew and Rhen begin this show with a fun question. Which of the following tools do you most closely identify with: a hammer, a measuring tape, a screwdriver, or a saw? As they'll explain, your choice might have a lot to say about your personality type.


From there, Andrew and Rhen turn to a more formal personality testing model, closely resembling the Myers Briggs test, and they discuss 4 core pairs of attributes. They outline specifics of these attributes, and they explain how fundraisers can develop professional strategies that are inclusive of both their strengths and their weaknesses.


Specifically, Andrew answers the following questions:

• What are the 4 core pairs of attributes we consider for personality types?
• What do the different attributes say about what your fundraising strengths might be?
• Can introverts be successful fundraisers?
• Is one personality type better than another?
• How can you build fundraising and executive teams that allow for complementary personalities?

Listen to this episode and learn the answers to these questions and more!


As mentioned at the end of the episode, Petrus has a worksheet outlining considerations for choosing a new donor database, and you can sign up to receive it by clicking here.


Finally, we welcome your fundraising questions for potential use in future shows. Are there questions you'd like to hear Andrew answer? If so, email us at [email protected] with your question, and it just might appear in a future Petrus Development Show episode.

While we start this episode with a joke, donor databases are a very serious matter. As you'll learn in this Q+A with Petrus president, Andrew Robison, choosing the right donor database can make a world of difference in your fundraising capabilities.

Andrew and Rhen kick off their discussion on donor databases with an explanation of why organizations need to invest in a fundraising database instead of relying on spreadsheets of donor info. From there, they share tips about what to look for when purchasing donor databases.

Specifically, Andrew answers the following questions:

• What types of reports do you want your fundraising database to be able to give you?
• What other things should look for when searching for a new database?
• When setting up your database, what specialty fields might you want to add? Is there any data we shouldn't include in the database?
• How much time does your organization need to allocate for database maintenance?
• What's the process for moving from one database to another?

(And, a laugh for your day: Q: Where do dads store dad jokes? A: In a dada-base!)

We're continuing our Q+A podcast series with Petrus president, Andrew Robison. In this episode, Andrew and Rhen discuss gift acknowledgment and donor stewardship. While this may not be the most exciting part of a fundraiser's job, it's essential. And, you might be surprised. The act of thanking donors is likely to be more powerful than you expect.


Do you have questions about how and when to successfully thank donors? If so, Andrew and Rhen answer these questions and more.

• What is required of organizations when thanking donors?
• What should organizations do beyond the mandated donor acknowledgment?
• What is an acknowledgment matrix and should you create one?
• What should organizations expect in terms of grantwriting success?
• What are some creative ways to thank donors?
• If someone has never made a donor thank you call, what advice would you give to get them started?

Listen to this episode and learn the answers to these questions and more! As mentioned at the end of the episode, Petrus has a worksheet outlining the anatomy of a thank you call for fundraisers, and you can sign up to receive it by clicking here.

And, we're back! After a Petrus Development Show hiatus, we return with an interview with Petrus president, Andrew Robison. Andrew and Rhen, Petrus's marketing director, are back with a new episode about goal setting, and it's a good one!


It's the beginning of a new year, and Petrus is all about goal setting. Organizations have goals, and fundraisers need to have goals, too. That said, have you ever wondered what goals you, as a fundraiser, should be making for your work? If so, Andrew and Rhen answer these questions and more.

• Are there specific activities fundraisers should consider for their goal setting?
• If so, what are the metrics that fundraisers should be tracking? And what are realistic numbers for those goals?
• Can and/or should fundraisers receive a commission based on total money raised in a specified period?
• What should organizations expect in terms of grantwriting success?
  
  

The gem of this episode is in the details. Andrew and Rhen share specific numbers for potential development goals, and they offer different examples based on the organization's size and the fundraiser's experience. As mentioned at the end of the episode, Petrus has a sample incentive plan worksheet for fundraisers, and you can sign up to receive it by clicking here.