"Welcome to Petrus, Josh!" - A Petrus Development Show Episode Introducing our Intern

In this week's episode of the Petrus Development Show, Rhen chats with Josh Weimer, Petrus's summer intern. 

We invite you to spend the next 20 minutes getting to know Josh and his role with Petrus.  As our youngest Petrus employee, Josh offers unique insight into generational differences in fundraising, and he shares the things that have surprised him most about his introduction to Catholic fundraising at Petrus.  

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT:

02:44.40 Host Well, howdy everybody. Welcome back to the Petrus Development Show. I am Rhen Hoehn from Petrus. Joining me today, he's in front of the same brick wall, but it's not Andrew Robinson. Today, joining me is our summer 2025 intern, Mr. Josh Weimer. How's it going, Josh?

03:00.01 Josh Weimer It's going well, Rhen. It's a pleasure to be here and be on the show.

03:04.26 Host Excellent. You're in Andrew's office. You're down in College Station with him for the summer.

03:09.17 Josh Weimer I have kind of crashed his living situation.

03:09.27 Host Tell me what...

03:15.82 Host Tell me about yourself, I guess, as we begin. Who are you? Where are you from? Where do you go to school? Let's start there.

03:23.47 Josh Weimer Yeah, so I am originally from Atlanta, Georgia, born and raised. Southern boy, as they say. And so being here in Texas has been a good taste of the South, although a little different.

03:31.65 Host All right.

03:35.18 Josh Weimer Texas South is much different than Georgia South. But I am a rising senior at the University of Notre Dame.

03:38.63 Host I can imagine.

03:43.55 Host Excellent.

03:43.66 Josh Weimer It's been a great joy to be a Domer, as we're called, Fighting Irish. And so I am studying business and philosophy. So kind of two very different sides, but I'm loving kind of intertwining the two.

04:00.28 Josh Weimer The Notre Dame Business School, Mendoza, does a great job of giving philosophy and theology classes in business, which has really kind of helped my own personal passion of Catholic business.

04:13.39 Host Excellent. Before we get into what your internship with Petrus is like, have you had other internships before throughout your college career here?

04:24.98 Josh Weimer Yeah, so I recently, over the past year, interned with a Catholic pilgrimage company called Verso Ministries. And they are located in South Bend, Indiana, right near Notre Dame.

04:40.24 Josh Weimer And it was a wonderful experience, my first taste into the working world. Previously, both freshman and sophomore year, I was in seminary, undergrad seminary.

04:51.17 Josh Weimer And so after very good and fruitful discernment, I realized that that's not where the Lord's calling me and turned towards serving the church through business instead. And so entering into that internship opportunity this past year was absolutely wonderful to get a taste of Catholic business at its finest.

05:09.86 Josh Weimer It was really wonderful. I was working in operations, so helping pilgrimages, a lot of logistical things, you know, all of that good stuff.

05:16.50 Host Okay.

05:17.85 Josh Weimer So I like the kind of organization and logistic-type things. And so that was super wonderful, a great opportunity and experience. The people there are great.

05:29.01 Josh Weimer And I think one of the biggest takeaways was the value. I love getting to serve the church in doing business, but also being around people of similar mindset, wonderful, devout Catholics. It certainly contributes on a whole new level to the working environment.

05:54.72 Host Excellent. Let's... Where do I want to go here? So if you had asked us at Christmas time, "Are you going to have an intern at Petrus?" That wasn't even on our radar. We hadn't even thought about it.

06:06.35 Host We never posted a position. But maybe before we get into how you ended up as our intern, what drew you to Petrus and Catholic philanthropy and our work?

06:18.27 Host How did you end up finding us and what drew you to trying to get an internship with Petrus?

06:25.42 Josh Weimer Yeah, it's a wild story. I was actually meeting one of my other roommates who came in town for the summer. I'm in a house with a couple of guys here at Texas A&M. And so one of them was back yesterday and I was recounting the story.

06:35.68 Host Yes.

06:38.77 Josh Weimer He had a very similar crazy way of getting an internship, but I was like, I attribute it fully to Providence, really. Part of me doesn't know how I ended up at Petrus, but I am so glad for it and so much better than I could have imagined.

06:53.50 Josh Weimer Personally, when I was a junior at Notre Dame this past year, I had done a lot of classwork in consulting and strategy and working to problem-solve things like that.

07:07.86 Josh Weimer My specific business major is strategic management. So there's a lot of consulting, problem-solving aspects. And so in the business world, consulting is a big way you can go.

07:08.07 Host Okay, right.

07:20.95 Host Right.

07:21.35 Josh Weimer And so I didn't really know that much about it, but I knew that I was interested in Catholic business. And so I was like, I wonder if there's such thing as Catholic consulting. You know, I'd found a few places that did it, but nothing that had really clicked. And so to be honest, I applied to a bunch of random secular consulting firms and didn't really hear much from them, but I was really passionate about trying to pursue consulting work in the Catholic world, but didn't really know where to go.

07:56.80 Josh Weimer And I showed up to the SEEK conference this past year in Salt Lake City. And I happened to go through the list of people and organizations there. And I had never heard of Petrus Development before, but I saw the name and I read a little bit about what you all are doing, what the company is doing. And so I walked over to the table and just started talking. I was like, "So what do you do?"

08:25.89 Josh Weimer And I think that was the first or second day of the conference. And then every other day after that, I came back and was asking more questions. And I was like, I didn't even know such a thing existed. I was like, "Fundraising consulting? That's so fascinating." And so to see a way that you can help and advise clients and people, like actual people in the church...

08:48.99 Josh Weimer It was fascinating. And I was like, "So have you ever had an intern before? Like I'm kind of looking for an internship." And at the time I was talking with Andrew and he was like, "No, we've never had an intern."

08:59.56 Josh Weimer So I was like, "Okay, would you consider it?" And so after that, we kind of just began discussions and I got to meet with Andrew, meet with Tara on the team, and it was totally providential that I ended up here at Petrus. And I couldn't be more grateful for it.

09:19.38 Host Excellent. Great. So we're in the middle of the summer here. What kind of things has Andrew had you working on as the intern at Petrus?

09:35.39 Josh Weimer Yeah, I've been thrown in the deep end and I love it, but it's been wonderful. My first day on the job, I wasn't even in the office. We went up to a workshop in Dallas for Campus Ministries.

09:35.39 Josh Weimer Yeah, I've been thrown in the deep end and I love it, but it's been wonderful. My first day on the job, I wasn't even in the office. We went up to a workshop in Dallas for Campus Ministries.

09:48.88 Josh Weimer And so I was thrown in the deep end with a workshop for Campus Ministries. And then the week after that, I was up in Indiana with Tara working a little bit, getting to see one of her capital campaign—one of our capital campaign clients.

10:04.65 Josh Weimer And getting to meet them, see what that is like, and then also go up to Notre Dame, get a taste of my home with Petrus. So it was wonderful. I got to go up there for one of the RAISE workshops.

10:16.60 Josh Weimer And so it was wonderful for me. The first two weeks was...

10:17.46 Host Excellent.

10:20.93 Josh Weimer You know, drinking from a fire hose. I was learning out the wazoo, talking left and right and just trying to... it was my first ever experience with fundraising. So I only had preconceived notions, but I didn't really know what it meant. And especially not only from the fundraising side, but from the fundraising consulting side, it's kind of a unique approach.

10:43.58 Josh Weimer And so, yeah.

10:43.91 Host But let me ask, as long as you're there, what were some of those preconceived notions?

10:49.68 Josh Weimer I mean, to be honest, all my fundraising background had been what you hear from my home parish growing up. You know, you'd see the little flyers in the pews or the little postcard things of the Archbishop's Annual Appeal. You know, maybe the annual giving type things or a big gala, big events. And so I really had never connected fundraising with the mission of the parish or the school or the church in general, and certainly never understood what it really meant from the sake of...

11:29.43 Josh Weimer Like building up the church and helping people really contribute to their personal mission financially. I mean, you hear about giving your time, talent and treasure, but then a lot of it looks like, "Okay, what does this really look like?"

11:46.16 Josh Weimer You're just going to put your money in the pew every Sunday at Mass. And that's just what fundraising is, but it's much more than that. And you guys talk about it all the time on the podcast, so I won't go into any of that. But drinking from a fire hose in the first few weeks of my internship here.

12:05.36 Host What has... has anything surprised you in these first few weeks about fundraising, about working with churches, about working just within Catholic organizations? Anything there that's kind of been different than what you expected?

12:20.16 Josh Weimer To be honest, I mean, I don't know what I expected, but it's certainly been interesting to see... I guess, I mean, kind of bouncing off the preconceived notions of fundraising.

12:22.71 Host Okay.

12:32.37 Josh Weimer There was a lot of... you know, I had never really seen or heard about fundraising kind of on the more major gift side of things and what a large chunk of asking people for money and meeting with donors and all of these things. I didn't even know that was a side of fundraising. I kind of just assumed it was like you put up a donation page on your website and people donate because they care about the cause and that's it. But how do you actually foster that?

12:59.21 Host Right.

12:59.25 Josh Weimer What does it look like to go and meet with people? I had never heard of any of this. And so I would say the biggest eye-opening aspect of working for Petrus, working in the fundraising world, has been what it actually entails to meet with people, meet with clients, foster those relationships, go and ask for...

13:20.18 Josh Weimer You know, larger donations, larger gifts. And to see not only that that's... I mean, I guess the stereotype is it's a little bit awkward to go and ask for big gifts like that in the fundraising world, but to see that it's really a way that you can invite people to be—as Andrew says, he talks about being the hero of your own story and you're just the guide to help them get there. So...

13:44.33 Host Have you found that any of your family or friends have preconceived notions about what fundraising is and don't really understand what you're doing working with a fundraising-related company?

13:53.89 Josh Weimer When I first tell them that I'm working for a Catholic fundraising consulting firm, they're like, "What?" So there's a lot going on there.

14:04.55 Josh Weimer And then when I kind of break it down, it's... I kind of break it down in the ways of Petrus serving clients that are Catholic schools, Catholic parishes, but also really focusing on education, which... the best way that I guess my family's kind of viewed it, they know of general consulting firms and they think it's kind of just like going in and doing work for somebody or advising people.

14:33.71 Josh Weimer And then they kind of know about education-based foundations, I would say, but the way that you're able to bring education into consulting and...

14:46.59 Josh Weimer Yeah, people... there's certainly... they had never... nobody, every time I talk about Petrus, nobody's ever heard of anything like it. And so they're very... yeah, it's just not something that's well known.

14:57.83 Josh Weimer I mean, certainly something that's not well known in the church and just broader... like, you know, Catholic businesses helping other organizations.

15:05.49 Host Right. Yeah. Sidebar here. Were there other projects you want to mention that you're working on or you have been working on so far? I kind of cut you off in the middle there.

15:18.00 Josh Weimer I think that's probably good. So I mean, it's kind of a little bit of this, little bit of that, but I guess some membership stuff, but that stuff's still in the works.

15:23.46 Host Okay. Perfect. Just wanted to make sure.

15:27.41 Josh Weimer So I think we're pretty good.

15:27.83 Host In progress. Yeah.

15:29.58 Josh Weimer Yeah.

15:30.62 Host Okay. I think I'm going to ask you just about the generational thing that we kind of talked about at the beginning there before we started. You know, is there a different view among your generation of fundraising or what it is? What is the view at all?

15:47.20 Host Anything else you feel like it'd be helpful for me to ask or interesting?

15:54.31 Josh Weimer Maybe circling through kind of Catholic business in general or how... I don't know. There was... I forget the exact question, but there was one or two about Catholic leadership, Catholic business.

16:08.97 Josh Weimer I'd be... I can maybe talk about my own desire for working in the church and talk a little bit more about that. If that's something...

16:18.31 Host Yeah, what would you say to a fellow college student who's curious about church leadership or Catholic business?

16:23.02 Josh Weimer That's the question.

16:24.30 Host Is that a good way to phrase that?

16:24.88 Josh Weimer Yeah.

16:25.82 Host It's kind of vague, but that leaves it kind of open.

16:30.01 Josh Weimer Yeah, that could be a good way to either close it out and then I could kind of dive a little bit deeper into my own personal experience and call towards it.

16:39.18 Host Gotcha. So I'm going to jump to... since we've been talking about impressions of fundraising, I'm going to ask that kind of question about what does your generation feel about fundraising?

16:50.50 Host Is there a feel? Do you like to give digitally or, you know, things like that? And then we'll come back to just that kind of Catholic business world in general. We can kind of wrap up with that. Does that sound good?

17:02.00 Josh Weimer That sounds great.

17:03.16 Host All right. Sorry, Eddie, lots of cutting, but shouldn't be too bad. Okay, so we just talked about family impressions, that type of thing.

17:14.83 Host Okay. All right, so I'm curious. You're a younger generation than a lot of us at Petrus. We're all kind of getting into that... I don't know if that's middle age, but getting there. You're in your younger... That's right.

17:23.89 Josh Weimer No, you guys are a bunch of youngsters.

17:26.98 Host We're still so very young and vivacious. But we're a little bit of a different generation. A lot of millennials, maybe Gen Xers on the team, and you're what? Gen Z, I think, right? Is that right?

17:37.22 Josh Weimer I think technically, yep.

17:38.51 Host All right. Do you feel like... have you... I guess, have you noticed any differences in attitudes toward fundraising, attitudes towards giving among your generation versus kind of the different ministries you've worked with or older folks you've worked with, or, you know, any others around the church, either from your work with Petrus or otherwise?

18:00.82 Josh Weimer Yeah, I mean, it's an interesting question because for me personally in my generation, I'll...

To Be Continued...