Stop Winging It - A Petrus Development Show Episode on Fundraising Roadblocks

In this episode of the Petrus Development Show, Andrew and Rhen dive deep into 5 critical challenges that often derail fundraising efforts, especially for those fundraisers who are just starting out.

Show Notes:

From the fundamental importance of a clear case for support to the often-overlooked power of donor stewardship, Andrew and Rhen unpack what really matters in building a sustainable fundraising program.

Learn why winging it without proper planning holds organizations back and hear why personal donor outreach can't be skipped (even though it's scary!). Plus, get a bonus tip about why you don't have to go it alone in fundraising. Whether you're new to fundraising or looking to strengthen your foundation, this episode provides practical insights to help you move forward successfully.  

At the end of the episode, Rhen mentions several resources that Petrus has to assist with overcoming the roadblocks discussed in the episode.

• Find Petrus Development on LinkedIn (click HERE!) and start gathering wisdom from experienced fundraisers.
  
  
• Consider signing up for Petrus's Basic Online Advancement Training (nicknamed BOAT) is a 10-week, online course that offers a blueprint for building a self-sustaining fundraising program for your organization.  
   
• Do you need to create (or update) your organization's case for support?  If so, check out our Petrus resource, "Case Components Worksheet", to help you get started.  Click HERE to receive the free download.   
  
  

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

8:04.80

Host:
"Well, howdy everybody. Welcome to the Petrus Development show. My name is Rhen Hoehn from Petrus Development. And joining me today is Andrew Robison, owner and president of Petrus Development. How's it going, Andrew?"

8:32.45
AROB:
"It's going pretty well. It's November but it's still not cold here. It's crazy. We had like a couple of cool days, but I do not understand why it is so bloody hot here – which, I mean, hot is relative, but it's still like in the 80s at least."

8:51.78
Host:
"Dang."

8:52.66
AROB:
"Yeah, I mean, I went and ran this morning and it was like 72 degrees and muggy as heck, and I was not enjoying it. So I am ready for some of your weather to make its way down here."

9:04.76
Host:
"Yeah. You were just telling me how you were mowing your lawn. I don't think I've mowed my lawn in maybe two months. I think I've mowed it once since the school year started. It's definitely cool in the North woods here."

9:12.35
AROB:
"Yeah."

9:15.42
Host:
"It's been in the forties every day."

9:17.06
AROB:
"Okay."

9:17.66
Host:
"And we're in the midst of deer hunting season."

9:20.60
AROB:
"Ah."

9:20.78
Host:
"It's a big, big time in the UP."

9:23.80
AROB:
"I hear."

9:24.01
Host:
"My kids get the first day of deer rifle season off from school."

9:27.89
AROB:
"Nice."

9:27.93
Host:
"Just because everybody would be gone otherwise, right? I've been going out with the boys, sitting out watching for deer, seeing a lot of nothing. I've seen some turkeys, and we have found some bobcat tracks."

9:38.32
Host:
"That's kind of fun."

9:38.55
AROB:
"Oh, wow. See."

9:39.66
Host:
"No bear tracks lately though. I think they're going to bed for the winter. I know you've come up and when you've been up here in the UP, you've sat out with me in the deer blind before and kind of experienced that, but it's something that I didn't start until I was an adult."

9:54.99
Host:
"And it's a hard thing to learn as an adult. I didn't grow up around it, you know, getting all those little tips. And so, every year that I've done it, I've learned a lot of stuff and picked up and got, I think, a little better, a little better."

10:05.43
Host:
"We've had a little more success. There was like a good six or seven years that I didn't bring home a deer."

10:10.79
AROB:
"Okay."

10:10.99
Host:
"And my wife was like, 'Are you just going and reading a book in the woods or what's going on?' Like, 'Well, yeah.'"

10:16.13
AROB:
"Literally, yes, I am. That is what I'm doing."

10:17.24
Host:
"I am, but that's not the full intent, right?"

10:19.89
AROB:
"Yeah, yeah, sure."

10:20.04
Host:
"I'm trying. But we have been successful the last couple of years. And so that's good. We're getting better, right?"

10:24.79
AROB:
"Nice."

10:25.56
Host:
"And it kind of reminds me of my experience starting fundraising in some ways, where, you know, none of us go to school for fundraising."

10:30.49
AROB:
"Aha."

10:34.35
AROB:
"Right, right."

10:34.38
Host:
"Typically, and you grow up maybe seeing fundraisers happening but not necessarily knowing kind of the behind-the-scenes of how it all works. So I was fortunate that when I was hired to fundraise, the organization I was working for hired Petrus and I had a consultant, and eventually that became you being my consultant, right? To teach me these things – what to do, what to focus on early on, and then as things grew, that really helped me get my feet under me. But not everybody has that, right? And so what we want to talk about today is – ooh, I almost spilled my coffee – what are the five main things that hold people back from fundraising success, especially when they're just starting out."

11:13.50
AROB:
"That'll be good. I'm excited. It's a little different from some of our other episodes, but I think this is good content that people listening will hopefully take away something and say, 'Okay, yeah, I'm doing that' or 'I'm not doing that.' And hopefully make some changes if you need to."

11:31.16
Host:
"Exactly. If you're just starting out fundraising, if your organization is just starting out, these are kind of the things to put in place first, get good processes in place. If you're a brand new fundraiser who's just been dropped into an existing organization, you might look around and see 130 things going on all at the same time and you don't really know how it all fits together."

11:46.27
AROB:
"Right."

11:48.13
Host:
"And so you kind of want to focus in on what's the most important right now."

11:50.97
AROB:
"Yeah."

11:52.89
Host:
"Great."

11:52.97
AROB:
"Yep."

11:53.17
Host:
"So Andrew, what is the – I don't know that we have an order to these – but what's the first of the five things that kind of hold you back from fundraising success?"

11:57.25
AROB:
"Okay."

12:03.20
AROB:
"I'm excited about this topic because you're right. When you are new to fundraising or you're new into a shop, you get in and you think, 'Okay, here's all the things I could be doing. What should I be focusing on right now as we're getting going?' And so this is just a good kind of overview episode about five things. There are some more, but these are five things that can hold you back. So number one, again, in no order, but number one..."

12:29.86
AROB:
"...is winging it without a clear case for support."

12:34.90
Host:
"What is the case for support?"

12:36.49
AROB:
"Yeah, there you go."

12:37.49
Host:
"We should clarify that, yeah."

12:39.61
AROB:
"So case for support comes in all sorts of different forms. And so I don't want you to get hung up on what a case for support looks like or how it presents. A case for support from a high level, deeper meaning – which I know those are opposite, right?"

12:54.68
AROB:
"But at a high level: What are you raising money for? What is your organization – well, let me back up – what is your organization doing?"

13:07.19
AROB:
"What is the impact of that? And if you had more money, how could you do more of that impact? That's what a case for support is."

13:14.58
Host:
"Right."

13:16.67
AROB:
"If your donors don't understand what you're doing, what the impact is, and how their gift can create a greater impact, then why would they give you any money? I mean, maybe out of obligation or duty or guilt or whatever, but that's not transformational giving. That's not inspirational. Those aren't reasons why people say, 'I'm excited to give to this nonprofit' or 'I'm excited to support it.' What you want them to be is excited about it."

13:49.36
AROB:
"And what they get excited about is impact. What difference is your organization, your staff, your volunteers, your programs, or whatever that is – what difference are they making in an issue that your donors are passionate about? So if you can explain that to them through this case for support, then they're going to be excited about giving. So that's essentially what a case for support is: What's the impact of your organization and how could more money allow you to have a greater impact?"

14:22.16
Host:
"And I think it helps to put this in writing, right? In this usage, a case for support is often a Google Doc or something where you write these things down to put it in a common language for all of your staff."

14:24.69
AROB:
"Absolutely. Yeah."

14:32.49
Host:
"I know it's easy to kind of have a grasp of what you're accomplishing and the impact you're making in your head, but actually articulating it well and consistently across all your staff is kind of difficult to do until you really sit and refine it."

14:46.49
Host:
"So it is helpful to write that out, I think."

14:49.37
AROB:
"I agree. Hey, hold on one second. Pause. Let me look up a quote real quick."

17:08.32
AROB:
"Yeah. Okay, so there is a quote, and I don't know what it is, but it's something like 'when your thoughts pass your lips and go onto paper is when they become real.' So again, I don't know the quote and chat was no help in figuring it out, but the intent is there, right? It's this idea that when you can talk through ideas, you can sort of make them sound like whatever you want. And there's a place and a time for that, for flexibility in your words and meaning and all of that."

17:43.92
AROB:
"But there is a moment when you want your words – like what you're talking about, consistency and messages – is the time when you want your words to be finalized, you want decisions to be made as a unit, as an organization, as a group. And so that's when you write it down. Once you write it down, everybody agrees. Those are the words that we want to use because it's written down. So case for support in theory or in concept is: What does your organization do? What's the impact and how can more money create a greater impact?"

18:11.95
AROB:
"The way that gets presented is verbally talking to people, but it also is important to write it down somewhere or record it to audio or to video in a way that says, 'These are the words that we have decided we're gonna use to demonstrate our case for support,' use it across your organization."

18:31.50
Host:
"Excellent. And I think a part of that is your vision. Where's your organization heading?"

18:35.68
AROB:
"Yeah, right."

18:35.76
Host:
"And I think that brings us to our second of the top five things that hold you back from fundraising success."

18:41.31
AROB:
"So our second is skipping the important role of strategic planning."

19:12.72
Host:
"Great. So what is strategic planning and how might that be used in a nonprofit?"

19:17.33
AROB:
"Okay, so case for support is what your organization does, what's the impact, and how can you have a greater impact? Strategic planning though is, to your point, your vision and what your organization is doing practically, tactically to achieve that vision. So fundraising without a development plan is kind of like driving without a map. You might be moving, but are you moving in the right direction? The same thing with a strategic plan."

19:45.33
AROB:
"Programming without a strategic plan is like, you're doing things, but are you reaching, are you moving towards your vision? And so an organization having a good strategic plan – again, it can be in concept, it can be in theory, it can be like, 'This is where we're going' – it becomes real when you write it down. So that's why oftentimes strategic plans are written down in some sort of document, which can be limiting in some ways, but it's also helpful. But having that strategic plan, this is where our organization's going, translating that to fundraising, if we are going to reach those..."

20:19.06
AROB:
"...places, that vision, then here's our development plan that's going to get us there. That is really helpful as a fundraiser, and going into fundraising without either of those two things, it kind of just feels like if you show up and you raise some money today, great. If you don't, that's fine too, because we're not really going anywhere. And so that can be very deflating for fundraisers, for the individuals. And so it's helpful for a lot of reasons to have that plan and that direction. That's one of the ways that can hold you back from fundraising success – not having a clear plan and direction."

20:58.30
Host:
"Exactly. And it's not even just always not going anywhere. You might be going multiple directions at the same time, which effectively moves you nowhere, right?"

21:06.13
AROB:
"Yeah."

21:06.54
Host:
"And so it's going through that process that figures out, okay, over the next 10 or 20 or 25 years, what do we want to accomplish? I like to use the example of a K-8 school."

21:17.01
Host:
"Their long-term vision might be to upgrade to a new building, or it might be to add a high school, or it might be to add sports teams to their offerings. Those are all equally good things."

21:29.41
Host:
"None of them are a bad thing, but they got to pick one and say, 'Okay, this is what we're focusing on right now. We want to head in that direction.' I kind of like to think of all those different options that are all equally good, but maybe you can't focus on all of them at the same time, kind of lay it out around the compass and say, 'Okay, this is the direction we're heading.'"

21:46.14
Host:
"We're going toward this one. Now all the decisions that we're going to make over the next 10 years are going to lead us in that direction. And we're going to have to exclude some other things that are equally good, but they're not what we've chosen, right?"

21:56.51
Host:
"So having that very clear vision."

21:56.69
AROB:
"Correct. And that doesn't mean that you're never going to fundraise for anything that's not directly on that vision. Right. So I'm working with an organization right now and their..."

22:04.16
Host:
"Right."

22:08.32
AROB:
"...overall mission – they're a radio station that also has a number of programs to support Catholic or support the domestic family – so support the domestic church, sorry. So it's about investing in families, and radio is one of those pieces. So they have a very clear vision. They want to support more families. They want to spread the church in our region. But we recently moved into a new office space, new studio, and we needed about thirty-five thousand dollars to outfit that studio. That wasn't in the plans, but that becomes important to the organization if they want to continue onto that vision. So it was kind of like, 'Alright, we're trucking along here towards this vision – oh wait, this is a need.' So we went out, we fundraised for thirty-five thousand dollars, and now we have the funds to be able to get the studio up, and now we can refocus back on this overall vision and the singular direction of doing the ministry the best we can through the ways that we've already identified. So I think that a direction is important, but it also means that there will be kind of sidestep stops along the way, but you could always get back on the highway and keep heading in your direction."

23:25.34
Host:
"Exactly. And I think one thing that we assume when we are within the nonprofit and we've got this vision, we're heading in this direction, we assume that it's obvious to everybody – that all of our stakeholders, the people that we work with, the people who support us, the people who have been part of the organization in the past – it's clear that, oh, this is obviously the direction we're going to be heading. But from the outside, it usually isn't, right? And so I think that brings us to our third of the five pieces of things that hold you back in fundraising."

23:55.20
AROB:
"Our third is relying on sporadic communication or basically not having a communication plan at all. That can get you into big trouble just when it comes to what you're talking about, your donors understanding what you are, what you're doing and where you're going."

24:11.73
Host:
"Maybe that begs the question of what does a regular communication plan look like, or what should it look like, or maybe what is a sporadic communication plan?"

24:19.68
AROB:
"Yeah, there you go."

24:20.35
Host:
"What shouldn't it look like?"

24:20.52
AROB:
"So, yeah, I think we've done, like, singular episodes just about communications, right? And there's a lot of different resources on our website."

24:27.07
Host
Right.

24:29.09
AROB
So go to PetrusDevelopment.com, check out the blog. We've got courses about communications. We've got a lot on there. So I won't dive into the specifics of what that plan looks like.

24:39.88
AROB
But I will give you the concept that has driven me and the clients that we work with. And just at a high level, what does your communication plan look like? What does a non-sporadic communication plan look like? And it basically means that you get into a rhythm of doing two things. First, you communicate: What are you doing? Who are you? What is your impact? Then you ask.

25:04.56
AROB
How can your donors support that impact and have a greater impact through their financial support? If you can get into a rhythm of doing that—communicate and ask, communicate and ask, communicate and ask—just thinking about it in that way, that will give you direction around what a communication plan is. Now, the delivery of that message, the communicate and the ask, there's a thousand ways to do it, right? You can do that through newsletters. You can do that through direct mail appeals. You can do that through giving days. You can do that through podcasts. You can do that through blog posts. You can do that through social media, right?

25:41.01
AROB
The medium is dependent on a lot of different factors for your organization. But if you can just get into a communicate-and-ask rhythm, then you're going to move things forward. And the risk of not doing that is very simple. Organizations that over-communicate and never ask, or just communicate and never ask, have a lot of people that love the organization, know they're having a great impact, and never send in a check.

26:07.42
AROB
And then on the other side, if you only ask and you don't communicate the impact, then your donors start saying, "I only hear from this organization when they want money. I don't know what they're doing with it, and I don't know what kind of impact." So eventually they're going to stop. So if you have that rhythm—communicate and ask—then you're going to have happy, supportive donors and a good communication plan.

26:28.95
Host
Exactly. And that kind of brings back the point of don't assume your donors know, or your prospective supporters know, where you're going or what you need. If you don't make the ask, they're not necessarily—they might just assume "Oh, they're doing great stuff, but they don't need my help."

26:42.21
Host
So you have to specifically ask them.

26:42.28
AROB
Right.

26:44.10
Host
And I think that kind of brings us to our fourth point. What's the fourth of the five things that hold you back from fundraising success?

26:50.13
AROB
Well, you cued that up perfectly because the fourth is avoiding personal donor outreach.

26:58.44
Host
It's the scariest thing, I think, when you're starting out fundraising, knowing you need to—you know, it's at least suggested that you go call these donors, ask them to meet you for coffee or for dinner or at their office, whatever that might be, sitting down with them face to face and eventually making an ask of them for some amount of money.

27:17.47
AROB
Right.

27:17.65
Host
It's terrifying, and I think most of us when we start out wonder, "Oh, can I just write grants and write appeal letters and get the same result and not have to do that hard part?" It takes time and takes money to go meet people. It clearly is one of the things that we think holds people back from fundraising success. What would you say there?

27:36.13
AROB
Oh, 100%. I can tell you that in my own personal experience, the times that I—the times in my career that I was not out of the office meeting with donors, building relationships, asking for gifts—those were, well, the worst financially, right? We did not meet our financial goals in that, and in one of those situations, we didn't even have financial goals. So that was really frustrating. But we didn't meet them, even if we had them. But then on the other side, I was completely unfulfilled and really kind of dreaded going to work every day because I didn't—I didn't have goals, which we talked about earlier, but then I wasn't meeting with donors, which is—

28:15.64
AROB
I'm not like a huge extrovert, but I do like building relationships. And it was, you know, I didn't feel like I had direction, wasn't out meeting with people, telling the story, getting feedback, taking that to my boss, all of that. And so it was very—and the job that I'm thinking about—I had a very clear shift.

28:35.19
AROB
To not doing all these other things, only going out and meeting with donors, changed metrics, changed goals. And our fundraising—boom—shot up. My fulfillment, my interest, my passion about the organization—boom—shot off the charts. And then our donors were, you know, our alumni, our supporters, they were more engaged as a result. They felt like—you know, they were thanking me for coming and meeting with them for dinner. And just because it built that relationship, it connected them in a real, tangible, and practical way. And they were very grateful. So going out, seeing your donors helps with a lot of different things. But you're right, it is the easiest to avoid when you get your head down and you think, "All right, I got to get these websites done. I got to get the appeals out. I got to do all these other things, the database clean."

29:26.23
AROB
Donor visits can wait, and that's when individuals and organizations get in trouble.

29:32.08
Host
Exactly. I was the first development director at an organization that had done direct mail appeals for decades, and they had a good list and they had a good history of fundraising. But we never—the organization almost never got any gifts five figures or more until we started meeting people face to face. They had received probably thousands of gifts over a few decades, but they were always in that thousand dollars and less range, except for one or two bequests from a few people. But once we started going out meeting people face to face—

30:01.37
Host
That's when we started—I remember we got our first $10,000 check and it blew our socks off. That was a big deal. And now, years later, they get six-figure checks with some regularity, and that was mind-blowing the first time that happened too. You just don't think that that exists out there. Who can make a gift of that size? And I mean, I think the worry for a lot of us is "I'm not the right person to be out there." Personally, I'm 100% introverted.

30:26.94
Host
I am not witty, not particularly charming, but I went out there and met these people, got to know them, built relationships, and that led to increased fundraising. So if I can do it, I promise you, anybody listening, just go and call some people and sit down with them for a little bit and get to know them and then ask them for money once in a while.

30:36.53
AROB
Yep.

30:43.10
AROB
Absolutely. Yep.

30:45.37
Host
Good. And so our fifth of the five things that holds you back from fundraising success kind of comes after the ask there. What is that?

30:52.70
AROB
Overlooking your donor stewardship.

30:56.02
Host
What do you mean by stewardship? I know it's a word you hear a lot in fundraising, but you don't necessarily know what that means.

30:58.00
AROB
Okay.

31:01.35
AROB
Yes. So stewardship in the sense that there's two different kinds of ways to define stewardship in fundraising. One is stewardship as people supporting your parish through your weekly support or your tithe, right?

31:16.28
AROB
That is one kind of way that stewardship is defined.

31:16.60
Host
Right.

31:19.92
AROB
That's not the way that we're talking about it here though. What we're talking about is stewardship in the sense that when you have a donor who supports your organization, you show gratitude and appreciation and you steward them.

31:32.54
AROB
As donors, meaning you walk with them along that journey, their philanthropic journey with your organization, by saying thank you, by engaging them, by showing your appreciation. And ultimately it is a form of cultivation because then they become more interested in supporting long-term, but it begins with showing gratitude and appreciation for the gifts that they have made.

31:53.58
AROB
So that's stewardship—it sounds very simple and it sounds like, of course we'll thank our donors, right? Somebody sends us a hundred thousand dollar check, of course we're going to call them and take them to dinner and say thank you. And yet too many organizations and too many individuals skip that or think that it's not important or delay that stewardship. And then your big donors, and even your hundred-dollar-a-year donors or your ten-dollar-a-month donors, they begin to think, "All right, nobody ever calls me. I guess they don't need my funds." We'll move it to somebody else.

32:28.94
Host
Exactly. I like to give the example of my personal experience. There's one organization that I volunteered at a lot through college, was kind of a part of. And I remember after college, we saved up and we made a $500 donation.

32:40.91
Host
We're so excited. This is the biggest donation we've ever made at this point. And sent it in. And we thought, "Oh, they're probably going to call us right away because they're going to be so excited to see this." And we never heard a single thing, never got a thank-you letter, nothing.

32:51.91
AROB
Brutal.

32:52.10
Host
Versus there's another organization that my sister used to work at. It's a kind of a group home for the mentally disabled. And so we would give and we would sometimes buy items that were requested by the people living at the home. And every time we sent a gift, we'd get handwritten cards from all the people living there about how excited they were. Sometimes it was boring things like new sheets. Sometimes we bought fun things like a karaoke machine that they wanted. And we could have some fun with it.

33:19.93
Host
Which of those two organizations am I going to continue giving to? It's obviously the one that took the time to have the residents send us a handwritten card.

33:28.81
AROB
Yep.

33:28.82
Host
And that makes it—you just feel so good about a gift like that. And so that's what you want to aim for with your donors. Make them feel good about that gift.

33:37.13
AROB
Correct. So stewardship is important for two reasons. One, it's just the right thing to do, right? Showing gratitude and appreciation.

33:43.50
Host
Yeah.

33:45.02
AROB
Number two, practically speaking, it makes your job as a fundraiser much easier when you have happy donors who are grateful for that thank-you call versus donors that when you finally do call three years later to ask them for something else, they say, "I sent you $500 three years ago, never heard anything. I'll call somebody else," click.

34:06.75
AROB
So there's a lot of reasons and it boils down to those two.

34:07.36
Host
Exactly.

34:11.48
AROB
And so it's really important, but it is often skipped.

34:15.62
Host
Great. So those were our top five things that hold you back from fundraising success. As I look at our notes, I see a bonus tip was added.

34:19.95
AROB
I've got a bonus one. Yeah, exactly.

34:22.75
Host
Yeah. What is that bonus?

34:25.49
AROB
So this is just something to keep in mind, especially if you're new to fundraising: something that can hold you back from fundraising success is feeling like you have to do this all by yourself.

34:41.28
Host
Or do you want me to set you up there? Sorry.

34:43.22
AROB
I don't know.

34:44.42
Host
So in what way do you mean that? Do you mean you can find volunteers to help you do the work? Or do you mean there's people out there who can support you?

34:56.12
AROB
In every way, right? So as a fundraiser at an organization that doesn't have a history of fundraising, that maybe has a director or a priest or a principal or somebody who doesn't like fundraising, it can be very isolating.

35:08.84
AROB
And you feel like, "I can't talk to anybody about fundraising. I can't talk to my boss."

35:12.69
Host
Right.

35:13.67
AROB
"I know I should, but they don't really get it. They don't care." And you know, I talk to my spouse and they instantly say, "What are you talking about fundraising? I don't understand," and so it can be very isolating and that leads to a lot of issues. But again, practically speaking, it leads to people leaving the field of fundraising too early because they feel like they're doing it all by themselves. They don't know if they're doing it right. And that doesn't have to be the case. So feeling like—or knowing that you have people out there, these can be coworkers who don't understand fundraising, but you can talk to about it. They can be volunteers.

35:52.13
AROB
Building a development committee or making friends with some of your donors who you can talk to—that's very helpful. And then building a professional network, you know, going to conferences, joining webinars, finding a meetup group in your town that's for fundraisers, joining LinkedIn, whatever it is, just recognizing that there are people around you.

36:16.06
AROB
Who are going through the same struggles and you can confide in, you can get ideas from. All of that is very helpful for anybody, but especially if you're new to fundraising. So feeling like you have to do it alone is a big issue that I see with new fundraisers. And it doesn't have to be that way because there is a whole world of supportive people out there who would love to help you out if you just made yourself available.

36:43.48
Host
Exactly right. I mean, the easiest thing you could do right now today is go follow Petrus on LinkedIn—Petrus Development on LinkedIn. You're going to find other fundraisers who are there commenting. There's more than a thousand fundraisers following the page and commenting on posts, and you can start connecting with them. And like you said, we have events coming up next year all over the country. You can look for those details that will be coming soon. But watch the segue, Andrew—one way you can also kind of meet a cohort of peers in the near future is through our program called Basic Online Advancement Training.

37:17.13
Host
Which is a cohort-based course that's 10 weeks long, that includes five cohort sessions, and we've seen—we've done several rounds of this over the last year, year and a half, and the people who go through the cohorts together kind of leave with a group of friends that they can call up, follow up with, vent to sometimes, get ideas from. And we have the next cohort starting in January, and this is the time of year for Black Friday sales.

37:42.40
Host
So if you want the best price you're going to find on joining the BOAT program—Basic Online Advancement Training program—it's right now going to be through... Dang it.

37:52.48
Host
What are the dates? The end of the week after Thanksgiving. I should've written that down.

37:57.65
AROB
Black Friday.

37:59.50
Host
Now we're going to do through the week of the sixth.

37:59.98
AROB
Yeah, the 28th is Thanksgiving, so the 6th is the Friday after.

38:04.64
Host
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So now through December 6th, which is the Friday of the week after Thanksgiving, you can sign up for BOAT. It's almost half off—it's $800 per student. Regular price is $1,500. So get your organization signed up. You're going to have 12 modules of classes that take you through all the basics of fundraising and the five cohort sessions that are going to help you implement them—put all the material into action for your organization. So go to PetrusDevelopment.com/boat to check that out.

38:41.09
AROB
Great, I would like to make two comments. One, that was an amazing segue. Well done, Ren.

38:45.41
Host
I'm on my game today, thank you.

38:48.70
AROB
Earlier you said you weren't witty, and yet that was brilliant. That was perfect. So don't sell yourself short. Second thing is, yes, check out the BOAT program. We've had, like you said, a couple of cohorts.

39:00.87
AROB
And one of my favorite stories is when we had our RAISE conference in June of this past year. You said that there was a cohort of people—we'll tell that story because you know it better than I do.

39:12.27
Host
Yeah, we had the conference just happen to take place a couple of weeks after a cohort wrapped up, and a bunch of the people from that cohort were at the conference. And so just seeing everybody arriving on the first day of the conference, there was always these big shots of joy of these folks who had—they'd all seen each other over computer screens, because it's all virtual course and cohorts, but they had never met in real life. And now they were all getting to meet in real life. And they went through that conference with this group of friends, they all were sitting together and having a good time. And so it's great to have that peer network. It's just hard to replace when you're in fundraising because you can feel pretty alone otherwise.

39:47.28
AROB
Totally. Yeah. And BOAT is not just a cohort. There's 12 modules, covers building a case for support, which we talked about, building a communication plan, which we talked about. We touch on how to get out and see donors, which we talked about, how to steward your donors. So everything that we've talked about is covered in the 12 modules of BOAT. So if you are in a position where you think that getting that foundation strong,

40:10.96
AROB
And working through the learning and then the application of these issues that we've talked about is going to help you and your organization, definitely encourage you to check out BOAT, PetrusDevelopment.com/boat, and you won't regret it.

40:25.90
Host
Exactly. We've had—it's all virtual, right? Even the cohort. So we've had people from all over the world in the cohorts: England, France, Lebanon, all over the place. And it's definitely a very Catholic flavor to it.

40:34.82
AROB
Nice.

40:37.91
Host
And a lot of the examples are going to be Catholic, et cetera. But we have other organizations who aren't Catholic going through it too. We've had about 60 organizations go through BOAT in the last year. So it's a good time.

40:46.20
AROB
Great. Fantastic.

40:48.72
Host
Excellent. So before we wrap up, I wanted to mention, we do have a resource you can use. We mentioned that case for support early on. We have a worksheet that'll guide you through building out your case for support. If you don't have one, go to PetrusDevelopment.com/156, because this is episode 156 of the Petrus Development Show. PetrusDevelopment.com/156. And you're going to find that worksheet linked up on there.

41:11.96
AROB
Love it.

41:13.80
Host
Excellent. Thank you, Andrew. I'm glad to have joined you today and I'm looking forward to some turkey in the next few days here.

41:20.53
AROB
That's right. Yeah. And enjoy your time sitting in the woods with your kids hunting.

41:28.09
Host
Exactly. Some quality time.

41:30.39
AROB
There you go.

41:30.52
Host
That's a good time.

41:31.28
AROB
Yeah, it'll be good.

41:31.95
Host
All right. Well, have a good Thanksgiving and we'll see you back afterward.