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 Rhen Hoehn, Director of Marketing

Days of giving can be a boon for your fundraising efforts, but they can also be a big waste of time without the correct approach.

A well-executed giving day begins long before the day itself. It actually culminates with that day of giving.

Here are fou...

By Rhen Hoehn, Director of Marketing.  This post first appeared on the Bloomerang blog.

Phone-a-thons have been a tried-and-true fundraising staple for decades. Gather volunteers, have them call a long list of donors, and have them make a solicitation. With fewer people picking up their phone for...

Nobody goes to college to learn how to be a fundraiser. So many times, development professionals tend to end up in the field almost by accident.

Without that educational background, the best practices for raising substantial money for a nonprofit are not always obvious or intuitive.

Many ...

By Mary Walker, Petrus Blog Contributor

Didn’t we all want to be superheroes when we were kids? Yet 20, 30, 40 or more years later, most of us live “ordinary” lives. We are spouses, parents, friends, and employees. We figure out how to pay our bills, watch the weather report to know when to mo...

By Mary Walker, Petrus Blog Contributor

Plans fail when there is no counsel, but they succeed when advisors are many.  (Proverbs 15:22)

It’s a tough world out there, and our ministries need help to survive and grow. Questions arise. Which path should you pursue? How can you get from where ...

That’s a great question! What do fundraisers do anyway? Meet for coffees at high-end coffee shops, wine and dine prospective donors, rounds of golf on the best golf courses around the world, etc. You name it, I’ve heard it! 

I think a lot of folks think fundraisers are the non-profit’s sleazy us...

Petrus Development’s annual Raise Awards program recognizes outstanding achievement by fundraising professionals and volunteers.  Each year, Petrus honors some of the best fundraising campaigns of the past year with the RAISE Awards. This year, we have six organizations to honor!

Best Direct Mai...

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

When a ministry starts to look at fundraising in a systematic, and dare I say disciplined way, one of the first steps is to develop a Case for Support, also known as a Case Statement. 

If you are embarking on a capital campaign or want to increase a...

One of the non-profits I worked for didn’t have a database; they had an Excel spreadsheet for their donor information. It wasn’t very organized, and I had no idea how accurate it was. 

There was information everywhere - on spreadsheets, in the executive director’s notebooks, and in the heads ...