Eyes on the Prize - A Petrus Development Show Episode on Goal Setting

• Are there specific activities fundraisers should consider for their goal setting? 
• If so, what are the metrics that fundraisers should be tracking?  And what are realistic numbers for those goals?
• Can and/or should fundraisers receive a commission based on total money raised in a specified period?
• What should organizations expect in terms of grantwriting success?
  
  

00:45.67

aggierobison

Well hello and welcome to the Petrus Development Show. My name is Rhen Hoehn from Petrus Development and I'm joined today with Petrus's owner and president Mr. Andrew Robinson hello Andrew

00:55.91

AROB

Right on, Rhen, happy to be here. It's new Year ready to keep our podcast rolling again. We've been off for a little while which I think we're gonna talk about but I'm back in Studio so to speak and excited to talk with you.

01:11.64

aggierobison

Yeah, we've been on hiatus for a few months now. Do you want you want to tell us why we've had a little bit of a break?

01:18.96
AROB
No, I don't want to tell you, but I guess I should. So, on October 25th, I was in a little accident. I injured my leg in an MMA class during a sparring incident. I was going up against a guy that was much bigger than me, and we went down awkwardly. I shattered everything in my ankle, broke my fibula, ripped all the ligaments off the bones, and ended up having to go on November 2nd for surgery. They repaired my ankle, put it all back together, and then held it together with a titanium plate, two screws, a button, and some surgical wire in my ankle. So I have been off my ankle. It's been... When all this happened, they said three months is recovery time, meaning no walking for three months, no driving for at least six weeks, and I somehow survived that with a family of 6, kids 14 to 2, and it was not easy at times not being able to walk. But made the most of it, ended up having crutches, got a little leg scooter, and ended up getting this really cool leg crutch, which saved me. I was able to take the kids to the park once I was able to drive. So, I'm recovering, and this Friday, I should get clearance to walk again.

02:49.39
AROB
In a boot, which is not Canadian for about, that really is a boot, and I should be able to be in my walking boot for about two weeks and then back at it, so I can start. I've already started PT. I can start really rehabbing the muscles, the bones, the ligaments, tendons, all that, and hopefully soon be back playing basketball. The jury's still out on whether I'll be back to MMA again. My wife was not a fan when I started, became even supportive when I... and myself and took myself out of commission for three months. So, we'll see, TBD. But I am excited to be back walking again and being able to move on my own.

03:39.55
aggierobison
Yeah, not being able to drive would be a pretty difficult challenge, I think, especially with all the kids, but it sounds like pretty quick here. We'll be back up and moving, and we'll be happy to see you.

03:56.43
AROB
That's right. Not being able to drive was particularly challenging because it was my right foot. So, super inconvenient. My wife is a saint; she kept everything moving. My oldest daughter is a great student and a great kid. But, that means she's involved in a lot of extracurriculars and church activities. There was a lot of asking friends for rides, and Cheryl (my wife) driving. I was just sitting at home, wishing I could help. But, I'm back now, able to drive, and that's been a game-changer. I'm also back in my office, standing at my walking desk again, facing that brick wall. Currently, I'm recording from our playroom, so you can see we've got some stuff on the wall, some books in the background, and I've set up a little rig for the microphone and the camera. But, yeah, I'm happy to be back. Is everything sounding fine on your end?

05:37.84
aggierobison
Great. Well, we're here at the beginning of a new year, 2024, and as we get started with the new year moving into January, it's time to set goals for a lot of fundraisers. So we wanted to talk about that a little bit today—some of the different considerations. If you are a fundraiser, if you are a director of a ministry who employs a fundraiser, or if you are doing fundraising just on your own. What are the types of goals you should be setting? How should you evaluate your fundraiser's activity and their effectiveness? And things surrounding that topic. So, Andrew, just to get us started, in general, what are the most significant metrics that fundraisers should be tracking and setting goals for?

06:21.18
AROB: Great, well appreciate the question, Ren, and I think this is important for anybody listening, whether you're a director, supervisor, or you're the fundraiser, right? So, um, a lot of it, you know, best goals, ah, best metrics. Um, all of that at the end of the day. It. It is going to come down to motivation and as a fundraiser, are you motivated to get out there and do the work and sometimes that means doing things that are uncomfortable. Um, like making phone calls, going on visits, sometimes uncomfortable for other people, or, you know, logging database notes. And, you know, in a personal or inner office. Um, kind of strategic planning, but are you motivated to get out there and do it and are you willing to do it when it's uncomfortable or when it's tedious, right? So a lot of the, you know, when we think of fundraising a lot of our um. Colleagues and a lot of people that are not familiar with fundraising automatically think okay, well you take people to coffee you sit down, you ask them for gifts right? like that is classic fundraising 1 oh one? Well, the truth of the matter is that is part of it, certainly, but there's a lot that has to happen in the office around the office in between visits.

07:34.39
aggierobison: Right.

07:35.71
AROB: Um, on your way to visits on your way home from visits. All of that that if you're not willing to do then and it doesn't get done then that's going to create problems. Um, so like some of those tedious activities are, you know, um, keeping up with the database, writing. Thank-you notes, cleaning up addresses. Um, sometimes it's, you know, doing Mailings and planning for your appeals to go out, things like that are that's a big part of a fundraiser's job not just getting out there and asking for guests. Okay, so that's part one is um, are you motivated to do the stuff that's uncomfortable and are you motivated enough. To do the stuff that's tedious and time-consuming in the quest for and in your mission to raise money to support your mission. Um, so I think that's a big part of just overall goal-setting is where are you motivated and where does that motivation come from.

08:20.62
aggierobison: Right? Yep.

08:28.45
aggierobison: Great. So are there specific activities that fundraisers should be setting goals for?

08:35.59

AROB

Yeah, hundred percent there are I ah you said it earlier in your intro activities right? So um, a fundraiser's job is really about doing the activity. Um, there is a oh gosh who is it's Stephen Covey um

10:00.18
AROB
Um, I don't know where I left off, but I'll just start that part over. Yes, so, a hundred percent, there are definitely metrics and goals that you should be looking at in terms of goal setting as a fundraiser. So, years ago, I read a book by—correct me if I get this wrong—Chris McChesney and Sean Covey. He's the son of Stephen Covey, but it's "4 Disciplines of Execution," and I'm sure this concept exists in other places, but that was where I was first introduced to the idea of lead measures, or, sorry, lead measures and lag measures.

11:28.51
AROB
So, lag measures are what most people think of when they think of goals for fundraising: how much money was raised, did you meet your goals, and what the authors of this book and this concept say is, lag measures come after the fact, they lag the activity, right? So, if you're doing the activity, then ultimately you're how you're measured is the dollars that are raised. So those would be lag measures. The truth is that you're ultimately not in control of those lag measures to the degree that we think we are.

12:56.93
AROB
What we are in control of, though, is the lead measures. So lead measures come before; they are the antecedents to the lag measures. So lead measures would be, um, how many phone calls are you making, how many proposals are you putting out, how many donors are you seeing, how many mailings are you doing? Um, how many new people are you adding to your database every month, every year? How many people are you asking for monthly gifts, for major gifts, for increased gifts, for renewal gifts? So those are lead measures because ultimately, if you are doing those lead measures, then you will come to the lag measures, which are the dollars raised. So when you think of activity and goals for a fundraiser, focus on the lead measures because that you can control. I can control, as a fundraiser, how many times I pick up the phone and dial somebody's number. I can control, to some extent, how many visits I go on if I keep making phone calls. We'll get more visits, and so focus on the lead measures in your activities and in your goals because that's controllable. Um, it's not a bad thing to put a lag measure or two into somebody's goal and to their evaluation—how many dollars were raised—because we want that activity to produce fruit, but any evaluation or goals or metrics plan that I've ever been part of or that I've encouraged other people to do is heavy on the lead measures because the lag measures will come if they're hitting those goals.

14:35.75
aggierobison
Yeah, exactly. If you're ah, if you receive Petrus's Raise the Church Enewsletter, we had an article in there recently that broke down a couple of stories from some of our fundraisers about kind of that specific topic. Um, one was a story of somebody who had made an ask of somebody. The donor said no, I can't do that right now, and they came back a couple of years later and did make that gift. Another one was a story of making a big ask of a donor, and it took them 5 years to come back and say that they were gonna make that gift, right? So, ah, it can be a long time horizon to see those dollars raised. But if you're doing that activity and maintaining those relationships. Um, it's eventually going to come, so that's why it is important to track those lead measures in fundraising.

13:38.13

AROB

Yeah, one of my favorite fundraising stories my um, first boss when I was at st mary's at techsane. He had a ah couple that we knew had tremendous capacity but they had never really supported at a significant level and so every year. He would go and and spend time with them and get in front of them and invite them to mass and and do all the things that are cultivating and every year he would ask for a slightly larger gift for a specific project that he knew that they were passionate about so the first gift they've ever made was $500 then it became 5000 then it became 25000 then it became 125000 then it became a million dollars and that wouldn't have happened if he had not been practicing those good cultivation for one but those lead measures of going to see people. And doing and getting in front of them and cultivating them for those larger gifts down the road.

14:35.75

aggierobison

Great. So if we maybe we should come back to address this quick is if if we're measuring our ah fundraiser based on the number of people that contacting the number of people they're meeting and making asks of why in sales you would pay often a percentage a commission if.

 14:52.23

aggierobison

Salesman makes a million dollars in sales they get x percent as as their commission is their payment for that. Why can't we do something like that in fundraising if you raise a million dollars you get 5% of that say.

 15:02.93

AROB

So that's a good question. So in sales. It's kind of an assumed um, understanding that if you sell something to somebody. They will be receiving a benefit a direct benefit in return right? If they buy more. Books from you. They will be getting those books if they buy more cars from you. They will be getting cars and so sales men and sales tactics kind of classic sales tactics are kind of understood and ah, almost allowed to go a little bit further into the um. Into the like those high pressure zones of sales and that's because there is a benefit to the there's a direct benefit to the receiver um, in fundraising there is a benefit to the donor. But it's not something where they if they give you a hundred dollars they get something in return right? there. They are giving that because they believe in the mission. Um, you know motivations are kind of all over the place. Some are some give for true altruism some gift for um, you know, recognition some gift because they you know had a personal experience. Um, but we don't want to encourage our fundraisers. To go down that same road of high pressure sales techniques that you would see in car sales and in in in traditional sales roles and so for that reason I think that there is just a um, a desire on the part of the profession. So the association of fundraising professionals is the first group and and probably the the primary group.

16:30.86

AROB

That ever put out a donor bill of rights and included in that donor bill of rights or including some of their other materials are we don't pay commissions to our fundraisers and the reason they did that is not because they wanted to make it harder to fight higher fundraisers. They wanted to make it more difficult and and less advantageous for fundraisers. To engage in those high pressure sales techniques that salesmen and saleswome do and so I think that it's a protection of the industry. It's a protection of that relationship that is you know fundraiser and donor um and it's a protection of that donor gives to the organization because they feel called to and they are going to. See a benefit for the organization and for the mission not necessarily for themselves and so I think you wrap all that together and that presents us with a scenario that commission-based fundraising is just ah, a dangerous road that I think the industry wants to wants to stay out of. And avoid and truthfully you know I've been in fundraising for close to 20 years and I I probably would have engaged in some um, some tactics and some strategies that would have not been in the best benefit benefit of the donor had I known that I was going to receive a commission on those get on those gifts and so I Think. You know, just from my own personal standpoint I I believe that you know you you hire good set you hire Good Fundraisers. You pay them a good salary and then you um, you can build in some incentives for activity based merit um incentives but getting staying off of.

18:04.69

AROB

Um, direct commission I think is a really good move for the industry as well as the fundraisers and ultimately for the donors.

18:09.90

aggierobison

Exactly so let's go back to some some of those specific goals that we're setting for this coming year if you're looking at your fundraising efforts for 2024 or any given year. Let's look at say the number of people you want to meet face-to-face. What is a realistic goal or metric that we we should be setting for ourselves. Um, on that particular metric. Yes.

18:31.43

AROB

Good question. So what is a good goal for donor visits face to face. Um I have always operated in a um, a space of if I can get in front of 15 to 20 individuals per month over the course of the year

 18:46.15

AROB

Then I will ultimately see those lag measures that we want to see dollars raise proposals issued that will that will sustain the organization so 15 to twenty is a really good goal I would say that in 20 the rules of what is a face-to-face visit they changed because people didn't want to go out and see individuals. And on the flipside donors didn't want people in their homes asking them for gifts and so there's been a a dramatic increase in the acceptance of phone calls and video based um meetings and solicitations and you know I still am a firm believer. Maybe it's just you know, being kind of old school and. Thinking that face to face is better. But I think that a face toface face. It's always going to bear more fruit. There's less of a time constraint. There's kind of more freedom to observe things in the room and observe your surroundings that will ultimately lead to better relationships. There's more time for kind of small talk and and chitchat than you know than there is on a Zoom call. But um. You know in the world of post covid fundraising Zoom calls and um and video calls and phone calls can be very effective so to to kind of boil all that down 15 to 20 face to face and or video calls with intentional sated purpose of cultivating your donors or. Um, asking for a gift is a very reasonable. It's a stretch. You got to be stay busy. You got to be active, you got to make those phone calls. But if you can get that as your goal monthly and annually then you will raise you will raise more money and you will hit your goals every year

20:17.83

aggierobison

Right? And and a ratio that I've heard from other fundraisers and what I find to be true for myself as a fundraiser is if you contact 10 people you get on average two and a half to 3 meetings out of those 10 contacts. So if you're looking for twenty in a in a month you get you got multiply that by you know, 3 to 4 times as many phone calls to make those happen so it's got to be something that happens every day.

20:40.31

AROB

Absolutely yeah, so that's the ratio that I've always seen ten ten calls equals 3 visits equals 1 sale or one gift and so if you know that you want to ask for a certain amount for that year or you want to make a certain number of solicitations then your activity. Again, those lead measures your activity has to be significantly higher than the number of visits because not everybody is going to say yes to your visit.

21:05.85

aggierobison

And maybe that brings us to another question is if you're making 15 to 20 visits per month. How many of those do you think are asks or how many visits does it take to get to an ask with an average donor.

21:18.79

AROB

That's a great question. So there's 2 questions in there. How many how many visits how many of your 20 visits a month should be solicitations and we'll tackle that one first. So there's 4 types of visits that you can be going on as a fundraiser. There's your discovery visit which is where you're meeting somebody for the first time and. Assessing whether they want to be a major donor to your organization. There's cultivation which is where you're moving the relationship along the donor continuum from ignorance to ultimately ownership their solicitation which is where you are asking hey Mr Hayne I know you care passionately about this organization. Would you consider a gift of $10000 this year to help us and accomplish our mission at a greater degree and then there is stewardship so stewardship is Mr. Hayn. You have been a loyal supporter of ours I just wanted to take you out for coffee and thank you for your gifts over the years. So if you're looking at those 4 types of visits. Only one of them is asking for a gift. The other three are critically important though to sustaining long-term development activity at your organization. So it doesn't always work out to a quarter in each of those buckets. But if you think in your mind if I can do 20 visits this month and roughly five of those are going to be solicitations that means the other fifteen need to be discovery I need to be meeting new people cultivation I need to be deepening our my relationship with my existing donors in stewardship I need to be thinking donors for their support. So I think that's how I always think of.

22:50.71

AROB

How do? How do you kind of ratio out your 15 to 20 visits per month is you look at those 4 buckets of discovery cultivation solicitation and stewardship. Your second question is you may answer the second question. Yeah, your second question is kind of how many visits does it take to get to an ask? um. You know the the rule here is it depends um some donors they call and they say hey my daughter went through your campus ministry I know I've never supported before but she had a life changing experience and I want to meet with you and talk about how I can make a gift to support it. We're not going to go on that visit and treat it as a true discovery and not make an ask right? They've set us up for I want to support your organization and I want to know how specifically so that might be 1 visit and we're laying out sort of some options or even a proposal for them to give. But like in the case of my story earlier and my my boss who you know it took 5 years to get to a million dollar gift well there were a lot of cultivation visits and even that that $5000 ask in a way was a cul. It was a solication but it was a cultivation ultimately towards that. Million dollar ask that that million dollar gift that they made down the road. So um I would say that the number of visits that it takes to get to a solicitation are as many as you need in some cases. It's one and in some cases. It's 15 to 20 but.

24:20.61

AROB

Developing true relationships with our donors with our benefactors and and being mindful of their philanthropic goals is ultimately what's going to set us up as a fundraiser for better success on the whole as as fundraisers that are asking a lot of people for support as opposed to what do I need to do. To get a gift from this person individually right now.

24:43.65

aggierobison

Excellent. So I want to look at a couple kind of examples of fundraising offices and setting those goals for the year right? at Petris we get asked you know, ah pretty frequently. What kind of goals should I be setting for this year and then every organization's in a little bit different situation.

 25:01.20

aggierobison

So I want to start with if you're in an established fundraising program. Yeah, it's been going for a few years you've got some donor some donors. You got a good sized list and then after that I want to come back and talk about if you're in a brand new fundraising program or if you're just starting fundraising goals look a little bit different depending where you are there so in an established fundraising program. What are some of the goals kind of specifically you said a monthly visits probably 15 to 20 and I would probably track that monthly right? Not just average out out over the year what other goals should you be thinking about in an established program.

25:33.43

AROB

So and we're talking about lead measures. You really want to focus on number visits 15 to 20 per month is a good goal for individual fundraiser. Um monthly donors I think that you know, growing up in in an established fundraising office. Um, I never had a goal of less than 50 new monthly donors over the course of the year as the as the monthly giving program grew that that number of goals grew but 50 monthly monthly donors is at least a target for an established fundraising office then I think you want to start looking at the number of solicitations. And when you're in established fundraising office. You should really look at what are your tiered levels for solicitations. So when you're just getting started out I don't know that I said that when you're just starting out. Um, then you know oftentimes you don't know kind of what your donor pool looks like. But once you have an established fundraising office and you have a a pipeline you have an annual fund that's giving you you know new donors. You have a database then it's totally reasonable for you to set goals of x number of solicitations at $5000 plus x number of solicitations at $10000 plus x number of solications at $100000 plus x number of solicitations at $1000000 and oftentimes there. It's it's in that kind of transitional period where a development office is going from. You know they've they've they started.

27:01.81

AROB

Now they're doing pretty well now we want them to kind of click the dial and go push themselves a little bit harder and so they've never had a goal I've never had a gift of $1000000 and they never really thought about that and and at the you know beginning of the year and sometimes when I'm working with them I say all right? What if we set a goal that we're going to ask somebody for a million dollars this year. Then you can oftentimes see their eyes get really big and say oh we've never done that before injury then mix is a little nervous say well yeah, it should make you nervous. It should make you uncomfortable, but as you grow now you have people that have been making those gifts that we can identify their capacity and if we don't know who that person is right now or we don't know who those 2 or 3 people are that we're going to. And begin that process then now is a good time to start so um, number of visits number of monthly donors number of solicitations at different levels and then I think you know in terms of kind of a lag measure. Um, that is dollars raised I think it's reasonable to set a goal. Of increasing your dollars raised year to year in an established program that's going. You're going to be looking at most times of ah somewhere in the 10 to 25% increase um dollars raised this year versus dollars raised in the past year

28:13.88

AROB

Um, and I think that's reasonable. You want to look at you know there's there's some data that you can kind of use to say is that reasonable is that too high is that too low but establish establish fundraising offices I think can set a goal of somewhere around 10 to 25% increased dollars raised now kind of going back down the list and going to the other side of a new fundraising office. Um, that doesn't have a database that doesn't have a strong annual fund your your goals are going to be a little bit different right 15 to 20 visits per month when you have no database and no pipeline of donors is going to be challenging right? So but that that means that you set goals that you are still going to. Push you in the visits category. Maybe you do set a 15 visit goal per month over the course of the year and you know that you you know we don't know who those people are but we're going to find them and we're going to do a lot more discovery visits this year than anything else because we just don't know who those people are um. In solicitations. Ah or let's stay in order and monthly gifts then I think still setting a goal for um, new monthly donors is a good goal for a new office. Um I'll tell you a quick story going back to my an earlier example of working at St Mary's at takes a and m. When we had a goal of 50 new monthly donors and we had maybe at that time probably 150 to 200 monthly donors total. It was really it was tough to get to that 50 but we knew that that 50 every year we were going to hit it and so there were multiple years like that last two weeks leading up to the.

29:44.14

AROB

End of our we were on a fiscal year basis. So the end of our our sort of goal term I mean we were calling and making ah a really concerted effort to get new monthly donors because we really wanted to hit that 50 and then you know that was gosh fifteen years ago now they have over 1500 monthly donors bringing over a million dollars a year but if we hadn't had those fifty fifty new monthlies per year in the beginning who knows that we would have grown at that rate so new monthly donors number of solicitations. You still want to set goals. But if you're in a brand new office starting out, you might not have a million dollar tier your top tier might be 25000 or 100000 but you want to set goals within each tier and then dollars raised new fundraising offices when you go from not doing any fundraising to having a concerted and a disciplined um plan for fundraising you're going to see increases a lot faster and at a higher rate. So you might be looking at 100 % increase over last year's dollars raised in a new fundraising office in years 2 3 and 4 you might be looking at a 50% year -over year increase and then eventually you're going to level out at that 10 to 25% but early days you can see a lot of fruit from having a good plan. From people that haven't been asks that have been that are ready and just from um, new motivation and new energy.

31:01.26

aggierobison

Yeah, yeah I love that the the one that stands out to me. There is asking for gifts at the different at the different tiers right? I remember yeah when I started to fund were started out in fundraising The goal was just find anybody to ask for any give us anything right? and when.

 31:17.48

aggierobison

When I kind of made that switch to all right now I'm looking for this many people at 25 k this many people at one hundred K one hundred k felt impossible like who's got all that money land around these got to be like superstar athletes or whatnot and later on in my career after I had close a number of those sized gifts. They weren't those superstar athletes. They were people who lived.

 31:36.86

aggierobison

Just normal everyday lives had saved and had built some wealth and were happy to make that size a gift to see that impact happening at our ministry but it it wasn't as unachievable as it felt when I first started so that was a great goal.

31:49.69

AROB

And setting the goal that you know is you know in your mind you think oh my gosh that's unachievable, but then putting that as a goal then you have really kind of twelve months to to strategize about it to identify the right people. Um, to do the cultivation and then ultimately to make that make that solicitation put that proposal in front of them and if you don't if you're not intentional about doing that then you could spend those twelve months saying we're fine with $5000 gifs all day long and never push yourself to grow and see that. See those ultimately the lag measure of dollars raised increased.

32:27.65

aggierobison

That's exactly right? I want to come back to 1 point that you didn't mention that I work with a lot of ministries that are just starting out in fundraising and what they always ask about is hey should we just be spending a lot of time writing grants because those are free easy money. Ah, how many how many grants should a ministry be applying for as they get started out.

32:46.54

AROB

So this is a really good question and a lot of board members and a lot of kind of executive directors think of fundraising as grant writing because that's what they hear about that's what's familiar. That's what the zoo gets. That's what the museum gets um in truth.

 33:01.90

AROB

Grants are really difficult if you don't have a strong and a historical grant writing program. But I think that it's a good and it's a worthwhile exercise to start identifying foundations that can make grants and to start that process of what does it mean to actually write a grant for an organization. So a good goal for a a young fundraising program is really to identify and so to submit um somewhere between 2 to 4 grants in in ah in a year and part of that is going to depend on deadlines right? Grants Foundations don't work like donors. Do. They might say you know you submit your grants November thirtieth every year and we review them and then if we approve you then you get the money if we deny you then you can't come back until November Thirtieth next year so if you miss a deadline that might not be 1 that you can ask for in this year but um instituting that practice. Of identifying and soliciting writing those grants is good just don't expect a lot of return initially as you start that process.

34:06.17

aggierobison

Right? Exactly I've seen some more government adjucent organizations like schools do really well with grants early on but other ministries ah somebody that I know who had hired a full-time grant writer spent two full two full years writing grants for their organization and didn't get their first. Accepted until after she had left at the end of the second year and so you know they spent 6 figures on salary and benefits for 2 years to get a ten thousand dollars grant after 2 years So it's all it's a hard thing to to see a lot of revenue come from. So.

34:39.70

aggierobison

Excellent, any other topics you want to cover in this all right.

35:00.80

AROB

Let let's do 1 personal kind of how do you? How do you look at you know your career in fundraising from a goal setting perspective and I won't I won't spend too much time on.

 35:13.60

aggierobison

Okay, great. So as we wrap up here thinking about the fundraisers out there. Ah how how can you go about goal setting maybe from a career perspective a longer term perspective. Personally yeah.

35:24.92

AROB

Yeah that's a good question so when I was just a little backstory when I was 33 I kind of had when I turned 33 I had this moment where I thought wow Jesus was 33 when he started his ministry. You know, true ministry on earth um, maybe I need to you know. Get my rear in gear and start looking at some long-term goals and so I went through and I set um a lot of goals. Ah that I wanted to hit before I turned 40 and I hit some of them didn't hit all of them. But it was really powerful just in terms of looking at what I um where I wanted to. Sort of see different aspects of my life advanced to in those 7 years and every year I would go and I would track them and I would say how did I do on these goals. Um, and so from ah from a career standpoint. It really did help me because I knew I wanted to be in fundraising but. Another goal of mine was to own a business and so I was able to Fortunately, you know by the grace of god be able to pair those my love of fundraising and um, entrepreneurship into ultimately taking over and running Petra's development so that was a goal of mine that I wouldn't have necessarily pursued in the same way if I hadn't. Identified those as being passions and goals of mine earlier on in my life. So I think from a fundraising standpoint or from a fundraiser standpoint um looking at what what are you passionate about and what do you want to do long term in your career as a fundraiser I think is a really helpful exercise and.

36:54.60

AROB

You know that might mean um, you know for somebody who's in ah um, an annual fun role right now at ah at a Catholic high school perhaps is listening to this Well a long-term goal of yours might be I want to be the ah director of advancement at a University someday. Or it might mean that I want to be an executive director of a nonprofit someday or it might mean I want to go I Want to be entrepreneurial and start a business. But if you kind of think about that. What what brings joy and passion and what what are good targets for you down the road then as opportunities come Up. Or as you're looking at do I Um, you know my boss just offer me a promotion to take on this new responsibility. Um I don't know if I want to do it because that probably means committing here for a couple more years. Maybe that's what you want to do and maybe you think actually um, this was this is this is really served me well this role right now. But long-term I know this is where I want to be and so you just are more intentional about decisions and discernment so goal setting from a career standpoint for a young. Um, ah you know a mid-level and even an advanced fundraiser I think can be really powerful and impactful for you. As you make those decisions and as you identify kind of what are what do you?? where do you want to end up someday and um, then looking at the rungs on the ladder to get you there in a strategic way I think it's going to serve you? well.

38:20.64

aggierobison

Great, excellent. Well if you're looking for some resources and how to set goals the the types of goals to set and or if you're you or somebody on your team a fundraiser team I was looking at setting up an incentive plan. We have an a sample ah a sand. We have a sample fundraising incentive plan available for free for download on the Petris website if you go to petrusdevelopment.com/134 this is episode one thirty four the petest development show petrusdevelopment.com/134 you'll be able to access that that free spreadsheet that download and. And that'll help you set some goals and see in general what other fundraisers use for setting those metrics and for how they use it for an incentive plan. Um, before we go quick announcement this week the the winter cohort registration for our basic online advancement training.

39:16.73

aggierobison

Boat program that Petrus hosts. It's a ten week program that helps brand new fundraisers or get oriented into fundraising or helps organizations who are just starting out in fundraising get up to speed and get moving. It's a ten week program that starts this next week the week of January Twenty Second 2024 and registration closes. This week on the seventeenth of January Wednesday you can visit petrisdeveopment.com/boat to learn more about that program.

39:43.48

AROB

And we had 2 really really killer cohorts in the fall for the boat that was our inaugural kind of ah boat voyage right? So to speak? Um, but we had 2 really great cohorts who were engaged. They got a lot out of it and it was great to see.

39:59.38

AROB

Kind of the diversity of where they were coming from like you said there were some people that were brand new to fundraising but then there were also people who had been in fundraising but were new  or in a new role maybe within their organization or a new organization and so they were able to kind of use that ten weeks to orient themselves to. And kind of a more broad look at fundraising and then identify what their strengths and weaknesses were moving into a new role so it doesn't have to be brand new. It can be. You know, used as a training tool or um, you know, leveling up for anybody.

40:29.65

aggierobison

Exactly we say BOAT provides the blueprint for a sustainable fundraising program so it gives you a view at the whole spectrum of activities in fundraising and it really kind of zooms in on those those things that are most important early on the vision. The communications case for support database and really digs into those deeply. And so yeah, we had all types of organizations and and our fall cohorts from schools to campus ministries different kind of miscellaneous organizations right? Some that were service and aid organizations. Some women's health organizations kind of the full spectrum. So. It's pretty pretty cool to see all those organizations get moving with fundraising and. Training in new fundraisers and some of them were just starting out with their first fundraising efforts ever. So great to see that progress happening a different catholic orgs.

41:13.50

AROB

Yeah, it was great and I encourage anybody if you're thinking about how can you level up or how can you help somebody on your team to learn the basics of fundraising in a fun environment, a safe environment and ah kind of in a space where they're going to. Meet new people build their network then I would definitely encourage you to check out the Petrus BOAT.

41:35.89

aggierobison

Great again. That's petrusdevelopment.com/boat and final announcement if you dear listener have a question that you would like to hear Andrew answer on the podcast you can send it in to a [email protected] and it may be featured on the future episode.

41:51.32

AROB

What.

41:54.45

aggierobison

You can also hit us up on Instagram or Linkedin anywhere that you find Petrus Development and send us questions there. Great. Yeah, thanks for joining us today Andrew and we'll look forward to getting back on a more regular schedule of the Petrus Development Show and we'll see you again in a couple weeks.

41:59.32

AROB

Cool right on. It's been fun.

42:10.42

AROB

Right on sounds good. Thanks Rhen.