Campaign Mechanics that Matter - A Petrus Development Show Episode on Pledge Fulfillment, Naming Opportunities, and More
Andrew and Rhen are back on the Petrus Development Show to tackle the nitty-gritty campaign questions that keep development professionals up at night—the ones that often get pushed aside until they become urgent problems.
What You'll Discover in this Episode:
🏛️ The Naming Game: When and how should your campaign offer naming opportunities?
💰 Annual Fund Flexibility: Can you really stretch annual giving into multi-year commitments without shooting yourself in the foot? The answer might surprise you (and transform your donor retention strategy).
⏰ The Pledge Timeline Sweet Spot: Is there a Goldilocks zone for capital campaign pledges—not too short, not too long, but just right? What should you consider when planning your campaign?
📊 The Reality Check: What percentage of pledges actually get paid, and how can you stack the odds in your favor? Learn the insider strategies that separate successful campaigns from cautionary tales.
Join Andrew and Rhen as they share real-world wisdom that comes from years in the trenches, perfect for any fundraiser who wants to master the subtle art of strategic solicitation.
Got a burning question that's been nagging at you? Fire it over to [email protected]—Andrew and Rhen might just tackle it in a future episode!
08:06.76
Host
Well, howdy everybody. Welcome back to the Petrus Development Show. I am RHen Hoehn from Petrus. Joining me today, he's back.
08:20.00
Host
Andrew Robison, owner and president of Petrus, is with us again.
08:25.12
AROB
Hey, Ren, how's it going?
08:26.59
Host
Living the dream.
08:28.40
AROB
That's right. It's summer, huh?
08:30.09
Host
I cannot wait for it to snow.
08:31.91
AROB
That—
08:32.01
Host
I'm over the heat. Oh, man.
08:36.72
AROB
Could be like next week, right? Who knows? For you.
08:40.33
Host
The only thing... yeah, it won't be too long. The only thing that keeps summer happy for me is all the berries. Blueberry season. Thimbleberry season is kind of at the tail end now.
08:51.83
AROB
Thimbleberry, yeah.
08:52.86
Host
Yeah. And then the garden. Get some tomatoes pretty quick here. So...
08:58.03
AROB
Look at you, you're living your best Michigan Upper Peninsula life.
09:05.04
Host
That's right. That's right. And we're getting close. I know you've thought a lot about this. We're getting close to hockey season. Not that close, but I don't know—a few weeks away.
09:11.13
AROB
That's all I think about these days.
09:13.87
Host
I grew up in Minnesota. I've always followed a lot of Minnesota hockey. It's the thing to do there. And this summer they changed the name of their ice rink. For 25 years—
09:19.02
AROB
Huh.
09:23.43
Host
It's been the Xcel Energy Center, which everybody calls the X. It's just like everybody knows it.
09:26.64
AROB
Okay.
09:27.85
Host
And now it's changed to Grand Casino Arena. Wah, wah.
09:32.20
AROB
Ah, very good.
09:32.51
Host
I don't know. It's not doing it for me. That got me thinking about kind of naming rights.
09:37.18
AROB
Yeah.
09:40.82
Host
A little bit different. It's a business sense. But we just finished building a faith formation center at the parish here in town. And we named it after Sister Ellen, who you knew.
09:48.82
AROB
Yeah.
09:51.64
Host
She passed away a couple years ago, but she served at the parishes here for a long time.
09:52.74
AROB
Yeah.
09:55.43
Host
And so as we kind of came together, as the parish community kind of collaboratively funded it and then decided on naming it after Sister Ellen.
10:06.73
Host
So that kind of brought me to a question that's come up with some of the different clients we've worked on: when do we name things after somebody or allow donors to name things?
10:13.11
AROB
Yeah, there we go.
10:15.42
Host
You see it all the time at like, you know, at the university here, every classroom is named after somebody or some business that's—you know, it's the Ford Motors lecture hall, you know, whatever.
10:27.72
Host
And I was like, okay. And that is, I think, in some sense, a nonprofit type of—they're donating to the university and they're getting something named after them. So when is it appropriate to name different things after donors or after their wishes?
10:42.67
Host
I have some other questions about kind of to tack on to this afterward. But let's start with naming, right? Because that is—that's come up with people. It kind of confuses people. Like, when is this appropriate? How should we do it?
10:54.09
Host
How do we even go about that? I don't know if it's a negotiation or that conversation with the donor.
10:59.56
AROB
Yeah. So that's a good question. And it's something that you don't really think about until you need to think about it, right? It's one of those things that, you know, the donor says, "I'd like to make a major gift to your whatever—campus ministry, your parish, your school."
11:05.61
Host
Yeah.
11:15.09
AROB
"And oh, by the way, is there a way that we can honor my parents who passed away a couple of years ago?" And you're like, "Huh? Yeah. Yeah, I guess we could do that." Never really thought about it.
11:27.07
AROB
So it is something to just at least touch on, I think, in this episode and sort of plant some seeds for ideas. And then maybe you're actually in the process of planning a capital campaign. And this is on your list to do as you're, you know, sort of moving through your silent phases—make your list of naming opportunities.
11:45.99
AROB
So there's kind of two ways to think about naming opportunities, right?
11:51.85
Host
Okay.
11:52.21
AROB
So in a capital campaign, oftentimes if you are building something or you're renovating something, there's like a facilities or a capital component to your fundraising project, then it's at least a decent time or it's a good time to at least consider introducing naming opportunities.
12:14.34
AROB
So just at a very high level, what is a naming opportunity? Somebody makes a gift or makes a donation and then—in exchange for that is the wrong way to say it. And I think that's part of this conversation we'll unpack, but not in exchange for that, but in recognition of that generosity—
12:33.32
AROB
The nonprofit then allows that donor to name some piece of their facilities in some way, whether for them or a name of their choosing, right?
12:45.20
AROB
So, when you're building a building, so like, I—you know—
12:46.04
Host
Yeah.
12:51.42
AROB
You guys know that I live in College Station. I used to work at St. Mary's. They just built a beautiful new church, and it's gorgeous. It's large. It seats 1,600 people, and there are windows and rooms and atriums and altar and everything else.
13:08.92
AROB
And so when they were planning the campaign, they worked with their design consultant to make a list of all of the different sort of pieces that could be named.
13:23.20
AROB
And then included in those, there's angels, there's statues, there's windows, there's the organ, there's different rooms, there's the confessionals, there's all these different spaces.
13:36.50
AROB
And then they said, "This is something that we could put a donor's name on, in recognition of their gift." And then the next question was, "Well, what's the value of these?"
13:48.19
AROB
And so part of it is that—that's where people kind of get hung up is like, "How do I price out an office or how do I price out the altar or whatever?" And so a kind of general rule of thumb is you start with just the price, the cost of that item. If you're building new, what's the cost of that space? What's the cost of that building? What's the cost of that statue?
14:09.85
AROB
But then that's not where you start and that's not where you stop. You don't just say, "Well, cost is $10,000 to put in the altar. So $10,000 gift is—we'll put that donor's name on it."
14:19.68
Host
Okay.
14:20.16
AROB
Generally, then you kind of get all of the cost of all of your items. And then you go through this process of sort of evaluating what items, what areas have the most appeal to donors, right? And so it's a lot more appealing from a donor's perspective to put, you know, grandma or grandpa's name on, say, the altar than the restroom.
14:47.55
AROB
Right? And so you kind of go through this process of like assigning a sort of priority or value rank to all of these spaces. Then you go back and then you start with the dollar amounts that align with that priority ranking.
15:04.99
AROB
And in theory, your dollars of everything—all the spaces—will not necessarily cover the cost of the whole building.
15:05.21
Host
Got it.
15:13.96
AROB
So if it's a—so that was a $30 million project. Well, there's not $30 million worth of naming opportunities, but it's a piece of it. And then at the end of it, then you have all of your items that are the most sort of, quote, "valuable." So that has the highest amount.
15:31.06
AROB
And then these are the items that we have a lot of, so statues, or we have, you know, sort of simple—there's not a lot of—there's still appeal, but it's not as high. And so these are the lower sort of valued items.
15:45.15
Host
Gotcha. Where in the conversation does that come up? Do you present? I've heard of people doing it both ways, where you go to the donor and say, "Hey, if you consider a $100,000 gift or a million-dollar gift, we'll name the parish hall after your family." I've also heard of somebody makes a $100,000 gift and they say, "Hey, and in recognition of that we'd like to offer you the opportunity to name this."
16:09.79
Host
Is there a best practice there? How would you approach that?
16:12.17
AROB
Yeah, that's a good question. And so the process for sort of assigning the items, the areas, the spaces, and then the sort of, quote, "prices," the value of those—that's like step one, okay?
16:25.78
AROB
Now what you're talking about is you have your list. Now we're talking about how do you assign these? How do you sort of make them available to donors? So there's a couple of ways that you can approach this.
16:38.53
AROB
St. Mary's, kind of going back to that example, what they did once they had that list, they included that as part of—I don't know if it was their case for support or another document, but they had an entire document that had two or four or eight pages—
16:53.87
AROB
that listed all of the different, quote, "naming opportunities" in the new church. And so anytime they were meeting with a donor who was giving a campaign gift, because there were some items that, you know, I want to say they started at like $5,000-$10,000 for some of these little statuaries.
17:10.81
Host
Okay.
17:11.47
AROB
Every time they were meeting with somebody, they got this packet and they said, "We wanted to make you aware of our naming opportunities. If any of these are aligned with the level that you want to give," or, you know, kind of however that—and then every conversation was a little different.
17:25.79
AROB
So everybody got a document, which in that case made it very simple to sort of open up that conversation. Now, the other side of it—the psychology point from the donor.
17:37.32
AROB
Some donors are very motivated by putting their name or somebody they love—a priest, you know, who they grew up and they really appreciated and loved and he passed away and they want to put his name on a space, or their parents, or if it's a school, the teacher who taught them, you know, math and really transformed their life or whatever.
17:50.18
Host
Mm-hmm.
18:01.54
AROB
So that's very motivating to them. And so in those cases, as you sort of understand that about that donor, then that can be—to your point—that can be a lead-in to the ask.
18:12.77
AROB
"I know that you really loved Father Kurt, for example"—there was a couple who many years ago who gave a series of gifts and the largest one was to honor Father Kurt.
18:24.41
AROB
And so it was, "I know you really honor him. We'd love to present the opportunity for you to put Father Kurt's name on this space. And you can do that—
18:36.04
AROB
we would do that in recognition of a gift at this level." And so it's almost kind of part of the ask. I would say that applies to people that are very savvy donors. They've given a lot, they give to the university, they give to hospitals, they give to churches, but it doesn't apply to people that are kind of new to philanthropy because it's almost kind of a turnoff.
19:00.02
AROB
And so like, "I don't want my name on anything like that. That feels really weird to me. I want to make a gift, but don't put my name on it or don't put, you know, I don't want to do that."
19:08.70
Host
Okay.
19:10.58
AROB
And so you have to know your donor. So some cases it's a lead with that. And in other cases it's somebody comes to you or, you know, you sort of, whatever the process is, they end up committing to a large gift and then—
19:24.47
AROB
you're the one that presents them after the fact. "You've agreed to this gift. We'd love to recognize that gift by giving you the chance to name this space." So it's very different. I will also say, though, culturally, it's different across the nonprofit sector.
19:39.90
AROB
So hospitals, very rarely is a large gift going to be made that there is not a naming opportunity attached to that.
19:47.73
Host
Okay.
19:48.61
AROB
Universities, similar. Churches, campus ministries, high schools, elementary schools—it's where it kind of starts falling off as, "Well, yeah, I guess we could do that, but it's not like a big part of our culture."
20:02.12
Host
Gotcha. Good. Anything else with naming rights you want to cover?
20:07.04
AROB
That felt like a lot.
20:08.33
Host
Yeah, that was pretty deep dive.
20:10.12
AROB
Yeah, sorry.
20:10.52
Host
Okay. Okay. No, that was good. Transition to pledges and such. Does that sound good? Okay.
20:15.42
AROB
Yeah.
20:17.01
Host
Great. So another conversation that comes up when you may talk about making these asks and something that might come up with a donor. Say you make an ask and the donor says, "Yes, I'm going to make this $50,000 gift, but can I make it over three years instead of all at once?" Kind of making a multi-year pledge.
20:34.73
Host
What does that process look like? How do you manage it? Maybe starting outside of a campaign, just an everyday annual fund ask when you're—either you ask a donor, that's maybe a common ask, the one that I used to make all the time is, "Would you consider a gift of $2,500 a year for the next three years?"
20:52.96
Host
How do you work that out? How does that typically work with donors?
20:57.38
AROB
So yeah, so outside of campaigns, multi-year pledges are, I think, underutilized, but they're a great strategy. So when are they appropriate? If your fundraising operation is new and you're just starting to get into major gifts, right? You've got a strong or decent annual fund, but you don't have a culture of major gifts.
21:20.71
AROB
Multi-year pledges is a great way to, for you to kind of jumpstart your major gift program by asking people for a step-up gift from wherever they give annually to a major gift and then ask them to commit to that amount for three years.
21:36.43
AROB
So $2,500 a year for three years is very common. $10,000 a year for three years is very common. The way you're presenting that to your donor is "This will allow our organization to budget more appropriately, to make plans for growth, knowing that we have the funds coming in.
21:56.80
AROB
And it puts us in a much better position for that strategic growth and that increased impact, which I know you care so much about."
22:01.07
Host
Mm-hmm.
22:05.02
AROB
So that's in a non-campaign situation. They're very appropriate. Now, I will say that there's a sort of a science to this where, you know, if somebody is, let's say we go back, you know, to an example I've talked about in other times, there was a donor—
22:25.45
AROB
for an organization. And we knew that they were a million-dollar prospect. They could make that gift, but we weren't ready to ask them for that. So if we ask them for a multi-year pledge in this situation and said "$10,000 a year for five years," then we're kind of putting ourselves in a situation where we can cultivate them for those five years. That's great.
22:43.74
AROB
But we're not going to be able to ask them for that million-dollar gift for that five years.
22:47.45
Host
Right.
22:48.26
AROB
And so sometimes multi-year pledges are good, but at a three-year commitment because it gives you time to cultivate the relationship, build that relationship, build that trust.
23:00.01
AROB
And then when that three years is up, you're in a better position to say "Your $10,000 a year for three years has been phenomenally helpful to the organization. We have another—
23:11.49
AROB
another project or we have another situation where we'd like to ask you for a gift. And if you're open to it, would you consider a $50,000 a year for five years gift?" So it kind of just gives you a runway, but not locking you in for too long.
23:27.53
Host
Yeah, and I feel like especially when you're just starting out, if your organization is just starting fundraising, it's very helpful to go out and ask for three-year commitments because it allows you to go meet more people in that interim time, right, without having to go back and make an ask every year.
23:38.46
AROB
Yeah.
23:41.25
Host
It also feels like a good kind of level of time to steward the donor, right? So you meet them, you ask them for a gift for three years, they make a gift the first year. Second year, you go back and visit them just to update them on how their gift is being used and such.
23:55.69
Host
The third year you go back as they're kind of making their last gift and probably ask them to consider their next gift after that.
24:02.18
AROB
All right.
24:02.36
Host
I had one donor who I asked for a $5,000 gift. He was like, "I'm going to give you 5,000, but I'm going to give you a thousand a year for five years." And that was just too long, right?
24:12.16
AROB
Right.
24:12.19
Host
Like there's not a good reason to go back every year for the three or four years in between.
24:12.95
AROB
Yeah.
24:17.59
Host
He was a great guy, great donor. And he made other gifts later on, but it just kind of like an awkward—like, I don't even know how to steward somebody for this long when they're already committed. So it's just kind of difficult when you get longer than three years.
24:27.88
AROB
Yep, I would agree. And then that three years is a good time horizon for a donor who is new to major gifts, new to making a major gift to your organization, that they say, "Yeah, I'm happy that I can—I know what I'm giving to this.
24:41.55
Host
Right.
24:46.52
AROB
I know what I'm committing. And it gives me a couple of years to get to know and kind of watch how they use my gift."
24:53.45
Host
Yep, that's true. How about within a campaign? Does that look different at all?
24:58.58
AROB
So multi-year pledges are almost universally used in capital campaigns. The only question that people have is, should we offer three or five year pledge periods?
25:12.35
AROB
So a five-year pledge period in a capital campaign, totally appropriate and almost kind of to be expected.
25:18.18
Host
Right.
25:18.56
AROB
I have had organizations that say, "Can we do 10 or 20-year pledge periods?" And I say, "No, not a good idea." There's just—that's too long. It's like, you know, the university that—
25:33.40
AROB
that has a winning season with their head football coach. And then they sign them to like a 15-year extension. And then by year seven, they're like, "This guy's a bum."
25:38.17
Host
Yeah.
25:40.57
AROB
Like, "What are we—why did we bind ourselves?"
25:41.17
Host
Yeah.
25:42.54
AROB
Like year three or like, "What have we done?"
25:43.37
Host
Yeah.
25:44.56
AROB
You know? And then they end up with this buyout. I attended—my alma mater has mastered this ability to overcommit to their coaches and then really, really regret it. It's so frustrating.
25:52.12
Host
Oh.
25:57.63
AROB
But—
25:57.90
Host
Um.
25:58.14
AROB
So five years is like the long end of a capital campaign pledge, but it's totally appropriate. The other exception to this, I guess the first question would be, can we go longer than five years? And it's just a bad idea.
26:11.91
AROB
The other question though is "We are building and we need—our campaign is for a building and we need the cash to be able to build now or sooner than five years," which is a real concern, right? Like I don't want to wait five years to actually be able to break ground because we don't have the cash. So in those situations you might have to say "We can only do three-year pledges because we need the cash to be able to build and five years isn't going to help us in that regard."
26:29.96
Host
Yeah.
26:40.14
AROB
Right. There's some ways to sort of manage that. But that's a pretty common situation. And why do you do multi-year pledges in a capital campaign?
26:51.48
AROB
Because people can make larger gifts.
26:53.07
Host
Yeah.
26:53.10
AROB
That's just the bottom line. No other reason other than, I can make a million-dollar gift if you give me five years. I can't make a million-dollar commitment if you say I have to make that gift now.
27:03.52
Host
Right. Yeah, exactly. Especially when you're trying to raise kind of an extraordinary amount for a campaign, it makes sense to give them that five-year option. This probably usually—seems like the campaigns I've been around—kind of limit that five-year option to the biggest levels of giving.
27:18.47
Host
And kind of when you get down to maybe the mid to lower tiers, kind of limit it to three years if possible.
27:18.89
AROB
Yeah.
27:24.16
AROB
Yeah. And so practically speaking, a lot of people say, "Okay, well, we're willing to do, you know, the—" I'm working with the priests and they say, "Yep, five years makes sense, but I want to be able to work out my budget to know when the cash is going to be here."
27:37.00
AROB
And so what I have noticed is that, so again, a campaign could last 12 months, right? So you have gifts coming at the beginning and the end. But let's just say for the sake of this conversation—
27:48.47
AROB
every single donor to your capital campaign makes their five-year pledge on day one or makes their gift on day one.
27:53.30
Host
Okay. Gotcha.
27:54.30
AROB
Okay. So we're all starting the same line. 40% of those funds are going to come in in the first 12 months.
28:01.00
Host
Okay.
28:01.76
AROB
So why is that? A lot of people will not make a pledge. They're just going to give you a gift.
28:07.43
Host
Got it.
28:07.44
AROB
So if you've got $10 million in commitments, some of those are just going to be one-time gifts. So obviously those are coming in in that first time. So 40% of your gifts—of the cash—will come in in that first 12 months.
28:20.27
AROB
The remaining four years is kind of where you start splitting out that remaining 60% over those five years with the majority of the pledge. Most organizations are probably going to be at 80 to 90% of cash received by the end of year three.
28:38.28
Host
Okay.
28:38.48
AROB
You have a lot of donors that will make a five-year pledge. And at the beginning of year three, they're like, "You know what? I'm just going to pay it off. I know I said I'd give you $20,000 a year, five years. I'm going to pay it off." And so you end up with a lot of people that get into year two and year three. And they're like, "You know what? I don't need the five years. I'm just going to give you the cash now."
28:55.31
AROB
So practically speaking, you can have a campaign that has a five-year pledge period and you will see 40% of your cash in the first 12 months. And then you'll probably hit 80 to 90% of the cash received by the end of year three.
29:08.52
AROB
And then years four and five are people that made that five-year pledge and they're just sticking to it.
29:14.79
Host
Great. That's good to know.
29:16.16
AROB
Yeah.
29:16.17
Host
A big part when you're making those—when you're securing those multi-year gifts—is pledge redemption. Like how do you go about making sure those pledges come in over the course of the years?
29:26.89
AROB
Yeah. So anything you can do to get people on automatic recurring pledge payments, do it.
29:33.91
Host
Hmm.
29:34.55
AROB
Now, this gets a little bit tricky when you're talking about, you know, well, somebody pledged a million dollars a year for five years. Probably not a good idea to put them on a monthly gift at $83,000 a month, right? Like, I get that.
29:47.17
AROB
They might love the credit card miles, but that's really going to be weird.
29:51.65
Host
Yeah.
29:51.72
AROB
So certainly at the larger gifts, not going to put them on an automatic recurring payment. But the majority of gifts that you see in a campaign, $25,000 to $50,000, and less—even up to fifty thousand dollars—you know somebody doing $400 a month pledge payment to fulfill their pledge, that's awesome.
30:13.59
AROB
It might feel like "This is a lot of processing we're doing." That's fine, it's great. You'd rather do the processing than not get the gift fulfilled in the end. So anything you can do to get them on recurring gift is like, that's like plan A, right?
30:27.98
AROB
Plan B is to come up with a system within your database, your CRM, whatever that is, that automates the pledge reminders.
30:39.10
AROB
And so some people are going to say, "Well, I want my pledge reminder by mail with an envelope that I can send a check." Most people are going to be fine with an electronic pledge reminder where they get emailed with a link to say, "Go online and make my gift."
30:53.81
AROB
Most of those pledge reminders are going to be on annual redemption schedules. Sometimes somebody wants to do quarterly.
31:00.58
Host
Yeah.
31:00.69
AROB
But if they're in a position where they can do monthly, get them on recurring as much as you can.
31:07.00
Host
Love it. Typically pledge redemption isn't gonna be 100% though, right? Like what's a—what should we aim for?
31:13.19
AROB
Yeah, I have seen, and there's probably some data to this—maybe Ren, maybe you can fact check me while I'm talking about this, but I see most campaigns, a successful campaign is going to be somewhere around 95 to 96% pledge fulfillment.
31:28.89
AROB
I would say even 90% is a decent, you know, kind of to be expected pledge fulfillment. So what you're going to end up—you know, best plan you're going into campaign is if your goal is you need $10 million to build the building, set your goal a little bit higher, maybe 11 million, to account for that sort of drop-off and pledge fulfillment.
31:56.71
AROB
Or, you know, just be prepared to go out and make some asks as the campaign—as that pledges are coming in to make up that difference.
32:06.48
Host
Yeah, what I'm finding, just doing a quick little search here, 90 to 95% is considered the standard healthy range. Higher than that, you're well above average, lower than 90%.
32:14.77
AROB
But dog, high five to me.
32:19.20
Host
Got some improvement to do.
32:20.66
AROB
Yeah. And what's going to make it lower than 90%—if your organization has like a big blowup or a crisis and people get soured on the organization or, you know, there's a big scandal and the principal's fired and everybody's like, "Oh, wow, that's not the school that I thought it was."
32:26.32
Host
Hmm.
32:35.54
AROB
Like those are problems that will reduce your pledge fulfillment. Yeah. You know, obviously the economy tanking—some things are out of your control, like, you know, big recession, that's going to hurt your pledge fulfillment.
32:48.76
AROB
Other than that, it's mostly just going to be lack of follow-up and you're not making it easy, convenient for your donors.
33:11.57
AROB
Yeah. So I'll start that over. So somebody was recently telling me about a—that she made a pledge to an organization and it was a big pledge for them and they were going to do it, I think a five-year pledge period.
33:25.09
AROB
But something changed in their database system. And so they had to make a payment off schedule and the organization said, "Well, you need to come by and give us a check."
33:38.01
AROB
And, "We're only open these hours and you can't do it here and you can't do it there." And she was like, "What? Like, make this easy on me and you'll get your money," right?
33:48.22
AROB
So it's not about—it's just like, you know, why do pledges not get fulfilled?
33:48.51
Host
Right.
33:55.30
AROB
It's lack of follow-up, you know, obviously outside of like scandal and situations like crises and economic issues, it's lack of follow-up and it's poor customer service.
34:00.66
Host
Yeah. All right. Well, that feels like a pretty thorough look at pledges when it comes to multi-year gifts and everything.
34:14.10
AROB
Great. I'm just stoked that I was right on my 90 to 95%. Yeah.
34:20.16
Host
Yeah, your experience seems to be true to what others have found as well.
34:24.46
AROB
Yeah, it is. And that's campaigns that I've worked on, campaigns that I've helped with. You know, there's a lot of nuance in capital campaigns when you're asking for that many gifts over a time period.
34:35.92
AROB
There's things that are going to change. But if you're at 90%, 95%, you're doing really well. Really well.
34:43.44
Host
Excellent. Well, before we wrap up here, want to play a little game? I'd like to have a little bit of fun at the end.
34:47.54
AROB
Of course.
34:50.69
Host
And I, you know, as always, I'm scouring the social medias, finding the trending. I'm sure this was trending like a year ago and I'm just getting it now, but we're going to do something a little bit different today. We've been trying some different ones.
35:02.91
Host
I want you to build a gala. Your nonprofit, whatever that might be, is hosting a gala. You have $12 to spend. There's going to be four categories.
35:14.90
Host
Okay. This is—there's going to be four categories and each category is going to have four options. A $1 option, $2 option, a $3 option, a $4 option. Have you seen these before?
35:24.39
AROB
Okay.
35:24.75
Host
Are you familiar with how this goes?
35:26.32
AROB
No, but I'm putting it together in my brain.
35:27.81
Host
Okay. So you can't get the best option in each category or you're going to run out of money, right?
35:31.53
AROB
Yes.
35:31.89
Host
So you've got to decide where are you going to spend? Where are you going to save?
35:35.18
AROB
I feel like this was like a '90s or early 2000s game show on MTV or some True TV or somewhere.
35:40.27
Host
I'm sure it was.
35:42.34
AROB
Okay. All right.
35:43.79
Host
But—
35:43.81
AROB
Good.
35:44.65
Host
For this, for our purposes, just something fun to do.
35:48.04
AROB
Is there like a "Let's Make a Deal" button I can hit and you discount? Yeah.
35:51.74
Host
Nope. You got to make your decisions here.
35:53.29
AROB
Okay.
35:53.62
Host
So there's going to be four categories. You're going to be choosing the venue. You're going to be choosing the entertainment or the attraction. You're going to be choosing the food and the host or the emcee.
36:01.26
AROB
Yeah, okay. All right, I'm going all in on entertainment just so you know. Twelve dollars and we'll have no food, no host and we'll be in a field, but all right, I'll play your game. Go for it.
36:03.05
Host
Okay. So you're going to have four options for each of those categories.
36:08.77
Host
All right. Well—
36:13.42
Host
All right, we'll see what happens. All right, so we're going to start with the venue. And there's like I said, four options, $1 to $4. The $1 option is a parking garage. The $2 option is a barn.
36:24.82
Host
$3 option, hotel ballroom. $4 option, country club.
36:28.52
AROB
Okay.
36:30.00
Host
Where is your nonprofit going to be hosting its gala?
36:34.70
AROB
Okay. So I have $12.
36:37.13
Host
Correct.
36:37.16
AROB
And if I spend $3 on all four categories, then that would be my $12, right?
36:42.81
Host
That'd be so boring.
36:44.22
AROB
But if I spend $4, then I would have no MC, right?
36:50.39
Host
You'd have to—if you spent $4, you'd run out of, yes, you'd have no MC.
36:54.48
AROB
I think you need to give me $10 instead.
36:54.94
Host
I don't know. Just play the game, man.
37:02.62
AROB
All right. Country club, parking lot.
37:09.16
Host
Parking garage is $1. Barn is $2.
37:10.62
AROB
Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
37:12.55
Host
Hotel ballroom is $3. Country club is $4.
37:16.16
AROB
I'm going barn.
37:17.45
Host
I totally agree with you on that one.
37:19.08
AROB
Yeah. Two bucks.
37:19.66
Host
Yeah, I feel like it's going to be straight out of a Hallmark movie, honestly.
37:22.37
AROB
Yeah.
37:23.03
Host
You save a little bit of money, you can get some good ambiance in there.
37:23.03
AROB
Okay.
37:26.26
AROB
Yeah. All right. Now give me the entertainment because I know what I'm doing here.
37:29.69
Host
All right.
37:29.98
AROB
I'm going to upgrade my entertainment to account for that money I saved on the barn.
37:35.60
Host
And I want to hear your thought process behind these two.
37:35.76
AROB
But go ahead.
37:38.70
AROB
Okay, yeah, great.
37:39.81
Host
Okay. For entertainment, your $1 option, a circus clown.
37:44.96
AROB
Okay.
37:45.46
Host
Your $2 option is a local DJ.
37:48.14
AROB
Okay. I used to be a DJ, just so you know.
37:49.74
Host
I know, I put that on there.
37:50.36
AROB
Yeah. Very good.
37:52.88
Host
A $3 option, Matt Maher.
37:54.86
AROB
Okay, Matt Maher.
37:55.22
Host
Pretty good one there.
37:55.92
AROB
All right.
37:56.04
Host
$4 option, Jim Gaffigan.
37:56.60
AROB
Yeah.
37:59.04
AROB
Ooh, all right. Is this...
38:02.55
Host
This is kind of the attraction.
38:02.77
AROB
Okay.
38:03.47
Host
This is getting the people to come to your gala, right?
38:05.89
AROB
Yes.
38:06.07
Host
They're coming to see this probably.
38:08.58
AROB
Yes. What was the first one? A harmonica?
38:11.64
Host
A circus clown.
38:12.82
AROB
Circus clown. All right. Then I want to do Jim Gaffigan with a DJ to play during the meal.
38:19.79
Host
Wow.
38:21.64
AROB
Yeah.
38:22.14
Host
All right. We're going all in here. Heavy on the entertainment.
38:23.99
AROB
Okay.
38:27.12
Host
So you've spent $8.
38:27.22
AROB
Yeah, I told you. Okay, good.
38:29.72
Host
So you got—and that leaves you with $4 left to get food and host slash MC.
38:33.63
AROB
Okay.
38:37.82
AROB
All right, let's do it.
38:38.81
Host
All right, so for food, your $1 option, you're feeding your guests with Lunchables.
38:44.52
AROB
Okay. Solid.
38:46.39
Host
$2 option, gas station pizza.
38:48.98
AROB
Okay.
38:49.73
Host
I didn't put which gas station, though. There's actually some pretty good ones out there. I don't know.
38:52.83
AROB
Yeah, there are.
38:54.46
Host
$3 option, Subway party sub.
38:57.77
AROB
Ooh, all right.
38:58.91
Host
Yeah, and then your $4 option, if you choose this, you don't get a host or MC.
38:59.05
AROB
Party sub.
39:04.02
Host
Surf and turf dinner.
39:05.55
AROB
Oh, man.
39:06.17
Host
Steak and seafood, yeah.
39:06.99
AROB
Yeah. Now I wish I had saved a little bit of money.
39:09.91
Host
Yeah.
39:10.38
AROB
All right. This is risky because I don't know my host options.
39:15.10
Host
Yeah.
39:15.56
AROB
I have a feeling my host options, if I only have a dollar left, are going to be pretty terrible.
39:22.56
Host
It might be a little bit thin at the bottom of that. Yeah.
39:24.86
AROB
All right. I'm going gas station pizza.
39:27.29
Host
Hey, all right.
39:28.15
AROB
I'm with you. Sometimes you can find some gold in them there hills.
39:34.60
Host
So that was $2 and you've spent $2. You spent $2 on the local DJ to play during the meal and $4 on Jim Gaffigan, which I don't really know if that's how this game is played, but we're going with it.
39:43.48
AROB
Excellent. I think it was a smart move. I think it was a smart move.
39:46.66
Host
And you spent $2 on gas station pizza.
39:47.50
AROB
Okay.
39:49.66
Host
So that brings us up to $10. You got $2 left for your host or MC.
39:52.44
AROB
Okay. Okay.
39:53.78
Host
If you had $4, you'd have been able to bring in Pope Leo the 14th.
39:58.90
AROB
Oh, oh man, I totally blew it.
40:04.04
Host
If you had $3, you'd have been able to bring in renowned Catholic performer and three-time Grammy winner, Gwen Stefani.
40:12.01
AROB
Oh, wow.
40:12.79
Host
Yeah, something different there.
40:12.89
AROB
Yeah.
40:15.04
Host
But you don't have those dollars. So you have two choices.
40:18.17
AROB
I get Bobo the Clown. Okay.
40:19.61
Host
You got two choices here. You could spend $1 and save $1. And your host slash MC would be you and me.
40:29.63
AROB
Yeah, all right. One dollar split—we got to split that 50 cents each, bro. All right.
40:30.68
Host
Yeah, we got to split that. 50 cents a piece. With $2, you can bring in known Catholic actor and director Mel Gibson.
40:42.53
AROB
Wow, what a bargain. I know, that's true. Yeah. That is a risky, risky move, but do people want to come see the fireworks potentially?
40:43.41
Host
You never know what you're going to get with him.
40:56.71
AROB
As much as I think that you and I could crush it, I'm going to go Mel Gibson.
41:02.53
Host
I think that's probably a wise choice.
41:03.98
AROB
Because we'll be there too, right?
41:04.11
Host
That's definitely—exactly.
41:06.15
Host
Everybody's going to want to see—
41:06.22
AROB
If he's bombing, we just kick him off the stage and...
41:08.38
Host
Exactly. Even if you know—yeah, you know that you don't know what's going to happen. That's probably what the attraction is. Oh goodness. Well, I think you put together a pretty good little gala there. We're going to be having our little Hallmark scene in a gussied-up barn with Mel Gibson and Jim Gaffigan, gas station pizza. Yeah, I know. Where's—what's the gas station to go to for pizza in Texas?
41:15.42
AROB
Yeah. All right. I think, yeah.
41:22.65
AROB
Perfect.
41:26.38
AROB
Wow.
41:28.67
AROB
Don't sleep on that DJ either.
41:33.88
AROB
Oh, gosh. I don't know. I'm kind of a Circle K guy. I stop for a soda at Circle K every morning.
41:39.04
Host
Okay.
41:41.17
AROB
I don't know. I ever get the pizza, though, because it's usually morning, because I don't eat pizza in the morning.
41:46.45
Host
Gotcha.
41:47.62
AROB
I don't know.
41:47.84
Host
Gotcha.
41:47.96
AROB
That's a good question.
41:49.00
Host
Yeah, there's some options out there. In the Midwest, I think—well, we don't have them here. In Minnesota, it's Casey's. That's the—oh. When I was working jobs, we were out on the road all day in college.
41:57.16
AROB
Casey's.
42:00.32
Host
Casey's was the spot.
42:01.71
AROB
Okay.
42:02.27
Host
QuikTrip is the other. Oh, good stuff.
42:03.99
AROB
QuikTrip. Yeah, all right.
42:04.81
Host
Yeah, with a K not a Q.
42:05.31
AROB
They have QuikTrips in like Oklahoma.
42:06.11
Host
Yeah, yeah.
42:07.43
AROB
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
42:07.85
Host
Yeah, yeah. So—
42:09.36
AROB
When I drive to Arkansas, we stop at a QuikTrip.
42:09.40
Host
Ah.
42:11.82
Host
Yeah, good stuff. Excellent. Well, thank you, Andrew. I think that was some good fun and some good information.
42:16.99
AROB
Good. Excellent.
42:18.10
Host
All right. Have a great day.
42:19.48
AROB
All right, thanks.
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