Petrus Blog

In this episode, Andrew visits with Brian Russell, Campaign Manager at Caruso Catholic Center at University of Southern California. In this episode of the "COVID Solutions" series, Andrew and Brian talk about pivoting from a long-standing gala to a new virtual event. They discuss the initial steps they took to make the change, the monetary success of the event as well as the pros and cons of such a change. They also talk about the long-term viability of these types of events. 

Show Notes:

Brian Russell is the campaign manager at Caruso Catholic Center at University Southern California. He is currently in his 10^th year of working in Catholic fundraising and his 4^th year at USC.

They are talking about the long standing gala that they host every other year and how they went virtual this year.

History of the Gala

They started the Gala event in 2010 and it takes place every other year. It is the big fundraiser for the center/church.

In May 2020, they had to figure out how...

Week 2 of the COVID-19 Fundraising Virtual Summit by Petrus is in the books. It was an amazing week and I still feel incredibly privileged to have been a part of it. The speakers were amazing, the attendees were engaged and excited and I could feel the level of positivity increasing with each passing day. So here are some of my takeaways from the week. 

1. Donors are still giving so fundraisers should not stop fundraising. We had a number of stories of donors stepping up this week to make very generous gifts to support ministries they believe in. Frank from the School of Faith in Kansas City told a story of receiving a $100,000 check in the mail from a donor who made the gift now because she “knew this crisis would affect their fundraising” and she didn’t want to see them suffer. Courtney at Tulane Catholic told about receiving a $5,000 online gift after sending out an email with a link to give. And Julie shared a story of a $25,000 gift from a first-time donor...