Eight Principles Voices
Conversations with those who make a difference.
Host Larry C Johnson invites humanitarian leaders and changemakers to share where they’ve been, where they’re going and what drives them forward.
When you meet them, you recognize their spark and vision immediately. There’s no mistaking the positive, lasting difference they’re making in the world—their world. These leaders—trailblazers all—know where they’re going. And they invite us along on the journey.
Each week, Larry Johnson, Founder of The Eight Principles, interviews leaders and change makers from across the globe. Podcasts are available here, distributed to our Eight Principles family, and on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music and YouTube. If there's a particular person you'd like us to interview, let us know. Email info@TheEightPrinciples.com.
Eight Principles Voices
Energetic Campaigning
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José Rodriguez is a seasoned fundraising professional and founder of Impact House Group, where he partners with mission-driven organizations to design and execute high-impact development strategies. Having worked with over 450 clients, José has helped raise more than $250 million in philanthropic support.
He specializes in feasibility studies, capital campaign management, and major gifts, bringing a disciplined yet relational approach to fundraising that emphasizes long-term sustainability and donor engagement.
Before entering the nonprofit sector, José spent five years as a seminarian, an experience that continues to inform his values-driven approach to leadership and service. He remains actively involved in his community as a member of his parish finance council. José holds a BA in Philosophy from St. Joseph Seminary College and an Executive MBA from Marquette University.
Welcome to Eight Principles Voices. Conversations with those who are making a difference. I'm your host, Larry Johnson, founder of the Eight Principles. Now join me as I welcome this week's guest as they invite us to come along on their journey. Hi, everybody. It's Larry Johnson with A Principles Voices, and I have another wonderful young guest today. I want to get to know a little better. His name is Jose Rodriguez, and he runs a company. Um, and I want to say it is um, oh, help me out here. It's not coming up, Jose.
SPEAKER_00Impact House Group.
SPEAKER_01Impact House Group. You know, I knew that was something coming close. Now, you may think that he's kind of young to be a consultant. Well, he is, but he's traveled a lot of ways. And so I I was very impressed when I interviewed him before. So now you're in Louisville, Jose, correct?
SPEAKER_00Correct. Louisville, Kentucky.
SPEAKER_01Okay. But you're but you're not from Louisville though, are you?
SPEAKER_00Correct. Uh I've only been here for a little under two years now, but yeah, I've lived in like nine different states, uh, thanks to my fundraising career, consulting career. Um, was lastly in Chicago before moving down here. So I've lived in large metros, small metros. So what what made you move to Louisville? It's a great question. Family connection. This is where my wife's from. She's been here for about eight generations. Um, and yes, but all right.
SPEAKER_01Well, that makes sense. Yeah, there's a reason. Yeah, your wife said, I would like to move home to be close to family. I know all about that. Yes, I do.
SPEAKER_00Okay, it's not the easiest to roll around in a stroller in downtown Chicago with with kids. So uh much better than that.
SPEAKER_01Well, you're closer to family too, and and uh family means a lot to have the community there to support you. Um, so when when did you first become interested in fundraising as a profession?
SPEAKER_00That's a great question. So I was in sales for a while. I was in sales for uh a little over about a year and a half doing tech sales. Um, you know, I found myself in a little bit of a catch-22. I enjoyed my job, but I did not enjoy the product that I sold. You know, oftentimes it was a lot of tech widgets, that kind of a thing, working with a lot of uh business owners, selling that suite. Um, and yeah, I just remember having a conversation with one of my mentors. I was like, hey, and I was like, I'd love to do more meaningful work that brings a little bit more life kind of to who I am. And um, this mentor was like, hey, have you ever heard of fundraising? So yeah, after kind of they said that, you know, of course, like any job, right? They want two to three years experience and fundraising before, you know, even though it's an entry-level job. So I kind of volunteered at a handful of places before I kind of landed my first fundraising gig. Um, and uh yeah, so I was a one-person shop for a year, and then after that, I was recruited um to uh run a handful of campaigns. So yeah, so yeah, very much.
SPEAKER_01So you started out as a solopreneur before you went to work for CCS. Is that what the way it worked?
SPEAKER_00No. Uh I uh I actually got picked up by CCS. I was actually working for a client of CCS. Um I was as a staff member.
SPEAKER_01As a staff member, okay.
SPEAKER_00Correct. Um, and uh, you know, they were the consultant for one of our campaigns. And at that point, I'd already worked alongside them for about two and a half years or so. And yeah, I remember meeting with one of the executives at CCS, and really I was just asking if they knew of any job openings or if they thought I'd be a good fit for anything that they knew of. And um, you know, funny enough, they were like, Why don't you come and work for us? So we're like, we've worked for you've worked with each other for the last two years. They're like, I think you guys can do this. So um as soon as I said yes, they shipped me off to a different city with a different uh time zone and all that.
SPEAKER_01So well, I don't, you know, uh, you probably know that I work for um catch them, which at one time was a prime competitor of CCS, and I know the drill. Uh oh, that's where I'm gonna suck up somebody that's working for somebody else, and I'm gonna put them into the drill of the of the consultant world. Um, and I I guess you probably discovered it was a little more regimented than you thought it was going to be, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and you know, and off the bat I just got a lot more responsibility, you know. They're like, we've already done capital campaign management. How about you manage a handful of people for us too? Or or hey, you know, we have a handful of other projects that, you know, need help in this way, right? So I think they very much saw it as a win-win for them. You know, they kind of have someone that they've been working with. Um, and they were like, well, he's already kind of done the intro level work, why don't we just kind of bump him up into, you know, outside, you know, larger than just associate level work. So um, which I was really appreciative of, you know. Um, I think that was of my career at CCS. Um, you know, if you show competence, if you show execution, uh executive presence, uh, they move you up really fast, right? Um, but that's also not the case for everyone, right? So definitely experience a good amount of upward mobility there, um, even from day one. Um yeah, I remember my mother-in-law, she was like, You're managing people already? I was like, Yep.
SPEAKER_01So what is it you liked most about uh being uh a campaign consultant?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, um, I think some of this probably has to do with more time at CCS, but I loved I think first and foremost at CCS our dedication to excellence. You know, everything we did, we were uh committed to bringing the best quality of work to our clients. Um, you know, and not just not just best quality of work, but best uh advice as well. You know, we were very awfully thoughtful, very um, you know, just always mindful of bringing the best that we could to our clients. Um and then I think the second thing, I love the kind of broad impact that one could have um in um in the not, especially in the in the nonprofit space, right? I mean, you know, working with all kinds of different clients. Um, and it was just also really interesting to see a lot of the overlap. You know, you talk to a symphony and they're having a hard time engaging young people, and you talk to, you know, a church and they're having a hard time engaging young people, right? So they're able to really kind of cross-polinate solutions. Um, and um, yeah, so a lot of that bringing excellence to the marketplace, but then also um just seeing that broad impact that you have across the country uh was amazing to see, especially during COVID, you know, when remote work became real. Uh at one point, my my boss talking to me, and he and you know, everyone was just really unsure of what was on the horizon, right? And how to kind of block and tackle that. Um, but I remember jumping on a call with one of my bosses, and he was just asking me about the week and what I had on the horizon. I was like, well, I got you know six webinars. I was like, one of them's in you know, El Paso, the other one's in Riley, North Carolina, the other one's in uh Jersey City. He's like, wow. So um just uh being able to be a thought partner in those times as well, uh brought a lot of life to the work that we did.
SPEAKER_01I I want to come back to that in a minute, but uh so I know when I was um when I was one one of the first things I enjoyed working for Ketchum was I got to meet some really, really interesting people. And these are people that were always leaders in their community wherever I was. Um, and I learned a lot from these people because they come from different walks of life. They're uh CCS runs a similar kind of campaign that Ketchum did, so it's volunteer driven. Um, and so you really get a chance to meet people up front and close. Um, anyone standout in particular, you don't have to mention their names, but uh I I could bring up stories to tell you, but that's not what I'm interviewing you, not the other way around.
SPEAKER_00I think maybe not necessarily I mean, there's definitely, you know, some like pretty interesting lead gift conversations, but you know, the only one that kind of comes to mind was uh I had to work with the Native American um community once. Um, and it was just the a pretty interesting um scenario, right? I'm working with folks with various perspectives about kind of uh uh who they are and what they do, um, and really kind of navigating that uh the landscape was interesting, you know. Um it's also an in this Native American community, um, it wasn't uh you know exclusively Native American folks living uh in the area, right? The reservation sold land to folks that, you know, let's say wanted to be on closer to the lake, that kind of a thing. So you have a mixed donor pool and also a mixed perception of each other. So bringing that together with folks was always kind of a challenge. I, you know, one of thinking about an individual, right? Um you know, there was uh a difference in perception of trust from folks, a difference in perception of fundraising history from folks. Um, and yeah, I mean, I remember having a major gift conversation with one of our um top prospects, and um, you know, just having a uh maybe a little bit more heated of a conversation than I thought it would be. It was positive, but um, you know, identifying, hey, you know, what is what is kind of the pain point here, you know. Um, we kind of started to talk about their gift. They were like, yeah, you know, we'll we'll make that gift. Um, and uh I remember saying, all right, well, you know, we got you know our gift document, uh document in here, you know, we could please, you know, fill this out, uh, we can fill it out together. And he was like, you know, he's like, I don't put my name on anything. Um, I was like, okay. Um, I was like, well, you know, I was like, for the purpose of the campaign, though, I was like, you know, it's not a legally binding uh gift, but you know, it's just kind of important for us to you know have documented what your intent is, you know. Um, and uh, you know, he literally takes the case for support that we were quite literally presenting to him. He rips off the corner, he writes the number of the gift, and he signs his name and he says, Here you go, Jose, documented. I was like, okay, but a very different uh community of folks here that I'm working with. Uh, you know, thankfully though, that campaign ended up being successful. But um, I learned a lot about the people of that community. Um, it was just a very unique place. Um, probably one of the most beautiful landscapes that I've ever seen. Um but um the personality just weren't for beginners, to say the least.
SPEAKER_01So what what did you think of that? Did you study psychology in college?
SPEAKER_00I didn't know. Um, I will say this, Larry. I did, you know, I spent some time in uh seminary. So, you know, I did a lot of pastoral work. Um actually, you know, a friend of mine's dad just passed away, and they were just telling me about their hospice experience and how difficult that was for them. And you know, I spent about three years in hospice ministry. Um I'm also the oldest of four boys from an immigrant family. So I'm used to translating Spanish to English to legal documents since I was eight years old, you know. Um, but then also, you know, being bedside with family members as you know, during someone else's crystal parts.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I think one of the uh you see at least when I was getting into fundraising, there were a lot of people with ministerial training that went into fundraising. Um, uh, because you know, first of all, they had that ability to be uh ministerial to another person because making a gift, as you know, is uh both head and heart, and it comes from you know what it is their fundamental values are and how that's going to work, and be able to relate to them in that way. Uh it's not it's very different than what you when you were selling software or anything like that. Okay. So there's this element where it involves the them as persons, who they are, how they represent themselves. And so having a minister of education could be quite effective, actually. I saw a lot of uh, well, you know, I have one, but that uh, but uh so you do you studied that, you're working for CCS. How long now were you working for CCS?
SPEAKER_00So I worked alongside CCS for eight and a half years. Two of those years were um with them as as a client. I was still doing a lot of the you know, doing a lot of the work. Um it was funny. Even I remember even when I wasn't at CCS, right? They'd they'd bring people in a shadow, and then they'd be like, hey, why does why don't they just go with Jose for like the next two days? So even before I was a CCS or I was like training some of these folks, it's just kind of funny. So I left there about after about eight and a half years of knowing them. Um yeah, and by the time I left, I was a VP of uh in our Chicago office. So um, you know, I learned a lot there. A lot of it was through SWAT equity, as I like to say. Um, but a great place to learn. Um, still friends with a lot of the folks there. Um not a week goes by, but I don't hear back from you know anywhere between three to five CCSers about all kinds of things, right? You were just talking about my friend who's um had uh a family member pass away, you know, former CCS or so, still strong friendships and bonds there.
SPEAKER_01So you you've you've you figured out uh eight and a half years is a long time, um, because you know, when you're doing that kind of consulting work, CCS still does the uh resident model. Um, you're really kind of living away from home. Uh and that's uh that's a stressor on a family for sure. Um I I was back and forth a lot. Um, and during the seven years that I worked for Ketchum, I only had I only had one assignment that was under 500 miles from Pittsburgh, which was my home. And so that's you know, I mean airports, yes, but so yeah, it's it um and I had small children too, at least one daughter at the time. So then you decided that you know you you sort of gonna move on to the next step. You know, did you want to go back to a particular uh vertical and nonprofit? Or I know you started your own business. Was that always the goal? Uh explain a little bit about that.
SPEAKER_00That's a great question. Um, yeah, when I left CCS, you know, this is where my family was. Yeah, and a lot of the rub there was um being away from my family, especially the last year and a half there. I would I would catch a red eye out of Louisville, you know, I'd often say I spent more time in the Chicago on the Chicago tarmac than I would in the air. And it was a quick 30-minute flight. And it took us, you know, 45 minutes to to go on onboard a plane. Um, and then I'd be back in Louisville about 7 p.m. Um so I was home, you know, within about 48 hours, right? And that's including sleep, right? And then I'd do it all over again. And I had three young boys, uh, have three young boys. Um, and at the time I had two and another one on the way. So yeah, you know, CCS was trying to move us to Chicago, which, you know, I'm grateful for. Um ultimately that wasn't the best fit for our family, we discerned. Um, and yeah, decided to leave. It was fourth of July weekend. I still remember it pretty vividly. Um really no, you know, I had savings and really no plan on the other side. I was like, you know, I'm sure I could find something, you know, with my background, my curriculum, you know, uh, you know, with my resume, I'm sure I could find something in the Louisville area. I quickly realized that um the Louisville market is different and it's another larger metro that can kind of brings some of those larger salaries that um uh some of the larger metros have. Um so I found myself kind of in the same problem in executive searches in cities that I couldn't see our family living in. Um, but I'd say that first week I left CCS, I had five inbound leads come in. Um, I remember having conversations with their folks, you know, candled conversations. I was like, hey guys, you know, grateful for the inbound lead, no longer at CCS, can you know, connect with someone there? And they were like, Jose, you know, just so that you know, I'm calling because I want to work with you, um, not with someone on your team.
SPEAKER_01Like, and and these were potential uh consulting clients, not institutional jobs, correct?
SPEAKER_00Correct, yeah, yeah. So so a lot of those leads came in uh before, yeah, even just recruiters got win that I was open for work. Um, yeah, that first week um uh is when I had about five inbound leads come in. So a lot of it was campaign related visibility studies, um, that kind of work. So so yeah, so that's uh been kind of somewhat of our bread and butter now. I'd say 80%, 70% of the work that we do is related to visibility studying capital gains.
SPEAKER_01So that so that's um that's it sort of started right away. You had people coming to you asking for work and they were, you know, building on your prior experience. And so I guess I guess at one point you just decided, well, you know, I can do this for myself.
SPEAKER_00Um yeah, you know, I got yeah, and it was in a little bit of a catch-22. You know, I got I remember getting to a certain uh in a certain point of the year and thinking, hey, you know, I just got back from DC or hey, just got back from New Orleans on doing this this you know, in-person interview. Hey, but the same month I've already sent out let's say 10 proposals or whatever. I remember just having a conversation with my family and saying, hey, you know, I cannot service the work, the proposals that I'm having out if I'm gonna take this role. So I need to choose what we're gonna do, right? And thankfully at that point, you know, my salary had already more than made up my salary uh doing the consulting work. So the decision, I wouldn't say necessarily was easy, right? Because you still have like health insurance and you gotta figure out how to you know manage books and all of that.
SPEAKER_01Um yeah, your your own business is a different undertaking altogether.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. Um yeah, it isn't just the consulting work, you're you're eating what you kill, right? So um, so yeah, so that's kind of when I decided to pull the plug on the searches, um, and yeah, just decided to kind of go out on our own.
SPEAKER_01So okay. So um you mentioned uh that uh about 80% of your work is campaign related. Um and what's what's the other 20%?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I'd say the other 20-30% of our work is marketing and media work. Oftentimes, I don't know if even of that work, 90% of that isn't support of fundraising. So, you know, we are we are doing um it started last year as well. We are doing a lot of support for annual appeals. So annual fund development, um, managing the whole suite of annual funds. You know, when you think of an annual fund, you know, what what are the key pieces that make up an annual fund, right? A lot of those are creative offerings, right? Whether that's a trifold, an impact report, um, a, you know, even just like gift devices, right? Stuff like that, you know, there is a lot of marketing firms out in the space um that do good work, uh, but oftentimes they come from a background that's for profit, that is, you know, um in maybe corporate setting, right? So I think the value that we bring to folks is we know kind of fundraising, we do all the copywriting, we do all the design. So not uh and and we know donor management, right? So not only are you getting a beautiful brochure, right? Which you know, a lot of creative agencies could do, but you're you're getting the talk, you're getting the strategy, you're getting the execution. Um, yeah, and I think one of the other things that makes us unique is the our modern digital approach that we're able to kind of bring to them, right?
SPEAKER_01Oftentimes, so you know, to be able to do that, and where you've described to me, you're obviously not doing this yourself. So the question is um tell me about how you went about uh bringing other people on, you know, because I mean this had this was an evolution, you know, and it's a gradual thing, you know, you're doing campaign work, and then you added at some point this the PR work, the the support work for fundraising. So how did you just go out and ask your friends? You have one or two partners. How did that happen?
SPEAKER_00Great question. So this is really so we've been doing creative, you know. I'd been running, we'd been running a um a for-profit organization, um, and that was just mainly media related, right? We've been supporting annual funds for the last, you know, some of our first clients have been with us for the last nine years, but all of that that work was part-time, and and honestly, for the first four years, a lot of that work was exclusively video work. So we had a lot of that infrastructure already. Um, and um, you know, so it's interesting.
SPEAKER_01But on the other side, but that's 20% of your business. On the other side, you're doing the campaign work, so you can't do that all yourself. So tell me about how you acquired uh other people to bring them into the business.
SPEAKER_00It's a great question. So it was my wife, she's the creative director. So I oftentimes tell people, you know, um, you know, it's great. Um, we're able to work together now, especially, you know, it's uh it's almost like day and night, you know, where before, you know, I was in a different part of the country and she was really kind of managing a lot of um uh a lot of the creative work that was coming in just kind of inbound already. So um, so yeah, so my wife is very much the creative director, but we do have account managers that depending on the offering, we help folks with that. So thankfully, you know, uh, because of her creative background, she has um a uh, you know, we we have folks that are experts in, you know, media marketing, landing pages, that kind of a thing, you know. And that's one of the things you tell people, right?
SPEAKER_01But on on the campaign side, on the fundraising side, you're not the only person that does that, correct?
SPEAKER_00All right. So we have three consultants right now in Texas in uh in Louisiana. A lot of those people are some of those are CCS alums, right? Maybe they were at CCS for two years. And I I mean, one of the one of these individuals specifically, Madison. Um, I just remember how excellent she was, how great she was. But you know, she didn't want to be on the road for the rest of her life. Um, no one does.
SPEAKER_01So these are people that um um you knew and could train. us and can rely on. And you reached out uh with the intent of persuading them that working with you as a as a nut young company was the thing to do. And you you you mentioned one of them uh was that she didn't like to travel. So if she is she doing campaign work?
SPEAKER_00She's doing campaign work. Uh thankfully she likes she's okay with just traveling in Texas, which is where we have a lot of our um all right a lot of our campaign work. And then um yeah so if it's drivable to her she raises her hand and if we're in the I-35 corridor um in central Texas you can get Houston San Antonio Austin pretty quickly so uh she's been able to service a lot of our uh Texas I've been up that road yeah I know I mean I even so this is these are really people that you knew absolutely that you could trust and so gradually so you have three in addition to yourself yeah so and so I got two in Texas and then one on the Gulf Coast. So you know I went to my seminary days were spent in uh Louisiana uh just off the north shore of New Orleans so I have a lot of relationships anywhere between you know Louisiana Mississippi Alabama so we get a handful of uh we get a lot of leads from the from that area all right so um what what seminary did you go to? So it's got St. Joseph's Abbey um in Covington Louisiana a Catholic seminary there I was there for four years. Um great great experience um just you know ministry wasn't for me and um took me a while to figure that out unfortunately um but grateful for the experience there and um yeah a lot of those folks are still some of my best friends and you know I don't go a week without hearing from one of them um yeah yeah you were on a priesthood track then correct yep um yeah I was in seminary for five years so you know even so I was in for a long time um and yeah just you know I had a lot of a lot of things to work through but uh grateful for the experience there you know um it's interesting you know I'd say even you know fast forwarded today that seminary is a a lead right so um it's it's amazing how how those things kind of come full circle um I mean even just some of the guys that I was in seminary with have already worked with folks who you know were classmates of mine um and are not pastors at a church for example and you know they've never owned a capital campaign um but hey you know they got a friend who's who's doing it and doing it well so um that's been a good source of lead as well so all that to say I'm going to our alumni day so all right discards very good very good so how long have you been in business for yourself now close to two years now three years almost three years two years more than you yeah I'm still blown away by leads coming in I'm still blown away that people want to work with us you know but um more blown away at the beginning of it you know I'm like I'm like I hardly have a website it's just the you know uh the landing page you know a lot of it I'm sure it was just reputation right I was I was working off a lot of reputation uh well I know you know the the fundraising business a lot of it is referral absolutely they want they want someone who's had a good experience um and a website is it's more like a um a listing in the yellow pages than anything else um they they're not gonna respond to that alone I wouldn't think it's it's a res it's a referral business it it it's always been that way um so so then you've been pleasantly surprised at at what what's happened in the last two years yeah we've been really yeah really grateful for the work and yeah you know we're at a place right now we're you know starting to do more outbound stuff and really you know putting together the results that we've seen from our clients in a in one place right so people ask for a case study and I can you know send them a a school case study or when people ask for a church case study I can send them a church case study or or the same for an annual fund right so um yeah you know I was uh I was talking to one of our creative directors and they were just asking about value proposition and that kind of a thing. So we're gonna be able to calculate the campaigns that we did in our first year of business our clients saw over a 40 uh 40x ROI return on their campaign uh council um so good so that's been able to great uh it's been great to just be able to say that so are there any particular uh verticals that uh you're very strong in or want to focus in like education uh uh cultural healthcare where do you see yourself focusing yeah I think there's probably right now I would say three that are top of mind um I think one churches um Catholic Protestant you know they're not longer campaigns typically shorter campaigns but um definitely um you know with my background in uh in seminary you know have a lot of affinity for that space the second space is schools um you know we're seeing a massive especially with you know voucher systems that kind of a thing uh in various states you know there's really seeing uh a good amount of growth uh in a lot of places and more oftentimes than not the state and or the voucher system kind of helps with tuition but it doesn't help with kind of capital improvements right no it doesn't being able to provide that support and then the third piece um which I again we I think we're we're pretty unique in is really helping develop annual funds for folks not just develop but continue you know some of the great work that they're doing right we're uh managing annual funds right now of anywhere between five to ten million dollars um in annual revenue so um and again I think we are we're uniquely positioned to be able to bring um that fundraising touch so when you manage an annual fund for a client um you know the clients that I've dealt with usually had their own annual fund staff so do these people also there have their own staff or you come in and man the whole thing or what what's your role in it? That's a great question. It depends on the organization. I'd say the ones that we're doing right now, you know they they really want their annual fund directors to really concentrate on actively fundraising, right? So a lot of these annual fund folks are starting to you know they're being asked to do major gift work uh mid uh mid-uh tier giving work as well so you know an organization like us is able to say hey you know you can free some of those people up so they can start doing some of that work or you can restructure dirt your your department to you know so that you could start having major gift officers and mid-tier officers and hey we come in we provide everything that you need you know of course like old things you'd have to approve them um but um and then of course you know we don't count the money and that kind of a thing so all that to say does help free up staff um and does allow them to you know focus on things that are just more important and higher uh revenue growing for them so so that's I know so even in the last week though I mean there's one organization that you know they have no staff this would be the very first time they're they're launching an annual fund. But you know with cuts and grants and that kind of a thing they know they need to diversify.
SPEAKER_01So there you know we'd really be working hand in hand with the executive director um and um you know really developing uh a name a brand um so so in a uh a typical annual fund client let's say there isn't a director um how long would the assignment be six eight ten months or longer bigger ones are about five months um and honestly our smaller ones are probably no no shorter than four just because you know a lot of the pieces are the same yeah um and um and sometimes I could see them going as as far as six you know especially when you're doing like creative work things like let's say your video for your gala um you know your you have your main video and um a handful of other creative suites there right so that stuff just takes time and coordination and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_00So yeah that's a little bit of the timeline there.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Um and I guess what the typical church campaign is what four or five months too?
SPEAKER_00We typically do campaigns church campaigns and six month timeline is is is and then the study's about six uh three months I will say on the campaign side of things, you know, things that make us unique compared to other organizations. One, we're principal led, you know, oftentimes during the with the consultancy sometimes the you know the executives come in, they do the sale and you might see them at the end of the project right to congratulate you. I'm still actively engaged in every one of our visibility studies every one of our campaigns on weekly meetings. So forming the strategy working alongside the consultant with the execution there. The second piece that I think we're unique that we bring to the marketplace is plan giving a plan giving strategy. You know we are um we've identified and have done this successfully already at places developing plan giving and documenting gifts for our clients um has we've we've been successful at and I think the last piece just kind of bringing this full circle is that modern digital approach right any consultancy that you work with is going to has the traditional suite of print materials that you need for a successful campaign. But I think right now you know a lot of people are thinking hey what's going to happen when the baby boomers pass right that's why we have that that plan giving track um but you know you also need to feed new donors young families into that pipeline spice so tell me about your work in plan giving you what you you you uh you put in place like a bequest program an annuity program uh anything else what is it you're doing yeah I think so just thinking about a campaign timeline I think a lot of that it has to do with timing right so um you know something that we even ask in our feasibility studies you know um are you interested in a plank gift to this organization and people will tell you yes no maybe you know some people will say hey you know I've already requested my home to uh this organization but the organization doesn't know about it right so so from the study it's it's incorporated into the work that we do where we do the execution in a campaign is after we've launched um because you know not everyone's in your database right um you want to be able to kind of have a broader approach to reach those prospects that are 65 years old and above you don't you pretty much almost want to do it immediately after launching your campaign. We uh have you know it's also been my experience that you know we do have kind of back pocket experts, attorneys, uh financial advisors that kind of we can help with but it's really been my experience that you know when you talk to a client and you say you know is there anyone in your uh in your organization that could talk about estate planning or uh financial advising they're like yeah you know what actually we do so we partner with them we have a presentation talk about the importance of plan giving um we have um uh you know show them their options and then you know we kind of do uh a series of follow-up from there but we've had um you know it isn't uncommon to document you know half a million million dollars in plan giving um some of it was already maybe previously thought of but it really does help move the needle for some folks there um I think one of the myths in plan giving is that like you every you have to have it all figured out um but I'm not gonna be a JD and I'm not gonna be a financial advisor. But um those folks donors have their trusted advisors already right um and that's the people that they usually want to work with. And it's really our our job to present them with that opportunity. Right.
SPEAKER_01So that's essentially what we do present the opportunity to them and people even even uh the university programs that I ran um some of them were pretty good size and we never had a staff attorney on staff we had one we could draw and use as needed uh usually to work with the the donors council to bring the trust together uh so that it met the university requirements and the other things but no I've never been in a situation where there I we felt a need for a full-time staff attorney for this sort of thing and I think people often think they need one when they don't need one well now one last question you said you're involved in every feasibility study personally when is when is that going to change Jose you know I only see one person sitting in this chair.
SPEAKER_00That's a great question. You know I have done the math of uh you know how many weekly calls could I kind of be on how much stuff can I can I prove I think that's still a promise that I kind of want to keep close um you know that was one of the great things about CCS is that I felt like we had uh good involvement of our executives of course depending on the executive depending on the project the complexities that kind of a thing I think to answer your question Larry the goal is to raise people to those executive roles so that they themselves could kind of be an executive on those campaigns right you know uh it'd be great you know I I see the hot spots already you know uh this Kentuckiana area it's Cincinnati Nashville I see the hot spots in the Gulf Coast I see the hot spots in Texas so it's the hope to be able to raise those people up so that um you know they could start doing the same as what I'm doing you know even just thinking about our consultant in Texas you know that I mentioned Maddie um she's you know she's not run a campaign probably in about six years and this is her first campaign and she's crushing it. I mean I think they've hit like 200% a goal something like that.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00So and everyone wants to hire every time she's done with the campaign.
SPEAKER_01Yeah everyone loves her so and you're polite and and you're politely saying she's not available. Sorry.
SPEAKER_00Oh I tell them that from the jump and everyone thinks it's hilarious I tell you know when I introduce her to clients I'm like you're gonna want to steal her just so you know she's mine. Um but um but of course you know I even just got an email last Friday from you know we sent a campaign update and like three volunteers you know emailed back you know and I was like CC'd on it. They're like thank you so much for what you've done for this campaign I was like man they love you they want to test all you already I told them that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_01Well it's not about way of saying what it says what it says to me is you always have your eye on developing people and that's what it takes to be successful long term. You know you're not you you know there's going to be a time probably sooner rather than later when you can't do it all and the fact that you're looking at people to go to grow them that that's I think the thing that will serve you well. Um you know I I want to thank you. You know now is there one little thing you'd like to tell me that you had that I haven't mentioned that's a great question. Well I've probably covered it I could can't believe I stumped you though you're pretty you're pretty you're pretty smart. So um but I want to thank you Jose if someone wanted to reach out to you how would they do that?
SPEAKER_00Yep uh impacthouse group dot com is the easiest way to go on there. I mean we have a handful of case say it again more slowly yeah impacthouse group dot com okay um and uh you can find a handful of our case studies on there um and then actually there's a direct scheduling link on there so if you want to have whether it's a creative call again connect with our creative director but if it's a fundraising call um impact house what is it again impact impacthouse group correct dot com all right okay all right sir well I wish you well I think we'll probably revisit this again probably in a few months maybe in an in eight or nine months to see how you're doing um you're doing very well so congratulations sir I'm grateful yeah and I guess maybe just the last thing maybe yeah two things yeah but one you know it remain you know from my experience at CCS um and what I've seen already in the marketplace I think I remain really committed to that level of excellence where a client work I think that's really important. I tell people all the time I'm paying what the the results that I provide my clients today is what gives me work tomorrow. Right. So that's at the forefront of my I like that let's say that again the work I'm providing my clients today or the results gives me work for tomorrow is that what you're saying absolutely okay all right and then the second piece you know uh we're in an accessible price point right now um I loved the work that I did at CCS um but just when it comes to from a a fee perspective it wasn't the right fit for everyone you know well oh no I know I know I know and the and the irony is they weren't paying you all of that that they were charging the product right yeah I know how that works.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah it's so I like the fact that you're trying to be accessible to people because it can get pretty expensive pretty quickly. Absolutely uh it is thank you Jose very much you know everyone we've been I've been having a wonderful conversation with Jose and he's just getting started in his own business of capital campaigns he has a solid background with CCS and he has a heart for these churches and schools and he's going where the need is and I'm just really glad I had the opportunity. Thank you Jose likewise Larry thank you so much it's my pleasure all right everyone thank you for your time and for taking that to listen to this today and or the YouTube whatever and here again I guess it's next week or is it is that uh you'll see another another person preferably a younger person that's doing stuff. So thank you very much. Thank you for listening today join us for our next episode when I'll have another thought provoking leader as my guest guest comments and opinions are their own. The recording is copyright by the eight principles all rights reserved
