Petrus Blog

Jason Gerdes, Executive Director, Nebraska Lutheran Outdoor Ministry; President, ALDE

In this episode, Andrew visits with Jason Gerdes, Executive Director of Nebraska Lutheran Outdoor Ministry and president of the Board of Trustees of ALDE. ALDE is a membership organization founded 40 years ago to bring together Lutheran fundraisers working in ministry. Originally called the Association for Lutheran Development Executives, ALDE is now growing and seeks to serve development professionals of all Christian denominations. Andrew and Jason discuss his work raising money for and now leading Outdoor Ministries as well as the role that ALDE serves bringing together fundraisers to build community and learn from one another.

Show Notes:

• Jason Gerdes is Executive Director of Nebraska Lutheran Outdoor Ministry and president of the Board of Trustees of ALDE. ALDE is a membership organization founded 40 years ago to bring together Lutheran fundraisers working in ministry. Originally...

Kate Sell, Founder and Managing Partner, Mission Advancement Partners

In this episode, Andrew visits with Kate Sell, founder and Managing Partner of Mission Advancement Partners. MAP is a collaborative team of individuals who work with Catholic parishes, dioceses and ministries to help them look at their own organizational strengths and weaknesses and develop short- and long-term strategies to better fulfill their mission. In this conversation they discuss how the vision, the team and fundraising go hand in hand to help an organization grow. 

Show Notes:

• Kate began her career by helping to establish Catholic radio stations across the United States.
• The Bible scripture that gives Kate inspiration was the story of Jesus turning water into wine. The servants of the wedding played a critical role in the miracle. They trusted Jesus and were willing to follow instructions to allow the miracle to take place. Kate sees her role in the Church as similar to the servants.
• ...

Andrew Robison, President and Dan Moraczewski, COO, Petrus Development

Is your organization looking for a way to fund much-needed growth? Have you outpaced your financial support from the Diocese or Province? At Petrus Development, we believe that “Mission Follows Money and Money Follows Mission.” Since 2005, Petrus has helped over 100 Catholic ministries recruit and train development teams who can raise money to fund stronger and more active programs. This in turn, brings more donors into the ministry and creates long-term sustainability.

But how do you know if your ministry is ready to launch a Capital Campaign?

At SEEK 2019, Andrew Robison and Dan Moraczewski gave a presentation covering all of the elements of a capital campaign. If you weren’t able to attend SEEK 2019 or just want a chance to review the slides the entire presentation is available for you to download. Just click the link below.

SEEK 2019 – PETRUS Capital Campaign

For more...

Jacob Laskowski, Founder and CEO, 86 Creative 

In this episode, Andrew visits with Jacob Laskowski, founder and CEO of 86 Creative, a full service marketing and design firm that’s worked with some of the most well known organizations currently serving the Catholic Church. In this conversation, they dive into the principles of design and marketing that most directly affect a charity’s ability to fundraise and discuss how organizations can best position themselves to clearly explain their mission and vision.

Show Notes:

• Jacob began his career with FOCUS as a missionary and then working in their marketing department. Two of his major accomplishments during that time were creating a new logo for FOCUS and rebranding their annual conference as SEEK. https://www.focus.org/
• Later, Jacob decided to start his own business where he could be creative and work with a variety of clients. 86 Creative is a full service design and marketing firm that helps businesses and...

By Andrew Robison, President of Petrus Development

This time of year, it can be very easy to become anxious about traveling, cooking, shopping, cleaning, hosting, wrapping, family, decorating and much more. For those of us in the fundraising world, this is a busy time of year for donations, appeals, emails, thank yous, solicitations, campaigns, grants, gift processing and the like.

In the midst of all of the business (and craziness), don’t forget that the reason for Christmas truly is celebrating the birth of our Lord. As we continue the tradition of gift giving that began with the Magi, keep in mind the gifts that have been given to all. Those are the gifts of grace, forgiveness, love, compassion, eternity, truth, peace, joy, strength, salvation, and the greatest gift of all…Jesus Christ.

Luke 2: 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; 11 for today in the city of...

Linda Domeyer, Director of Leadership Giving, St. Louis University High; Consultant, Petrus Development 

In this episode of The Petrus Development Show, Andrew visits with Linda Domeyer, Director of Leadership Giving at St. Louis University High as well as Consultant for Petrus Development. Linda’s first job in development was for the Washington University Catholic Student Center, where she spent 17 years building a fantastic development program. In this episode, Linda and Andrew talk about how she initially learned about development, her first capital campaign experience, transitioning to a robust annual fund strategy and what she loves most about consulting. Linda also shares about the most expensive failure of her career.

Show Notes:

• Linda first exposure to development was when she was working as a group travel host and met a development officer from UNC-Chapel Hill. He explained to Linda that development is different than sales. It’s about connecting...

By Peter de Keratry, Co-Founder & CEO of Petrus Development; Executive Director of Stewardship and Advancement for the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City

Intro by Andrew Robison, President of Petrus Development

This post is an excerpt from Episode 5 of The Petrus Development Show.

Recently, I sat down with Peter de Keratry, Co-Founder of Petrus Development for a conversation for The Petrus Development Show. We covered a variety of topics, but one topic we covered was what development officers truly need to do to build long-term success for their ministry.

Many development professionals, whether they are brand new or seasoned veterans, can struggle with a simple question: “Where do I start? Where is the best place to spend my time and energy today?” The reason that this is a constant struggle is because as development professionals for nonprofit organizations, we are regularly asked (and expected) to participate in just about every aspect of the ministry. Sometimes...

Peter de Keratry, CFRE, Executive Director of Stewardship and Advancement, Archdiocese of Oklahoma City; Co-Founder & CEO, Petrus Development 

In this episode of The Petrus Development Show, Andrew visits with Peter de Keratry, Executive Director of Stewardship & Development for the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City as well as co-Founder of Petrus Development. Peter’s first real job in development started while he was still an undergraduate at Texas A&M, raising money for the St. Mary’s Catholic Center. Since then, Peter has had a significant impact on the development landscape across the Church and around the world. In this episode, Peter and Andrew talk about how Peter learned the art and science of fundraising, why and how they founded Petrus Development and what Peter thinks is the most important thing that any development professional can do for his or her organization.

Show Notes:

• Peter began his development career as a student at Texas A&M...

Tara Doyon, Director of Development and Mission Advancement, St. Paul Catholic Center at Indiana University; Consultant, Petrus Development 

In this episode, Andrew visits with Tara Doyon, Director of Development and Mission Advancement at St. Paul Catholic Center at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN. Tara began her career in development at St. Paul in 2009 despite having no formal training in fundraising. She learned quickly the benefit of surrounding herself with great mentors and advisors and has had a huge impact on the Hoosier Catholic ministry. In this episode, Tara and Andrew discuss what she focused on in the beginning to be successful, her thoughts on Catholic stewardship and her current capital campaign project at St. Pauls.

Show Notes:

• Tara had a great mentor from the very beginning who helped coach her in the best ways to fundraise. One piece of advice was that there are no donors sitting in your office, you have to get out of the office to meet the...

By Andrew Robison,  President of Petrus Development 

This post is an excerpt from the Fundraising Focus series presented by the Catholic Campus Ministry Association (CCMA).

Many years ago, I was sitting in a donor meeting with my boss at the time, Greg Gorman, and a major benefactor for St. Mary’s Catholic Center at Texas A&M University. Pat and her husband had recently made a $50,000 gift to the Foundations in Faith capital campaign so this was a stewardship visit to bring her up to speed on the progress of the campaign. I remember Greg asked Pat a question, or maybe it was more of a statement to the effect of, “Pat, for you to make a gift of this size, you must have had a really wonderful experience at St. Mary’s when you were in school at A&M.”

Her response has stayed with me for many years and I still share it with development directors and chaplains today. Pat looked directly at Greg and said, “No, I really didn’t. I...