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 ...

If your Catholic nonprofit newsletter feels stale, expensive, or ineffective, the problem probably isn’t the format.

It’s the strategy.

In Catholic fundraising, your newsletter is not a report. It is a donor formation tool.

Done well, it strengthens donor identity, reinforces mission, and drives ...

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...

By Mary Walker, Petrus Blog Contributor

Donor meetings can be intimidating to both new and experienced development professionals, but they also have the potential to be such fruitful blessings to our ministry.  In my years of fundraising, I've developed a series of steps that helps me prepare a...

By Mary Hernandez, Petrus Blog Contributor

Your year-end appeal is about to get to the final proofing stage, and thankfully, there is still time to edit with a critical eye and include your donors as a key player in your messaging. 

Your appeal likely includes these elements:

• Transformat...

By JoAnn Shull, Petrus Consultant

I’m going to be really honest with you, dear reader, in that for the vast majority of my life I had no idea what this idea of “development” was or that I would end up in a career that I didn’t even know existed.  

Growing up, my family was not church-going, bu...

By Mary P. Walker, Petrus Blog Contributor & Local Charity Board Member

What Development Means to Me

I was blessed with generous parents. At a very young age, I learned that development is a family project that requires planning and commitment.

When I was kid, before paychecks were automatica...

By Mary P. Walker, Petrus Blog Contributor & Local Charity Board Member

My community has just declared a state of emergency. I’m on the board of three nonprofits. While we are all trying to keep our social distance, these nonprofits are “out there” offering needed services, in creative ways and...