In this episode, Andrew welcomes Dennis Gerber, president of the Knights of Columbus Charitable Fund, to the podcast. Andrew and Dennis discuss donor-advised funds and current trends in fundraising. They chat about Dennis’s work at the Knights of Columbus Charitable (KCCF), and Dennis outlines how Catholic donors can benefit from a fund that aligns with their Catholic values.
Show Notes
Background
Ever since Dennis was a young child, he had a passion for asking for money to help those in need. Dennis was a bold fundraiser in his youth. When he was seven, he walked his street asking neighbors for money for the poor; and when he was a college senior, he raised money to rebuild his frat house. His success raising money for his fraternity led to a post-college development job with his fraternity’s national office, and that position kicked off Dennis's career as a professional fundraiser.
Catholic Fundraising
After...
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 and plan before my donor meetings.
Prayer
In a previous life, I spent 11 years in technical sales for a large computer company. Before I made an important call or presentation, I would say the prayer to the Holy Spirit. I memorized this prayer in second grade—long before I understood the words. The prayer is very “all purpose.” I used it before tests in high school and college, difficult conversations, and sales calls. The prayer doesn’t ask for a specific outcome, but requests God’s inspiration for the work I was about to do.
In the corporate world, my prayer was a private endeavor, with me grabbing a bit of silence away from coworkers, often in the...
In this episode, Andrew visits with Justin DeMoss of Your Philanthropic Advisor, a seasoned fundraising professional, entrepreneur, and adjunct professor at Oklahoma City University. During this conversation, Andrew and Justin discuss the need for nonprofit organizations to be innovative and build trust with their donors and their community. They also discuss strategies for creating an organizational culture that embraces innovation and takes risks.
Show Notes
Background
Justin entered the world of nonprofit fundraising when he was a FOCUS missionary raising support for his annual salary.
Education
While studying to receive his M.A in Philanthropy and Development, Justin learned the value of mentorship and networking. He also studied ways that the nonprofit sector could learn from the sales and marketing techniques and the innovation of for-profit businesses.
Innovation and Change
Justin highlights the urgent need for nonprofit...
In this episode, Andrew sits down with Bill Woolsey, Founder and President of FiveTwo Network. They discussed the qualities of a good founder, mistakes that founders typically make and what it means to be a sacred starter. If you have started or are thinking about launching a new ministry or company, you definitely want to check this out.
Show Notes:
Bill has been a pastor since 1987, and he and his wife currently call the Land of Uplift in the Texas hill country home. He was always the evangelism guy and realized that the older the community, the older the members, the harder it is to break in and plant a new church.
In 2009, he founded FiveTwo Network to support church planters and entrepreneurs of the church.
In 2015, he left his pastoral placements and went full-time with FiveTwo.
FiveTwo was named for the story of Jesus feeding the five hundred when a single young man gave what he had to further the mission of Christ. And that everybody who starts something...
In this episode, Andrew visits with Erica Waasdorp, author of Monthly Giving: The Sleeping Giant and Monthly Giving Made Easy, as well as President and Founder of A Direct Solution. She has been in the monthly giving game for close to 30 years and has tons of expertise in this area. Together they discussed the question about subscriptions versus monthly gifts, six easy steps for launching a program and strategies for how to keep your donors giving for a long, long time.
Show Notes
Erica is originally from the Netherlands, speaks 5 languages and is the author of two books, Monthly Giving: The Sleeping Giant and Monthly Giving Made Easy.
Background
She is President and Founder of A Direct Solution. Erica started her career in Readers Digest, married an American and moved to United States in 1993. After they moved, she worked for a big animal organization and took on their monthly giving program.
She later started A Direct Solution and had the idea for her...
In this episode, Andrew visits with Ryan Carney, Chief Advancement Officer of Society of St. Vincent de Paul. They discuss Ryan's journey with development and the challenges that he has experienced and conquered throughout his years with non-profits. They also discuss the work they are doing at St. Vincent de Paul and how he helped one local chapter back from a pretty bad case of mission creep. If you have ever dealt with mission creep or if you are struggling to identify your organizations true mission, you'll want to take notes.
Show Notes:
Background
He fell into development by accident. He had been able to attend an event where a presentation by Catholic Charities took place and that is where the introduction to non-profits and development took route. He graduated from the Chaifetz School of Business at Saint Louis University.
After graduation, he found himself working to Enterprise where he was able to Rent a car to the current executive...
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:
These glory stories and positive growth statistics are important and good to share with the reader, and they will undoubtedly lift their spirits and be a cause for hope. Yet, it is essential to remember that appeals are about you [the donor] and us [the ministry]. Making the donor visible in your ministry’s story is critical to a successful appeal and strengthening donor engagement.
I want to share some practical and real-life appeal examples with...
In this fourth episode of the Blueprint for Development series, we dive into Major Gifts. Tara Doyon, Director of Client Services and Josh Whelan, Vice President of Petrus Development, will take you through the first four areas to look at when building a fruitful and successful Major Gifts program. They also discuss the buzz word process of Moves-Management, what steps to take to get started and setting your mindset for building the Kingdom through development and evangelization.
In case you missed the previous episodes in this series, you can find them here:
Blueprint for Development: Infrastructure
Blueprint for Development: Communications
Blueprint for Development: Annual Fund
Show Notes:
Major Gift fundraising all starts with relationships and having deep relationships with your benefactors. A common mistake is believing that fundraising is just going around and playing golf and taking people to happy hour and the money just rolls in. Unfortunately, there is no...
In this episode, the Blueprint for Development series is on it's third installment. Tara and Sarah are back with Annual Funds, also known as an operating budget or director's fund. How can you create a new or sustainable development program that doesn't depend solely on that one event or those 1-2 major donors? Tara and Sarah give some great starting tips on making that change from dependence to sustainable.
If you missed the first two episodes in this series, you can find them here:
Blueprint for Development: Infrastructure
Blueprint for Development: Communications
Show Notes:
Tara and Sarah are back in this third installment of the "Blueprint for Development" series, discussing Annual Funds, aka operating budget or director's fund.
This is your general operating funds that come in from donations. Funds that you can generally count on as part of your general budget.
Due to 2020, there's a need to look more critically at annual funds. Parishes especially have...
By Mary P. Walker, Petrus Blog Contributor & Local Charity Board Member
March Madness and Fundraising
March Madness is upon us! I love basketball and I love this time of year. Winning teams have different strategies, and I can’t help comparing them to fundraising practices.
Big Star Strategy in Basketball
Over the past two years, a team I followed recruited a REALLY GREAT player. The coaches designed their game strategy around this player. Other players tried to get him the ball and let him score. The team enjoyed a level of success for a while. Then the players who wanted a more active role transferred to other teams. Also, at times, the star player had an off game, or got injured. The rest of the team had trouble stepping up to win.
Big Star Strategy in Fundraising
What can this teach us about fundraising? Big Stars in fundraising have the means and interest in making gifts that can jumpstart or transform your ministry. Focusing on them is a great...