Catholic Tech Table

Jenni Reamer and Sarah Rose review and improve the St. Jude Catholic Leadership Center’s fictional online giving page using AI.

They explain that typical nonprofit giving-page conversion rates average around 10%, while optimized forms can reach 20–30%, and note that many organizations’ pages are not optimized.

They then begin a deeper look at how to set suggested gift amounts based on typical gift size and real program costs, and preview upcoming episodes on segmentation and concerns about AI making fundraisers lazy.00:00 Intro03:22 Why Giving Pages Matter05:19 Conversion Rates and Optimization07:13 Tour of St Jude Giving Page09:10 Initial Critique Text and Friction10:55 AI Audit Top Fixes16:07 Deep Dive Suggested Gift Amounts20:13 Wrap Up

Matt Bond and Andrew Robison of Petrus Development reflect on how AI is affecting Catholic fundraising work so far as they build a fictitious development program from scratch.

They discuss where AI has already helped, including drafting a case for support and speeding up administrative and data tasks, while noting that its impact on donor-facing outreach remains to be seen.

They propose evaluating AI’s true value by results like more donor meetings, improved ROI, larger average gifts, and stronger retention, and preview an upcoming episode analyzing a website giving page.00:00 Show Intro and Setup00:53 Series Goal and Format03:25 Is AI Making Us Better05:42 Red Teaming with AI09:08 When AI Hurts Productivity11:26 Measuring Fundraising Impact13:33 Wrap Up and Goodbye

Andrew Robison and Matt Bond welcome viewers to a Tuesday demo episode of the Catholic Tech Table, showing how AI can help build a first-year fundraising budget for the fictional St. Jude Catholic Leadership Center as part of a 20-week series on creating a sustainable development program. 00:00 Series Recap and Budget Focus05:53 Budgeting Stakeholders Tip06:38 Demo Setup St Jude Fact Sheet09:00 Finding a First Year Goal12:15 Stress Testing Assumptions16:02 What If We Hire Staff22:24 Budget Expenses Breakdown29:26 Wrap Up and Next Episodes

In episode 10 of Catholic Tech Table’s series on using AI for Catholic fundraising, Andrew Robison and Matt Bond discuss AI “hallucinations”, the confident-sounding answers that are incorrect or fabricated, and why they happen.

Using a real example of a made-up Harvard Business Review statistic, they explain that AI often generates likely responses based on patterns rather than verified truth, making errors especially risky when asking for specific facts, statistics, grants, deadlines, or quotes.

00:00 AI Hallucinations Intro03:47 Recap And Core Question04:25 What Is A Hallucination06:08 HBR Hallucination Story10:29 Why Hallucinations Happen14:21 Fundraising Risk Areas15:40 How To Verify Outputs19:24 Embarrassing Date Errors20:58 Wrap Up

Andrew Robison and Matt Bond demo how to use AI to design a repeatable workflow for cleaning messy spreadsheet data before importing into a CRM, using the fictional St. Jude Catholic Leadership Center as an example. They emphasize using AI to think through processes and speed work without exposing sensitive donor information, advocating strong donor privacy practices. 00:00 Intro01:08 Series Recap And Pete AI02:33 Sponsor: The Harbor03:39 St Jude Data Problem05:38 Data Horror Stories08:03 Privacy And Safe AI Use08:51 What To Clean Before Import11:10 Demo Prompt - Top Five Tasks16:08 Systematize Rules And Salutations19:18 Next Episodes And Wrap Up

Just because AI can process donor data does not mean it should.In this episode of the Catholic Tech Table’s Fundraising Build series, we continue examining how St. Jude Catholic Leadership Center can organize a decade of messy donor records while protecting the privacy of the people who entrusted that information to the organization.We discuss what should never be entered into a general AI tool. We also explore how fundraisers can still use AI safely.The central lesson is simple: AI can be a powerful assistant, but fundraisers remain responsible for guarding donor information.

How do you begin fundraising when donor and participant records are scattered across spreadsheets, registration forms, email lists, and old files?In this episode of the Catholic Tech Table’s Fundraising Build series, we return to St. Jude Catholic Leadership Center, where 10 years of inconsistent record keeping have left the organization without a centralized donor database or CRM.We also address an essential question: how can fundraisers use AI to organize data without exposing sensitive donor information?This episode establishes the structure and safeguards St. Jude needs before cleaning and importing its records into a CRM.

Why does Pete give different answers from a general-purpose AI tool, and how does it know what information to use?In this episode, we explain RAG, or retrieval-augmented generation, in practical language. We discuss why this matters for accuracy, consistency, organizational voice, and Catholic guardrails. You’ll also learn how organizations can use their own case for support, appeals, reports, and other documents as reference material.Most importantly, we explain why RAG does not make AI a replacement for a fundraiser. The goal is simple: let AI handle more of the work that keeps fundraisers at their desks so you can spend more time doing the human work of fundraising.

How do you turn scattered facts, program details, and personal stories into a compelling case for support?

In this episode, we use Pete AI to begin creating a case for support for St. Jude Catholic Leadership Center.

You’ll see how AI can help identify gaps, structure information, surface stronger language, and create a useful first draft. You’ll also see why the fundraiser still needs to provide accurate information, edit for voice, verify details, and make final decisions.

A case for support is the source document behind nearly every effective fundraising communication. This episode shows how AI can help you build one faster and more thoughtfully.

What is Pete AI, and why should Catholic fundraisers trust it to support their work?In this discussion episode, we explain how Pete was created and what makes it different from a general-purpose AI tool. Pete combines the capabilities of a large language model with Catholic guardrails and more than 20 years of Petrus fundraising experience.We discuss how Pete uses the knowledge and experience built into it, how it is designed to remain grounded in Catholic teaching, and how it can learn about an individual organization’s mission, history, and fundraising needs.We also address what Pete is not. It is not a fundraiser, a decision-maker, or a replacement for human relationships. Its purpose is to help Catholic fundraisers work more efficiently so they can spend more time with donors, leaders, and the people their ministries serve.Understanding the tool’s strengths and limitations is essential before relying on it.

Before you build a fundraising program, do you know what you already have and what is missing?In this episode, we begin building St. Jude Catholic Leadership Center’s annual giving program by using Pete AI to assess its current development infrastructure. We provide Pete with background information about the organization and ask it to identify existing assets, missing components, and the most logical order for moving forward.The assessment helps distinguish between what St. Jude already has, such as a strong mission, effective programs, and community goodwill, and what it lacks, including a formal case for support, consistent donor communications, reliable data systems, planning, stewardship, and clear fundraising goals.You’ll see how AI can serve as a diagnostic tool that helps a fundraiser understand the current landscape, identify priorities, and determine where to begin.A strong fundraising program starts with an honest assessment.

Can Catholic fundraisers use AI responsibly, or does relying on technology compromise the human work of fundraising?In this discussion episode, we explore what responsible AI use can look like for Catholic fundraisers. We consider the difference between “robot work” and human work, including how AI can help with research, planning, administration, and communication while giving fundraisers more time for donor relationships.We also discuss what should remain firmly in human hands: discernment, judgment, accountability, personal connection, and the work of inviting someone into generosity.Using examples from fundraising practice and Catholic teaching, we examine the question of where AI belongs in a development program and where it should never take over.The fundraiser is the architect. AI is the contractor. Join us as we establish the principles that will guide the rest of St. Jude’s fundraising build.

What difference does a good prompt make when you use AI for fundraising?

In this first episode of the Catholic Tech Table’s fundraising build series, we introduce St. Jude Catholic Leadership Center, a fictional Catholic nonprofit with strong programs, a decade of goodwill, and no formal development program. Over the course of the series, we’ll use AI to help build St. Jude’s annual giving program from the ground up.

We begin with a simple demonstration: using a thin prompt and a detailed prompt to turn the same information into newsletter copy. The results show why context, audience, tone, purpose, and constraints matter.

You’ll learn how to move beyond generic AI output and begin collaborating with AI to create clearer, more donor-centered, impact-driven fundraising communication.

Follow along as we build St. Jude’s fundraising program one step at a time.

Meet Pete, the new AI assistant for Catholic fundraisers from Petrus Development. This demo shows the capabilities and the Catholic guardrails built into Pete.#catholic #fundraising #ai

The closing session of the Virtual Summit on AI in Fundraising, where Andrew Robison, Sarah Rose, Matt Bond, and Rhen Hoehn answered live questions from attendees, including:→ How do you respond to employees who refuse to use AI?→ Are data centers and AI harmful to the environment?→ Will offloading tedious tasks to AI cause burnout by leaving staff only with emotionally taxing work?→ Is there a way to encourage AI adoption without undermining the dignity of workers doing replaceable tasks?

This live session from Petrus Development's Virtual Summit on AI In Fundraising demonstrates practical uses of AI tools for common fundraising tasks. Annual Fund demonstrations included efforts like planning a communications calendar, searching through testimonials, drafting a newsletter article, and repurposing newsletter content for social media channels. Major Gifts demonstrations included developing a meeting prep brief for a donor visit, determining an ask amount for a donor, and organization donor notes after a visit. Project management demonstrations included developing a gala plan, drafting event communications, and creating committee agendas.

This panel discussion from Petrus Development's Virtual Summit on AI In Fundraising unpacks how Catholic fundraisers can approach AI responsibly in light of Pope Leo XIV's encyclical Magnifica Humanitas.Panelists discuss:-Their own journey of learning and using AI-Their biggest takeaway is from Magnifica Humanitas-Whether the Catholic church is ready to embrace AI-Looking at where AI is heading in coming months and years.

Andrew explains in plain language how large language models like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are ACtrained and why that matters for ministry and fundraising. He notes what training doesn’t provide: human-like reasoning or your parish’s specific context. He ends with three weekly challenges: a pattern test, a context test, and checking the model’s cutoff limits.00:00 Welcome And Goal01:03 How LLMs Learn Patterns02:17 Ministry Fundraising Analogy03:05 Three Training Stages03:08 Pre Training Basics03:50 Fine Tuning For Helpfulness04:26 Alignment And RLHF05:07 Why Training Stages Matter05:49 What Training Does Not Teach06:53 Three Practice Challenges08:31 Wrap Up And Next Episode

Andrew Robinson, president and owner of Petrus Development, explains the differences between Google search and large language models (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Grok) for Catholic Church and nonprofit fundraising work. He frames Google as a “librarian” for finding current, source-based information (news, rules, reviews, verifiable facts) and LLMs as “conversation/research partners” for brainstorming, drafting content, and simplifying complex topics.Andrew outlines key LLM limitations, including training cutoff dates, hallucinations/confident inaccuracies, and lack of knowledge about an organization’s specific documents unless provided. The episode ends with three practical challenges. Andrew invites feedback via andrew@petrusdevelopment.com and previews the next episode on how LLMs are trained.00:00 Welcome to the Catholic Tech Table (and what this show covers)01:10 Google vs. LLMs: The Librarian vs. Conversation Partner Analogy03:01 When to Use Google: Current Info, Fact-Checking, Reviews (Fundraising Examples)03:56 When to Use an LLM: Brainstorming, Drafting, Explaining Complex Topics05:11 Best of Both Worlds: Combining Google Research + LLM Writing Help05:36 LLM Limitations: Cutoff Dates, Hallucinations, and a Real-World Example08:05 Another LLM Weakness: It Doesn’t Know Your Organization’s Internal Info08:55 3 Practical Challenges to Try This Week (Google, LLM, Then Both Together)10:29 Wrap-Up, Key Takeaways, and Next Episode Preview

Join Andrew Robison and Rhen Hoehn from Petrus Development as they explore the transformative role of AI in the Church and in faith-based fundraising. In this episode, they discuss the necessity for Catholic organizations to be involved in AI development to create meaningful, efficient tools tailored to their needs. Key topics include the history and current landscape of AI, its applications, potential risks, and how Petrus Development is taking steps to develop AI tools specifically for Catholic fundraisers. Stay tuned for more educational content about AI, upcoming tools, and how they can serve your mission.00:00 Welcome and Introduction00:29 Why AI Matters to Petrus Development01:01 The Current Landscape of AI02:50 AI's Role in Catholic Organizations04:53 Historical Parallels: Technology Adoption08:19 Practical Applications of AI Today10:08 Petrus Development's AI Initiatives12:12 Join the Conversation