"Run So As To Win" - An Interview with Craig Miller on the Petrus Development Show
In this episode, Andrew visits with Craig Miller, the president of FOCUS, the Fellowship of Catholic University Students. Together, Andrew and Craig talk about FOCUS, its ministry to college students, and the organization’s unique fundraising challenges. They also discuss the tremendous growth of campus ministry in recent decades and note how that important trajectory might continue in the future.
Show Notes
Background
Before entering the world of Catholic fundraising and becoming president at FOCUS, Craig worked in the tech industry in California. He and his family left California and moved to Colorado where, at a parish event, Craig first learned about FOCUS’s ministry. Craig soon changed careers and joined FOCUS in its ministry to Catholic college students.
FOCUS in 2022
FOCUS currently serves nearly 200 college campuses with physical teams of missionaries on campus. They also have digital teams ministering to another...
Out of the Rut and On Mission
By Bryan Wilburn, Director of Development, St. Paul’s Newman Center at NDSU
What can you do when you’re in a rut?
I suppose one option would be to stay there. To act as if it’s not happening and try to power through on your own. Oftentimes though, the first step to getting better is admitting something is wrong.
This was where I found myself two and half years into my professional fundraising career. I had achieved a moderate level of success in annual giving and even some major giving for our Newman Center’s capital campaign. Even so, I was in a rut. There seemed to be so much more to fundraising, which I felt I wasn’t reaching. I would tell myself, “maybe I’m just not cut out for this.” It was then that my astute supervisor encouraged me to go to my first Petrus Conference in 2018.
To understand why I was in a rut, I want to acknowledge a real truth: fundraising is hard. Not only is fundraising hard as a...
The Journey Creates Friends - An Interview with Bishop Konderla on the Petrus Development Show
In this 100th episode, Andrew visits with Bishop David Konderla from the Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma. Andrew met Bishop Konderla when they worked together at St. Mary's Catholic Center in College Station, and the pair discusses the successes of the campus ministry’s multi-decade capital campaign. Bishop Konderla also offers insight and advice into how a bishop can (and cannot!) support parish and ministry fundraising campaigns in his diocese.
Show Notes
Background
Bishop David Konderla was appointed as bishop to the Diocese of Tulsa in 2016. Prior to his appointment as bishop, Bishop Konderla served in various roles in the Diocese of Austin, including as the diocesan vocations director and as the pastor and director of campus ministry at St. Mary’s Catholic Center in College Station.
Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma
The Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma is a very rural diocese. Bishop...
Trust Me, I Work for a Nonprofit - An Interview with Justin DeMoss on the Petrus Development Show
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...
My Work Journey Part 2
Funny story, we used a moving company and I had in my mind that they would load our furniture into a truck and drive straight to our new place. Well, as it turns out, they had two other stops on the way so we moved into our temporary apartment with our travel suitcases, our two dogs and whatever we brought with us in the car. It took about a week and a half for the rest of our belongings to make it to us so to give us a place to sit, our first purchase was a Walmart futon which served as our couch, bed and dining table for about 10 days. Lesson...
Viva Cristo Rey - An Interview with José Manuel de Urquidi on the Petrus Development Show
In this episode Andrew visits with José Manuel de Urquidi, founder and president of Juan Diego Network, a podcast network with over 70 shows highlighting Catholic stories for Latinos. Andrew and José discussed what José was thinking when he decided to launch a podcast network, what growing a podcast network has been like and how ministries and nonprofits can utilize podcasts to expand their mission.
Show Notes:
Background:
José is the oldest of six children. His parents were in ministry as he grew up in Mexico. As he grew up, he had a separation in his life between his church family and his school/social family. And it was in high school when he really started seeing the separation but it wasn't until after university that he began discovering how he could bridge the gap and create evangelization that would work for him.
Juan Diego Network
Currently, they have over 70 podcast shows as part of their network. A network typically...
My Work Journey Part 1
The other day someone relatively new to development reached out to discuss his career trajectory and it gave me a great chance to reflect on my own career. In Part 1 of this 3 part story, I will share the story of my first job in development and why I left a great work environment and moved across the country.
Sitting on my apartment couch in December 2004, about two days before graduation from Texas A&M University, I opened a letter I had received from Teach for America. I had applied to TFA and had (in my opinion) a really great interview. Thinking that I would be offered a job to work in an underserved school district somewhere in North Carolina or urban New York, I had not really put a lot of time and energy into a job search. Well, as things often happen, that letter informed me that “while I was a wonderful candidate for Teach for America, I would not be offered a position.” Uh oh...
Crushed and now a bit terrified, the first thing I did was...
Sacred Starters - An Interview with Bill Woolsey on the Petrus Development Show
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...
Monthly Giving Made Easy - An Interview with Erica Waasdorp on the Petrus Development Show
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...
What Development Means to Me by Matt Bond
By Matt Bond, Director of Development at St. John's Catholic Student Center at Oklahoma State University
As many people in our field, I fell into the profession of development by happenstance. A great priest walked into a classroom of my former student center where my sister-in-law just happened to be sitting and said I’m looking for … and he proceeded to list a number of attributes he was looking for in a development director. She said, “call my brother-in-law” and it was all downhill or uphill, depending on the specific point in my career, from there. Truthfully, I had no idea what I was getting into and looking back through the rear-view mirror, I really had no idea.
When it comes to ministry, I have a unique take. I came from a ministry position where I was leading all of the programming, each year I was given a budget, and I led the team. Now, I am a development professional helping ministries fund their programming.
...
