Show notes
Andrew visits with Sarah Rose, Consultant with Petrus Development. They discuss how to develop authentic and intentional relationships as a development officer. They will also discuss how to develop skills and confidence in your work in the development world. And how to deal with distractions when they feel too important to your work to be labeled as a distraction.
Show Notes:
Sarah Rose has been a Consultant with Petrus Development for almost 10 years. She earned her degree in Communications from St. Edwards University and her first job out of college was in marketing for a software company. While she did not enjoy her time in that career she was able to spend a lot of time with her young adult Catholic group in Austin. It was during that time that she realized that she wanted to explore working in development for a non-profit. She was encouraged to do informational interviews and that was when she met Peter de Keratry of Petrus Development.
Petrus Consultant
Sarah has been with Petrus for going on ten years and her first clients included Baylor University, Vanderbilt University and Tulane University. She had a big learning curve and was able to shadow a few consultants. She would shadow them making calls and doing on-site visits to donors. It was a mentorship. She also attended a week long development training program. It was baptism by fire; jump in and start doing it.
She tells a story of working on a feasibility study and having to share an office with her boss. She sat directly across from him and made phone calls while he sat there and watched. There was no getting out of making calls. It was an opportunity to grow.
Successful Clients
Development is an art and a science. Art is the authentic aspect. It's being an active listener, being vulnerable. Her most successful clients have a strong faith and prayer life and are able to pull back the curtain and be authentic with their donors.
Science is the purposeful and intentional aspect of development. It's the tracking and reporting part.
To be successful you need to be able to lean into being authentic and intentional. Our role in development is asking people for help. We need people to help, to walk with us.
Distractions
What are some distractions that development officers deal with?
In Jesus' ministry, he dealt with constant disruptions. As a mom of three, Sarah has many distractions. It's different for everyone. But there will always be an aspect of your job that you find uncomfortable and we allow ourselves to be distracted from that by other aspects of our job. Example, if writing is uncomfortable, we'll spend our time making calls or going to meetings or joining committees. All of which are good things for our job, but we need to be writing as well. So you need to address the uncomfortable and deal with it.
If you work at a church, there will be people coming by and multiple distractions. When you listen to the interruptions (lean in with intention) you can find a theme. Maybe the youth minister needs open office hours, etc. There is usually a need that's not being met when there are interruptions.
When Sarah works with her clients, she discusses this. What makes you uncomfortable and how can we resolve it. Do I need to stare at you while you make phone calls?
If you, as the development director, don't do it - nobody else is going to do it.
Donor Stories
There was one client who struggled with the authentic aspect. Once Sarah had made a script for calls and the client had more experience, she was able to be authentic. The more she did it, the more confident she grew.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Sarah describes her strengths as being optimistic, idealist, creative and dreaming up stuff. Her weakness is that she usually has her head in the clouds. The...
Show Notes:
Sarah Rose has been a Consultant with Petrus Development for almost 10 years. She earned her degree in Communications from St. Edwards University and her first job out of college was in marketing for a software company. While she did not enjoy her time in that career she was able to spend a lot of time with her young adult Catholic group in Austin. It was during that time that she realized that she wanted to explore working in development for a non-profit. She was encouraged to do informational interviews and that was when she met Peter de Keratry of Petrus Development.
Petrus Consultant
Sarah has been with Petrus for going on ten years and her first clients included Baylor University, Vanderbilt University and Tulane University. She had a big learning curve and was able to shadow a few consultants. She would shadow them making calls and doing on-site visits to donors. It was a mentorship. She also attended a week long development training program. It was baptism by fire; jump in and start doing it.
She tells a story of working on a feasibility study and having to share an office with her boss. She sat directly across from him and made phone calls while he sat there and watched. There was no getting out of making calls. It was an opportunity to grow.
Successful Clients
Development is an art and a science. Art is the authentic aspect. It's being an active listener, being vulnerable. Her most successful clients have a strong faith and prayer life and are able to pull back the curtain and be authentic with their donors.
Science is the purposeful and intentional aspect of development. It's the tracking and reporting part.
To be successful you need to be able to lean into being authentic and intentional. Our role in development is asking people for help. We need people to help, to walk with us.
Distractions
What are some distractions that development officers deal with?
In Jesus' ministry, he dealt with constant disruptions. As a mom of three, Sarah has many distractions. It's different for everyone. But there will always be an aspect of your job that you find uncomfortable and we allow ourselves to be distracted from that by other aspects of our job. Example, if writing is uncomfortable, we'll spend our time making calls or going to meetings or joining committees. All of which are good things for our job, but we need to be writing as well. So you need to address the uncomfortable and deal with it.
If you work at a church, there will be people coming by and multiple distractions. When you listen to the interruptions (lean in with intention) you can find a theme. Maybe the youth minister needs open office hours, etc. There is usually a need that's not being met when there are interruptions.
When Sarah works with her clients, she discusses this. What makes you uncomfortable and how can we resolve it. Do I need to stare at you while you make phone calls?
If you, as the development director, don't do it - nobody else is going to do it.
Donor Stories
There was one client who struggled with the authentic aspect. Once Sarah had made a script for calls and the client had more experience, she was able to be authentic. The more she did it, the more confident she grew.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Sarah describes her strengths as being optimistic, idealist, creative and dreaming up stuff. Her weakness is that she usually has her head in the clouds. The...