The 'Kill, Date, Marry' of Fundraising - A Petrus Development Show Episode on Fundraising Concepts

Yes, you read that correctly!  In this week's episode of the Petrus Development Show, Rhen quizzes Andrew on which fundraising concepts he would choose to kill, date, and marry.  Listen as Andrew shares his thoughts on which fundraising ideas that should be nixed, which should be further explored, and which ideas merit long-term commitment.

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
06:21.58 Host: There we go. Well, howdy, everybody. Welcome back to the Petrus Development Show. I'm Rhen Hoehn from Petrus Development. Joining me today, Andrew Robison. How's it going, Andrew?

06:30.89 AROB: It's going great. How about yourself, Rhen?

06:32.77 Host: Living the dream.

06:34.42 AROB: Not bad.

06:35.50 Host: Ah, it's spring, it's warming up, and I know a couple weeks ago we talked about you had just gone on a camping trip, and I hear you're getting ready for another camping trip.

06:43.83 AROB: Yes. Yeah. This one is a, there's a group of us, some, a couple of dads and a couple of kids. I think there's ah like, I don't know, 17 kids and four dads or some, some obscene number like that, but yeah, it'll be fun.

06:54.48 Host: Holy moly.

06:56.51 AROB: We'll, we'll have a good time, but yeah. Yeah. Have I ever told you about my um completely irrational fear when it comes to camping?

07:04.29 Host: What would that be?

07:05.64 AROB: I am terrified of werewolves when we go camping.

07:08.12 Host: Werewolves.

07:10.75 Host: Where did this come from?

07:11.50 AROB: I think I think I've figured it out. So years ago, I was living in Colorado and I was guiding and I had had this um I had this desire to go on a solo vacation.

07:24.15 AROB: Uh, trip. I was going to summit two mountain peaks in Colorado and I was going to do it solo. So it's two nights of camping, backpacking, and then the summit ascents. And the first night while I was camping, um, I remember hearing these wolves or what I assumed was wolves, you know, it was probably some, some other campers' dogs or whatever, but these wolves howling.

07:43.54 AROB: And it was, you know, like miles away. And I remember thinking, Oh my God, that that's how I'm going to die. They're going to attack my tent. Wolves are going to kill me. And I like, I think I even dreamt of like, you know, paw paws, like coming under the rain fly of my tent, you know, and ah yeah, it was pretty bad. And so I, I think that that has developed, it's morphed into now, you know, my, my kids watch these, you know, silly little videos and shows on vampires and werewolves. I think that's where it is that I'm, I go camping and I'm terrified of werewolves.

08:14.73 Host: Wow, well, how do you even defeat a werewolf? I think vampires are wooden stake through the heart, right?

08:20.40 AROB: Yes, that's true.

08:21.28 Host: Is there a way to get rid of a werewolf?

08:23.32 AROB: Silver bullet. That is.

08:24.73 Host: Silver bullet.

08:26.04 AROB: Yeah. So you that that I can't... I think that's how you kill a werewolf is you have a silver bullet. So I always take when I go camping, I always have a silver bullet with me ready to protect myself and my kids from a werewolf.

08:38.12 Host: Oh. You get that at Bass Pro or what's the... You melt it down yourself?

08:45.99 AROB: Uh yeah, Bass Pro, the place to go to protect yourselves from werewolves. Uh yeah, so uh yeah, so that's how you that's how you kill a werewolf is with a silver bullet. Now you know. dooo do do dooo do

08:58.52 Host: The more you know.

09:04.20 Host: Ah. So today, yeah today we're gonna try something a little bit fun with this episode, I guess you might say. Was poking around on LinkedIn, following one of our friends, Holly, who's done some writing projects for us. She's kind of a big deal on LinkedIn.

09:20.46 Host: And she did... she was doing the ah the kill, date, or marry game with some different topics. And thought we'd try that with but when it comes to fundraising.

09:29.90 Host: What concepts in fundraising would you kill?

09:30.81 AROB: I like it.

09:33.25 Host: Which ones would you date? Which ones would you marry? Ah does that sound?

09:37.91 AROB: That sounds great. Yeah.

09:39.74 Host: All right, so I guess let's just dive into it, hey?

09:42.66 AROB: Yes.

09:44.44 Host: Let's start with the negative, I suppose. When it comes to fundraising, what ideas or concepts or practices would you kill off?

09:53.19 AROB: Okay. So this is where we're going to segue from that story about werewolves to fundraising in this topic is because you want to kill your silver bullet solutions from fundraising.

10:08.13 Host: Oh, interesting.

10:09.26 AROB: Yes. So what do I mean by that? So there's a lot of people that think, okay, once and the the key to fundraising is to do this, right? It's like the kind of Atkins diet of fundraising, or it's the you know the the sort of fad diets of fundraising. It's grant writing, right?

10:27.32 AROB: How many times have you been on a, have you talked with a board member and they say, oh my gosh, why aren't we getting more grants? Everybody gets grants. These foundations give grants to everybody. We need more grants. That's what's going to save our nonprofit.

10:39.76 Host: It's free money.

10:40.05 AROB: That would, that would be, yes.

10:40.73 Host: It's easy.

10:42.33 AROB: That would be a silver bullet solution, right? It's the idea that people think that this one thing is what is going to save us and put us on a trajectory to more money than we'll ever know what to do with, right?

10:55.98 AROB: Sometimes it's grants..

10:57.44 AROB: Sometimes it's, um you know well, we just need to start a GoFundMe for our are ah our organization.

11:04.99 AROB: Sometimes from an executive director standpoint or a principal standpoint or a priest standpoint, it's, I just need to hire a fundraiser and they will go and they will do all the work. And then I don't have to worry about fundraising anymore.

11:15.55 AROB: They're going to produce all the money. So ah sometimes it's, we need to call... Oprah Winfrey, right? Or we need to call Bill Gates or, ah you know, that's what we need to do.

11:21.50 Host: Exactly. Yep. Yep.

11:25.74 AROB: If we can just get a grant from Beyonce, then that, if we could start a GoFundMe and then Beyonce responds and makes a grant, then our fundraising worries are over, right?

11:38.84 AROB: So it's the idea of these one ah quick solutions to raising money is what is going to save our nonprofit or give us more money than we ever know what to do with.

11:50.07 AROB: Those are all fall under the, the sort of umbrella of silver bullet solutions. That is what I would kill from a fundraising standpoint.

11:58.11 Host: Excellent. How about date? What are what are some of the things that can maybe seem promising, but you got check them out a little bit more or you're not you're not maybe all the way in on yet, but you're getting there?

12:08.49 AROB Yeah, there you go. So you're not ready to put a ring on it, but you want to, you know, hang out and maybe go catch a movie together. Okay, I get it. So I would say that under the date umbrella, these are... there's a lot of things from a technology standpoint um that are really cool, that are really innovative, that could lead to ah you know something that you'd want to marry, but maybe not necessarily, right?

12:33.24 AROB So some of these ideas would be, you know, from a technology standpoint, it's you know text to give, right? Or it's um it's using Venmo as a way for people to give. Or it's, you know I mentioned GoFundMe, it's using crowdfunding platforms um to give. It's the idea, it's you know it's connecting with your donors on LinkedIn.

12:52.19 AROB Um, you know it's doing Zoom donor meetings. There's great organizations that ah you know provide a service for nonprofits like My Catholic Will um that you know could help you to secure more planned gifts.

12:58.80 Host Thank you.

13:06.61 AROB Right? These are all ways that technology is being used to support fundraising efforts that are worth exploring, that are worth incorporating into your strategy, um but that also that are that are at the end of the day, a part of a comprehensive plan and not a replacement, right?

13:29.43 AROB Ah, ah, did I get the analogy right?

13:31.15 Host I think so, yep.

13:32.34 AROB Yeah. So you want to explore innovative solutions, especially those around technology. There's a lot of really great options. You know, I'm sure that, um you know, 20, 30 years ago, people thought that automatic monthly recurring gifts were something to date, right? Like, let's try it out. I don't know if people are going to do this.

13:50.42 AROB And now, you know, like I'd marry monthly giving in a heartbeat, right? If I could. Um, you know, so some of these, some of these solutions will turn out to be ah things that are really beneficial.

14:03.42 AROB Some of them won't, but they're definitely worth exploring.

14:06.65 Host Great, and well, let's talk about who, what, what ideas or concepts or practices would you marry then?

14:12.38 AROB Okay. So I would marry all of the practices and principles that are going to build you a sustainable development fund, sustainable and a um and an intentional development program.

14:29.57 AROB Right. So what do I mean by that? Um, well, definitely you want to build an annual fund, right? So what I mean by build an annual fund, it's having a comprehensive and intentional plan where you communicate and you ask, you communicate and you ask.

14:43.55 AROB And the idea there is that you're bringing in a volume of gifts. You're logging those gifts in your database and then you're stewarding those donors, right? That, that is an annual fund. Build an annual fund is definitely something I would marry.

14:56.96 AROB After you've built your annual fund or in conjunction with building your annual fund, you need to call and go and see your donors and ask them for major gifts, right? So calling your donors, setting up donor meetings, making solicitations, asking for gifts.

15:11.99 AROB Those are all in the major gift category. And I would definitely marry major gifts. And then the third thing that I would marry is I would use capital campaigns for strategic growth. A lot of organizations, they wait until the roof is literally falling in before they pull the trigger or move into a capital campaign.

15:30.17 AROB And I think that nonprofits can, savvy nonprofits and nonprofits that want to grow and produce a greater impact, they can use capital campaigns from a strategic standpoint to where they are not just fixing their immediate needs, but also planning for the future. So using capital campaigns for strategic growth is the third thing that I would marry.

15:52.61 Host Great. Wow. That was kind of fun.

15:54.80 AROB Yeah. There you go. Ah, did I say anything that you would disagree with or that you think should be in a different category?

15:56.00 Host Um

16:02.56 Host I'm, I maybe ah a little bit closer to marrying a lot of digital solutions than where you are. Ah, there's some that I may be on the fence with others. Yeah, I think there's, you can use digital.

16:13.59 Host I just had a ah client that secured a $5,000 gift over a Zoom meeting, which you know, for ah the last several years, I was pretty skeptical that that was possible, but it's, it's more possible now, right? It's, it's like you said, it's, it's getting closer to something that you can go more all in on. I think family obviously face-to-face meetings are still where you, where you want to be.

16:32.56 Host But ah yeah, I thought that was a good list. And as I think about this, you know we did it a little bit wrong compared to how you might do it in social media. I think I'm supposed to give you three options, you know, and you, and you pick.

16:43.48 Host So maybe I'll do that right now before we wrap up.

16:46.27 AROB OK, great.

16:46.40 Host Let's go with that with three ways that you could, you could, three things you could do with your summer. And you can decide which one you'd want to kill, which one you want to date, which one you want to marry.

16:55.67 AROB OK.

16:55.72 Host And your, your, your three things are to mow your lawn in 100-degree heat, ah to go on a camping trip with your kids, and to go to a live fundraising one-day event with Petra's team somewhere around the country.

17:02.35 AROB Okay.

17:09.23 AROB Ah, okay. All right, and this is summer in Texas. Gosh, I think I would kill both mowing the lawn and camping.

17:13.79 Host Oh yeah.

17:20.97 AROB Like in the summer, but uh if I have to pick one, I would kill the um camping in the summer in Texas. As much as I love camping, there is a season in Texas and I am not gonna go camping with my kids in June or July. So I would kill that. I would date mowing the lawn because if I don't, don't mow the lawn then I get nasty letters from the HOA. I don't like that. And then I would definitely marry going to a one-day fundraising workshop.

17:44.81 Host Ah.

17:50.87 Host Oh, good choice. So I guess a fun way to segue into saying, hey, come join us at one of our Rays Regional Workshops. Get ah a full day of fundraising training, ah maybe a year's worth of fundraising training in one day, maybe you could say.

18:06.33 Host Ah, just a couple of weeks, we'll be in New Orleans on May 14th. And we'll be at Notre Dame on June 5th. And we'll be in Denver this fall. So go to PetrasDevelopment.com/Rays to check out the details on those.

18:20.12 AROB Sounds awesome.

18:21.69 Host Going to be fun.

18:22.71 AROB Yeah.

18:24.38 Host Great. Well, thank you, Andrew. I think this is a fun little exercise and I hope everybody can, can learn something about what they should maybe spend less time on in their fundraising, what they should literally really lean into with their time, where they should put their effort and see some growth.

18:37.61 AROB Totally. Yeah. I think it's great. Thanks for putting this together.

18:40.48 Host All right. And have a great day.

18:42.06 AROB All right. Good luck. Bye.