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- [00:00]
Jeremy Wells
When I was at Augsburg University as the Vice President of Institutional Advancement, working with Paul Privanow, Paul did a marvelous job of articulating this concept of vocation. So I was in my first year there, I heard Paul speak to it, and he said, vocation is where your deep passion meets the world's deep need. And he said, some people find that in their jobs. Some people find that in their hobbies, in their volunteer service. And I stopped and I thought, oh, my gosh, that's where I get to live every day in my work.
- [00:30]
Jay Frost
Welcome to the PM podc, brought to you by Donor Search, the show that takes you inside the lives of thought leaders, innovators and change makers in fundraising, philanthropy and civil society. I'm your host, Jay Frost. Jeremy Wells is the Senior Vice President of Philanthropic services at the St. Paul and Minnesota Foundation. With more than 25 years of experience in fundraising and nonprofit leadership, he's been instrumental in advancing equity and community led solutions through philanthropy. In recognition of his outstanding contributions, Jeremy was named the 2025 Outstanding Fundraising Professional of the Year by the association of Fundraising Professionals. We spoke with him at icon, the Association's international conference in Seattle, Washington.
- [01:15]
Interviewer
I'll just start by saying congratulations.
- [01:17]
Jeremy Wells
Thank you. I appreciate that.
- [01:21]
Interviewer
How did you learn about the award?
- [01:23]
Jeremy Wells
I have been a member of AFP since 2002, and I've been coming to Icon every year since 2005. So every year I've seen the award get presented at icon. And early in my career, I was thinking, wow, those are people I aspire to be like. And, you know, a lot of intentional outreach, getting to know people, finding out what makes them tick, where they derive their passion from. About seven or eight years ago, I had the opportunity to submit a nomination for someone who was a former Boss of mine, Dr. Paul Pribenow, President of Augsburg University. And I worked for Paul for five years as his Vice president. And so I submitted a nomination of support for Paul to receive the Outstanding Philanthropist Award. And he received it. And so I was able to celebrate with him at ICON that year and, you know, never really thought of myself in that same kind of vein, if you will. And it was last fall, my boss, Dr. Eric Jolly, president and CEO of the St. Paul and Minnesota foundation, was visiting with me and said, you know, what do you think about submitting a nomination for you? And I thought about it for a while and I said, you know, I would be flattered if you chose to do that. So I had the pleasure of working with him on the nomination, giving him some of the Color commentary throughout my career, since we've worked together for 10 years. But my career spans further than that. And, you know, you submit everything and then it goes away for a while, months. And it was in January where I got the call that I was going to be receiving the award this year. And I was, you know, humbled and thrilled. And all those emotions, all those feels.
- [03:01]
Interviewer
At the same time take me way back, sort of that color commentary. Where did this all begin for you?
- [03:06]
Jeremy Wells
Yeah, well, my parents like to say I could. The only time I ever got in trouble when I was in school growing up was when we had a school fundraiser because I would literally sneak out of school early to start canvassing the town before anyone else had a chance.
- [03:20]
Interviewer
Wait a minute, what were these fundraisers that you were.
- [03:21]
Jeremy Wells
I was selling magazines, candy bars, whatever it happened to be. I was not shy. No, usually just school activities. I grew up in a small little farm community in central North Dakota. Not a lot of organized activities, but we would do school fundraisers from time to time for different school supplies. And I always had a little competitive spirit and I loved being able to do that. So my parents would tell you I was a fundraiser from a very early age. But it was my senior year of college. I was majoring in psychology, religion and philosophy. You know, good liberal arts background. My parents were just hoping I'd find a job. And the president of the college approached me my senior year, asked me my plans, and I said, well, I'm planning on going to graduate school, likely for clinical psychology. And he told me they just received permission to add a position in the development office that summer. And he was wondering if I would consider taking it. And, you know, initially I didn't know much about it. He actually said the institutional advancement office, which was even more confusing to me. But, you know, he was persistent. He kept talking with me and persuading me to think about it, and I finally gave in and accepted the opportunity. So I graduated on a Saturday and I started in the development office on Monday. And so I'm one of those rare few that have only ever done non profit fundraising my entire career. This year marks 25 years.
- [04:44]
Interviewer
And clearly you like it and you've been successful at it, but that doesn't necessarily explain why an institutional leader would identify you so early. What do you think that he saw?
- [04:58]
Jeremy Wells
Yeah, so. And again, we all live in these moments that exist. And so one of the moments for me, I was always a very involved kid in college. I participated in every activity I could. I was in the band, I Was in the choir, I was doing theater, I was on a ministry team. I did student government, I did student activities, you know, anything. Because I'm like, I don't have to pay extra for these as they're all part of the same package. I'm going to get my money's worth. In my junior year I was voted as a student body president, which was a little bit of an anomaly, was usually held for a senior role. But I happened to get it my junior year and that happened to be our president's inaugural year. Our new president that year, Dr. Combi. And so I was able to give one of his inaugural addresses as the student body president and he was impressed. He and I struck up a relationship. I led the student government that year, his first year. And so we had this nice rapport as he would want to learn more about what students care about. I was there providing that conduit for that learning for him. And so we just stayed in touch, stayed engaged. He also knew that I had, I was a third generation college student from my family to go to the school. So we have this wonderful family legacy. So I think he knew that in terms of opening doors, making those connections, you know, I would have that built in kind of history of the university the way that some individuals wouldn't. So yeah, I never even thought of this as a career until he approached me and asked me to consider the opportunity.
- [06:29]
Interviewer
You've cited several people and I've heard people do this before who are really committed to whatever their field is, particularly in this field of philanthropy. And they were, you know, presidents that you were working with who wanted to nominate you, you were being nominated by others, et cetera. What is the importance of this kind of mentorship, if you want to call it that, in your work?
- [06:53]
Jeremy Wells
Yeah. So we are in a relationship based business. Relationships are everything if you had the chance. There was a wonderful video that my boss recorded for my nomination this year and that's kind of how he themed the video. He said, if you want to know about Jeremy, Jeremy is about relationships. He wants to get to know you, what you're passionate about, what you're interested in. And, and I will credit that back to again, a fresh faced 21 year old recent college graduate starting in the field. One of my colleagues in a very small development shop about a five person development shop was a gentleman named John Holman. And John was at the tail end of his career. He did major in planned giving for the university and he kind of took me under his wing. I became, he said, you Remind me of one of my kids, you know, and he said, you're going to hear a lot in this profession. You should do this, you shouldn't do that, you should do this. Don't do that. He said, don't ever forget that. At the core, this is about building relationships with people. And I've never lost sight of that, even all these, you know, 25 years later. Now, I've also had so many great mentors along the way that gave so freely of their experience, their wisdom and whatnot to me that I just feel this sense of indebtitude and, you know, kind of this drive to want to pay that forward to the next generation. And so I try and find those opportunities. If you look at the AFP award itself, one of the categories that they focus in on is mentorship and leadership, and it's probably the one I'm most proud of. The number of people that I've been able to mentor and see them find success in their careers and in their lives is just as gratifying as anything I've done personally throughout my career.
- [08:35]
Interviewer
Did you know that was what you were doing all along the way, though? Because this language we have for mentoring and so forth that we use in this field, especially if we've been in it for a while. I don't know about you, but I. I didn't have those terms of art when I was graduating from college. I didn't know what that meant. I'm not even sure how many mentors maybe I've even had or I hope, where opportunities where I provided mentorship. Yeah, but you've got a language for it. Where did that stem from?
- [09:01]
Jeremy Wells
It was probably, you know, midway throughout my career, as I was moving into leadership, kind of getting centered in that space, and it was organizations like AFP and others where I could sign up to be a formal mentor or mentee. And you get into it, like you said, and then you're like, oh, wow, I actually been doing this on both sides of the coin. I've been a mentee before, and I've actually been a mentor before. Even if it was never. That label was never stuck on it, you know. Similarly, one of the concepts that I like to use when I think about my career is this concept of vocation.
- [09:35]
Interviewer
Talk about that. What does that vocation mean to you?
- [09:38]
Jeremy Wells
And so there are a lot of definitions. You know, I couldn't tell you how Webster defines it, but I could tell you when I was at Augsburg University as the Vice President of Institutional Advancement, working with Paul Cribbenow Paul did a marvelous job of articulating this concept of vocation. So I was in my first year there's. I heard Paul speak to it, and he said, vocation is where your deep passion meets the world's deep need. And he said, some people find that in their jobs. Some people find that in their hobbies, in their volunteer service. And I stopped and I thought, oh, my gosh, that's where I get to live every day in my work. And he gave words to something that I had experienced, but I didn't have the words for. And so I have often used that same language of I get to practice my vocation day in and day out, living at this intersection of meaningful wealth in our society and real, deep community need, and finding ways to marry and match those two together.
- [10:36]
Interviewer
I took you a little bit out of your journey. So you began, of course, right there at your alma mater, which is pretty special.
- [10:43]
Jeremy Wells
University of Jamestown.
- [10:44]
Interviewer
You love the school. It was University of Jamestown.
- [10:46]
Jeremy Wells
Yep. Jamestown, North Dakota.
- [10:47]
Interviewer
Okay. And so where from there? I mean, how long were you in that role?
- [10:51]
Jeremy Wells
Yeah, So I. I progressed quickly from the alumni relations director to the annual giving director to associate vice president of alumni and annual giving. I started taking on a major in planned giving portfolio. Fast forward. Yes. Yeah. So I was probably 25 at the time and had three promotions over three years. And I get to my fourth year of work, and I realize I still want to go to graduate school, but I really like what I'm doing. And so instead of going back toward the route of I'm going to go become a clinical psychologist, I did this look across the country early 2004, and I said, I wonder if I could get a master's degree in this field. Very few options back then. And two popped up. One of them was Indiana University before it was the Lilly School, and the other was. Was St. Mary's University in Minnesota, which had the oldest philanthropy and development program in the country. And I said, well, Minnesota, that's our neighbor. I was living in North Dakota. And so I applied and got accepted into that master's program and went for my first summer of residency in the summer of 2004. Three weeks of intensive, like, 21 days of class. And I went down there thinking, this is going to fill my, you know, learning desire, that need that I had. And about a week into class, one of the faculty members, who was the vice president at the time, this gentleman named Tim Burchell. Tim pulled me aside and he said, can we have lunch together today? Happy to. And he said, we've been looking for a senior major gift officer at St. Mary's we've been interviewing for about a month and we can't seem to find the right individual. But he said, I know I've only had you in class two days, but he said, you're the person we've been looking for. He said, would you ever consider applying for a job down here? And I said, you know, I'm at my alma mater. This is the best, best thing in the world.
- [12:43]
Interviewer
That must have been very hard. Royalty.
- [12:46]
Jeremy Wells
I was thinking, how can you work anywhere better than your alma mater? I get to go to the sporting events I get to see. And one thing he told me so he was persistent. I said no at the time. A few days later, he said, well, we have an afternoon off on Sunday. Would you have any interest in playing around the golf? Well, now you're speaking my language. And I said, I'm not going to turn down the invitation to play golf. And one of the things he said on the golf course, I'll never forget. He said, I have no doubt you will be successful at the University of Jamestown, but you're always going to be a young alum there. They're always going to remember you as a student, and it will create challenges for you to progress as quickly as you probably deserve to progress throughout your career. He said, you come in here, no one knows you. You stand on your own merits, your own experiences, and you can carve out a different legacy and a path for yourself. And so I had a number of late night conversations with my wife back in Jamestown. We had two little kids there. Oh, wow.
- [13:47]
Interviewer
A lot of responsibility.
- [13:49]
Jeremy Wells
Yep. And so I submitted a nomination or an application, rather, and I left at the end of my three weeks with a job offer. And we moved down to Winona, Minnesota a month later, and I started as the Senior Major gift officer at St. Mary's University.
- [14:05]
Interviewer
Who won that round of golf?
- [14:07]
Jeremy Wells
Tim did. Yeah, yeah, I. I love playing golf. I am not a, a great golf player, but he was right. That was the most transformative three years of my career that I spent at St. Mary's for a few reasons. I finished my master's degree, I got my cf, and I went from becoming the Senior Major Gifted Officer in year one to becoming the development director about nine months later, to becoming the vice president and succeeding Tim afterwards about three months after that.
- [14:39]
Interviewer
So these, this was not only fortuitous, it sounds like it was a perfect fit for you.
- [14:43]
Jeremy Wells
It was a great fit.
- [14:44]
Interviewer
His admonition, you know, that if you stay, you're always going to be a young alum, which is probably one of the fears people have even about the places that they love. Do you think that that was particularly true for you? The reason I'm asking is because one of the potential criticisms of our field is that people move around too much.
- [15:06]
Jeremy Wells
Correct.
- [15:07]
Interviewer
Now, you weren't doing that. You stayed for a number of years. You moved on. Stayed for a number of years. But this idea of bouncing around, around jobs is something that people are critical about. Is it. Is it universally true? Do you think that people who have the opportunity to work for their alma mater, for example, will be hamstrung by those kinds of attitudes towards their own alums?
- [15:30]
Jeremy Wells
It's a great question. And we can. We can revisit the frequency of moving later, because that's something I'm passionate about as well. I don't think so. I think it can be a challenge for young alums, I think, for people to revisit and come back and work for their, you know, alma mater later, I think it could be a wonderful thing. And I saw. I mean, there was nothing better than going in to meet with someone and say, I bet you went to college with my dad or my uncle or my cousin or my aunt or, you know, whoever it happened to be. I was the 26th member of my family to go to the University of Jamestown. Over three generations. I have my. My second daughter is there right now. My oldest daughter graduated two years ago, fourth generation. So there's something special about that. And I never would have progressed in my career as quickly had I not made that move. And actually, Tim Burchell became just like John Holman. I mentioned early at Jamestown. Tim Burchell was that mentor for me at St. Mary's that taught me kind of what it meant to be a leader and how to lead and kind of motivate and inspire others around you. And I'll never forget his mentorship. Tim was the person who introduced me to AFP in a more meaningful way because he had served on the Global Ethics Committee for many years. He actually wrote some of the initial, you know, the ethics assessment types of work that we do. And so I just couldn't be more grateful to have his career intersect with mine the way that it did back in 2004.
- [16:56]
Interviewer
And you were participating in AFP from that point. You also may have been member of CASE because you were in a higher.
- [17:02]
Jeremy Wells
I was case Region 5. Yep. Down in Chicago, first weekend in December every year.
- [17:07]
Interviewer
So there's a lot of Opportunity to participate in all associations and celebrate them all. But you were with St. Mary's one question about that, which is, I'm so glad you said that about the lineage at that place and the commitment they had to this sector, which was very rare at the time. And now it's. It's inspired between them and Lily, it's inspired many others to join. But were they as committed internally as to that whole idea of philanthropy as they clearly were academically?
- [17:35]
Jeremy Wells
I think they were growing into it. I think at the undergraduate college, they had a wonderful legacy, but they had the School of Graduate and Professional Programs up in Minneapolis that was a real engine for both earned revenue for the university and relationships that had never been cultivated. And so one of the privileges I had when I was there was starting a development firm function for the School of Graduate and Professional Programs as well, that has borne tremendous amounts of fruit now over the last almost 20 years since it's been there.
- [18:04]
Interviewer
That's a wonderful thing to do, because graduate students are not always embraced in a certain way unless they're in a professional school. So you were at St. Mary's and then where? NAPS?
- [18:14]
Jeremy Wells
Yep. So 2007, I was in my third year at St. Mary's second year as Vice president, loving my work there, and had my third child. So now young father of three, my wife was staying at home with them, and I got hit with this blow, which was we were going through a presidential transition. I had never been through a presidential transition before. Six months earlier, they had a presidential transition at Winona State University. And the president came in and asked for letters of reconciliation from the entire senior cabinet and said, it's my prerogative to choose who stays and who leaves. And I'm thinking, I'm the sole provider for a young family of three. What if that happens here? And so I started to get a little worried. And about that time, I had an executive recruiter reach out and said, we're looking for a new vice President of Institutional Advancement at Augsburg College at the time. Now Augsburg University, they have a brand new president, Paul Pribbenow. Would you have any interest? And so I talked with my wife and I. I said, here's the thing. I love St. Mary's I love the work, and I have no idea what's going to happen with this transition. But moving to Augsburg means we're closer to family, more cultural opportunities in the Twin Cities. And I actually studied some of Paul's work when I was in grad school. I mean, he's a fundraiser, like, I think working for a fundraising president could be transformative for my career. And so I put in an application, went through several rounds of interviews, and ended up being Paul's first vice president of institutional advancement for his first five years at Augsburg College. And it was, again, there's the third mentor in my career that had a transformative impact because I was working for someone who knew more about fundraising than me, but let me stand on my own legs. He's like, I'm not going to tell you how to run the program, but I want to be helpful in your development program. And he and I worked together throughout a real pivotal time, which was the economic crisis of 2008. We launched a capital campaign January 1st of 2008, and I was there from 7 to 12. And so I just. I learned so much from Paul. I had the ability to build a larger team, eight departments, about 45 staff, real transformative campaign that we were able to launch and move forward. And so that was just, again, a real turning point. My first, that wasn't an alma mater, because I had my undergraduate alma mater, my graduate alma mater. And I learned more about diversity, equity and inclusion at Augsburg, which is now a majority bipoc school. And it has been for many years one of the few private colleges in the state or the region that has that intentionality. It was just transformative for me, again, at this right moment, at the right.
- [20:57]
Interviewer
Time, thinking for me, there's a lot baked into what you just mentioned there that's very, very relevant to people today.
- [21:05]
Jeremy Wells
Yes.
- [21:06]
Interviewer
One, when you mentioned 2008, we're going through a very different sort of potential or real financial crisis depending upon where you are, what you're experiencing. But it's. It's definitely on our doorstep if you're not experiencing personally. And the other one which is directly related to it is dei.
- [21:23]
Jeremy Wells
Correct.
- [21:24]
Interviewer
The institutions that have continued to vocally embrace their commitment to DEI are sometimes penalized for it. And one of the federal discussions is about addressing the internal cost recovery rate that may or may not be the factor for Augsburg. But I don't know what kind of funding they receive from the federal government. But when you think about at that time and then people are going through or about to go through what they're going through today. What do you think of the lessons that you learned from that, that you think are particularly important for people to hear?
- [21:59]
Jeremy Wells
Yeah.
- [22:00]
Interviewer
Now.
- [22:00]
Jeremy Wells
Yeah. So two things that come to mind for me, one is on the. On the true philanthropic side, one of the things that I learned that Paul and I Learned together in 2008 and 2009 is you need to stay present with people, your donors especially. So many people backed off and they're like, we're not going to go visit with our donors because they're struggling now. We're not going to ask them for money because they're struggling now.
- [22:23]
Interviewer
Just to put a fine point on it, why should people not just withdraw into the shadows?
- [22:29]
Jeremy Wells
What we heard as we went out there and did exactly the opposite was this sense of appreciation, this sense of calm from people saying, we're so grateful you're here. Because a lot of people stopped visiting with us. And when the economy started to turn, we bounced back far quicker than most of our peers because we had been there, we had been present, we were staying in relationship with people. Again, a relationship based business. If you lose the core of that, then you got to start over. And so that's one piece. The other piece is on the diversity, equity and inclusion piece. Diversity, equity and inclusion are core values of our organization. Just like they were at Augsburg when I was there.
- [23:08]
Interviewer
When you say our organization, currently the.
- [23:09]
Jeremy Wells
St. Paula Minnesota foundation, and I'm so grateful. I mean every decision I will make from where I work standpoint moving forward will be based on how they embrace those values.
- [23:20]
Interviewer
Why is that important to you?
- [23:22]
Jeremy Wells
I've been in the profession long enough to realize that at the core, so many of the issues that I've sought to address across my career have diversity, equity and inclusion at their core. And data will tell you that, stories will tell you that it's an issue of the heart, it's an issue of the mind. And so many people have been marginalized because of things that are out of their control that I just feel that I've been given and granted so many privileges throughout my career. I want to lean into that space in new and exciting ways whenever I have the chance. And so if the organization is not, not embracing that, that's not the organization for me.
- [24:02]
Interviewer
And for those who are concerned that if they are vocal about that value set or even potentially scrubbing their, their website or changing the language in which they characterize these things, how do you. Because you're an empathetic person, you're both a person who's been in this field a while and you know how it gets done. But you're also a person who's been the seat and knows what it feels like. How do you communicate to others the importance of staying true? But, you know, not. Not losing your hero.
- [24:32]
Jeremy Wells
Yeah, I don't want to downplay the fear I don't want to downplay the anxiety. I can empathize with that. And there are days that I wake up and I'm fearful or scared, and then I have to find ways to move past that. At the end of the day, I feel so many of these issues around diversity, equity, inclusion is where the data points us. So if we're about community need, let's follow the data and it's there. The other piece for me is I think a lot of people's work around dei, for example, is a First Amendment piece. And it's not a piece about meeting quotas or excluding anyone. It's being more inclusive and accessible than we've ever been before. And I think out of fear, I think the hope from the current administration is they're going to scare enough people that they're just going to move away from those values. And I encourage folks, do what's right for your organization, but whenever possible, try and lean into those values. Because as long, I mean, the values are what's guiding your work. And if it's more in that First Amendment space of freedom of speech, I don't think, you know, we're a larger organization. We can get things like illegal opinions and other things that small nonprofits can't. I don't think we're doing anything that the executive orders say we can't do. But we're leaning into those values as much as we ever have before. And so I love being at a place where I can continue to do that. That's how I felt at Augsburg from 2007 to 2012. I appreciate what they're doing today. Higher ed has its own challenges today. I mean, I think they're more in the bullseye than we are in community philanthropy. But we have to find others that can continue to support us in this moment in time and again. I'm so grateful to be able to have these conversations about these values.
- [26:15]
Interviewer
It also sounds like it's not the first time you've talked about it. I mean, you clearly thought about and clearly you are committed to it personally. The institution where you work is committed to it. How important is it to have that discussion internally so people have a way of expressing it in others so they can do so with confidence?
- [26:32]
Jeremy Wells
Yeah, yeah. We talk about it with our staff a lot right now because staff need to feel both supported themselves because they have fear and anxiety and they need that common language. Common language means a lot across an organization. When you could kind of be singing from the same songbook. It's much more harmonious Absolutely. Yeah.
- [26:52]
Interviewer
So again, I took you out of your life. These are such interesting issues.
- [26:55]
Jeremy Wells
Augsburg. Yes.
- [26:56]
Interviewer
And so today.
- [26:57]
Jeremy Wells
Yes.
- [26:58]
Interviewer
Where. Where are you today?
- [26:59]
Jeremy Wells
Yeah. Yeah. In 2012, I made a very intentional move. Move again. I had gone through some personal situations at that time. Ended up needing to not travel anymore. For my kids. They were getting to be an age where I just wanted to be more present for their activities and whatnot.
- [27:19]
Interviewer
How old were they at the time?
- [27:20]
Jeremy Wells
They were at the time 2012, they would have been 11, 8 and 5. And so I got divorced in 2011. My ex wife, who subsequently passed, struggled with a lot of issues around substance abuse. And I effectively needed to be present in a very different way for my kids. And Paul was great at Augsburg. He's like, you built a great team. You stay here, manage the team, be dad, and we're gonna be fine. Did that for a while. I was approached by an executive recruiter again, saying, we're looking for a senior leader at the time, same St. Paul and Minnesota Foundation. I took the opportunity to Paul and others, and I said, this might be the right moment. You need someone who can do things I can't do to take things to that next level here. This gives me an opportunity to explore a new area of philanthropy, which I didn't know much about. I think it could be the best of both worlds. And so I applied for and got that job. I gave a three month notice. And so one of these nice long transitions that allowed the school to find my successor. I closed a lot of gifts those last three months. You know, as any good fundraiser. It's like we've worked together so long. I'd love to see this come to fruition before I leave.
- [28:32]
Interviewer
It must have been hard on a personal level, because even if you had been through a divorce, it sounds like I'm sure that you and your kids were also coming to understand that in a different way.
- [28:44]
Jeremy Wells
Very much.
- [28:45]
Interviewer
But also there's a physical dislocation, probably that occurs with a job change.
- [28:48]
Jeremy Wells
Yep.
- [28:49]
Interviewer
And I don't know how far away. How far did you move?
- [28:51]
Jeremy Wells
I didn't move at all. Stayed in the community.
- [28:53]
Interviewer
You stayed in the. Okay. The kids could stay in the schools.
- [28:55]
Jeremy Wells
We stayed in the school. Stayed in our house. Yep. The kids and I stayed in the house throughout everything. So I didn't have to do that. I was working in Minneapolis. Now I was working in St. Paul.
- [29:04]
Interviewer
Yeah, because that's a big part. I mean, part of our professional challenge is that when you're doing work at the level you do, there's travel there is to go and see donors.
- [29:15]
Jeremy Wells
You have alumni scattered all around the country. Correct.
- [29:18]
Interviewer
And there are all these other things. And sometimes that means that we're not always, like you said before, fully present with our kids even. We are when we're with them, but then when we're off at work, we're present for our work. And that, that can be tough.
- [29:29]
Jeremy Wells
Yeah.
- [29:30]
Interviewer
How do you manage to stay in one place, which is remarkable, but how did you weather that other storm in the middle of all that?
- [29:36]
Jeremy Wells
Yeah, I mean, it's, I, I, when I was at Augsburg, one of the other gifts I got, I met a gentleman named Jack Floy who was a semi retired executive of World Vision, I believe is where Jack worked. And he had written a book. And his book was called the Centered Life. And one of the things I learned from Jack, who was very transformative for me, was I was searching for balance in my chaotic life at that moment, and I was struggling to find it. And Jack's book really focused on the fact that balance is a fallacy. Like you'll, it's a carrot at the end of the stick you'll never catch. And instead of focusing on trying to bring balance to all these areas of your life, you need to find what centers you as a person and lean into those things. It might be two out of the eight slices of your pie. And if those two things are eight, nine, tens, other things can be twos and threes and you still feel great. And so for me, me, what centered me was my faith in my family. And so when I was stressed, if I leaned into those slices of the pie, everything else fell in. It balanced out. And so rather than seeking for every slice to be a seven or every slice to be an eight, you got to know what centers you as an individual. And it's different for all of us. And so as I was going through this storm, I was so grateful I had those lessons because they, that for me was huge reading. Brene Brown. Understanding the shame I was carrying as a divorced dad, you know, how do you get past some of those things was transformative for me. And so there were several different moments like that. So by the time I moved to the community foundation, I had a wonderful family there. I was able to build a new team, explore a new area that was giving me a lot of life because I didn't know much about community based philanthropy before. And I got to be home with my kids every night. I got to be at every choir concert, band, concert, theater, performance. I got to have Experiences with my daughters that most dads never get to have. And so it's not the hand I would have ever dealt myself, but it's the hand I played. And now my oldest daughter's 24, my younger daughter's 21 and my son's 18. And so I'm now entering this next stage of my life saying, for the last 13 years I've been present, I've been at the community foundation, I've learned a lot. And now my youngest is getting ready to leave the nest and now I get to explore what's next in my career.
- [32:05]
Interviewer
Are the kids like you doing all things. All things.
- [32:09]
Jeremy Wells
All very different things. Which is fun. Which is fun. They're all their unique individual selves and I love each of them for them.
- [32:16]
Interviewer
So you're watching them grow and it sounds like they have grown well in the soil that, that you've, you've tilled for them. What about you today?
- [32:26]
Jeremy Wells
Yeah.
- [32:27]
Interviewer
Professionally, Personally?
- [32:28]
Jeremy Wells
Yeah, I love my work. I'm so grateful to be at the foundation. So getting back to your comment earlier around this revolving door.
- [32:34]
Interviewer
Yeah.
- [32:34]
Jeremy Wells
I'm coming up on my 13 year anniversary, June 1st, which I'm proud of. But what I'm more proud of is last year I had three staff members of the foundation celebrating 10 year anniversaries with me on the development team. This year I've already had one and next year I have three more. That's what I'm proud of. Creating a culture and environment within that organization and team where even though we still have inverse demand in the field, they could go elsewhere and find a job and make more money. They want to stay there because they know that team we've built, that culture we've built, they're not going to find that everywhere.
- [33:07]
Interviewer
Why is it important for people if it's the right fit and it aligns with their values to stick around?
- [33:13]
Jeremy Wells
Yeah, I think sticking around is important in a relationship based business. You start getting levels of joy that you never knew you could experience as you go deeper and deeper with families, organizations where you get to work for them for these longer arcs of time than most development professionals get. Now, I might not always have your next opportunity, opportunity in my organization. And if not, I want to be a referral source for you. I want to help you, prepare you for whatever you want to do next. But when I do have that opportunity, I want to prepare you for that too. And so that's always the mentality that I've taken and I love the teams I've been able to Build and work with because of it.
- [33:49]
Interviewer
So 13 years on, where do you imagine this next for you?
- [33:53]
Jeremy Wells
It's a great question. I haven't given a lot of time. Right now I'm focused. My son graduates and five weeks.
- [33:59]
Interviewer
Oh, wow.
- [34:00]
Jeremy Wells
Thank you. And. And then I think we'll cross that bridge. I don't know. I still have a lot of working years left. I'm 46 today, 25 years in the profession. I could see myself staying and doing the very same thing. Or I'm starting to explore what does it mean to be at that next level. I've said no to a lot of opportunities over the last decade plus because of my personal circumstance, and I don't necessarily have to say no in them anymore. And so, you know, adding breadth or depth to my work in different ways certainly has some appeal as well.
- [34:33]
Interviewer
I've asked you a lot of things about your profession, the arc, and some of the issues that are important to you and I think are very important also to many fields. But what I failed to ask you is the role that philanthropy plays in your life.
- [34:45]
Jeremy Wells
Yeah.
- [34:46]
Interviewer
Can you talk about that a little bit?
- [34:48]
Jeremy Wells
Yep. Yeah. Philanthropy is central to everything I do, and I'm so grateful. I got remarried a little over six years ago, my beautiful wife Kelly. Now I'm so glad she has such a generous heart. And so we regularly find opportunities to volunteer together. We regularly support a variety of organizations. Some she came to the marriage with, others I came to the marriage with. At any point in time, it seems like I'm serving on about four or five different nonprofit boards where I'm providing philanthropic support, board governing leadership for one of the non profits. I'm in my eighth and final year. I'm helping to lead a camp capital campaign for them, their very first capital campaign. So philanthropy is just interwoven into my life in ways that I couldn't ever separate it. And I'm so grateful for the ways that I learned about it. Watching my parents give in church and to organizations they cared about and the ways that I've been able to explore it through throughout my life and career. And, yeah, I just. It's. It's central to who I am. It's like it said, it's. It's embedded enough. It's like when you pour the sand together, you can't ever separate all the grains anymore. That's how I feel about philanthropy in my life.
- [35:55]
Interviewer
Are your parents still with you?
- [35:57]
Jeremy Wells
They are. I'm so, so grateful. I couldn't ask for two better cheerleaders in my life.
- [36:01]
Interviewer
And they must know the kind of work that you're doing.
- [36:04]
Jeremy Wells
I mean, if they were committed to.
- [36:05]
Interviewer
This at the community level and you do this professionally, everybody, every day.
- [36:08]
Jeremy Wells
Yeah.
- [36:08]
Interviewer
So what do they say about this journey that you've taken and the kinds.
- [36:11]
Jeremy Wells
Of work that you're doing now? Yeah, they're, they're, they're extremely proud. When they heard I was receiving this award, of course, as parents, they said it's about time. But, but what they meant was, you know, we're really proud. We've seen you work so, so hard. We've seen you raise incredible kids. They still live out in Jamestown, North Dakota. So for the last number of years, my daughters have got to spend more time with their grandparents at the town as they went to college, that I've got to see my kids. And I'm so grateful they have that relationship as well. So I think they know how hard I've worked at being a dad, at being a fundraising professional, at being a mentor. And yeah, it's just I, I talk to my parents probably three or four times a week still.
- [36:52]
Jay Frost
Well, that's it for this episode of the PM podcast. You can learn more about the St. Paul and Minnesota foundation at SPM. Information about AFP and its annual awards and honorees is available at afpglobal.org Our thanks to our sponsor, Donor Search, the world leader in AI powered fundraising intelligence solutions for the nonprofit world. Our producer is Jack Frost, and our theme music is Moving Out, Moving in by Jay Taylor and is provided courtesy of Epidemic Sound. If you like what you heard and make sure to subscribe wherever you like to listen, check out our sister shows, Front Lines of Social Good and How to Raise. And come back next weekend for another conversation with a leader in the world of social good. Until then, this is Jay Frost. Thanks for joining me.