Join us as Andrew and Rhen share a plan of action for successful year-end appeal letters.  They answer all of the important questions:  who, what, when, and why!  

Show Notes:  

As Andrew shares early in this episode, 30 percent of nonprofit giving is done in December.  For this reason, y...

By Rhen Hoehn, Director of Marketing

You would not build a house without first creating blueprints, gathering building materials, and pouring a foundation.

It wouldn’t make any sense to start the build by constructing a gourmet kitchen without plumbing, electricity, or even a roof and say ...

Do you feel like your nonprofit newsletter has gone stale?

Or, maybe you feel like it is simply a waste of time and money?

If so, take a good hard look at your last several newsletters. If they include one of these five common mistakes, your newsletters are probably underperforming.

...

We return this week with a Petrus Development Show episode on communications planning for development offices.  Rhen is joined by Andrew Robison, our Petrus president, and the two share their ideas on strategic communications for the second half of this year.  They outline monthly goals for newslett...

By Rhen Hoehn, Director of Marketing

Every so often, it becomes necessary for a nonprofit to abandon their existing donor database system and move to a new one. 

The existing system may be too complicated for staff to use, or perhaps it's not sophisticated enough to keep up with the growing o...

By Rhen Hoehn, Director of Marketing

Setting appropriate goals for a fundraiser can be overwhelming. Fundraisers have many different responsibilities, but they all lead to the same end goal - dollars raised.

Should we boil a fundraiser’s goals down to just the dollars raised for the year?

By Rhen Hoehn, Director of Marketing

As the holidays approach, we often spend time thinking about our resolutions for the coming new year.  We use new year's resolutions to highlight our personal goals and our vision for our individual future.  That said, organizations can also use the start of t...

By Mary Walker, Petrus Blog Contributor

December is the time for the FUN part of FUNdraising! After getting the Christmas/Year-end appeal out,  grab a cup of hot chocolate, sit back, open the mail, and count up the donations! 

I hope you get to do lots of that, BUT there is still work to b...

By Chris Scroggin, Petrus Consultant

Have you ever wondered what art and science have in common? 

Art draws on emotions.

Science uses rational thought.

But, science and art both demand creativity and excellent observational skills. 

Most techniques used by artists even have interesting scient...

In this episode, Andrew chats with Dr. Scott Grant, pediatrician and creator and host of the Docs2Dads podcast.  Andrew and Scott discuss generosity, and they delve into how we, as parents and family members, cultivate a lifelong spirit of generosity in our children.  They speak specifically about r...

In this episode, Andrew interviews Jeff Schiefelbein, co-founder and culture catalyst for Undivided Life.  Andrew questions Jeff about his role as a culture catalyst, and the pair discusses just how important culture is to organizations of all sizes.  Jeff describes how he encourages organizations t...

In this episode, Andrew chats with Anna Sease, Senior Director of Parent & Family Giving at William & Mary.  Andrew and Anna enjoy a lively discussion about creating structure for donors, recognizing and investing in our donors’ needs, and the importance of fostering connection with and for donor...