I keep coming back to the same questions.

Most of them started in work. They didn’t stay there. I’ve followed them into writing, software, leadership, faith, and a handful of things I built for my own family.

This is where I keep the questions, what I’ve made while pursuing them, and some record of what happened.

Start with the questions ↓

Dave Hail
20 yrs advancement, OU
Senior consultant, Track15
Husband, dad of two

Things I keep returning to

Work in use, work in progress, and work I’ve set down. The reasons are here too.

Question 01

How is generosity earned?

Most fundraising technology is built to extract. I want to know whether it can do the opposite and help people understand why giving matters before anyone asks. I haven’t settled it.

Software · Built for Track15Live

Nexus

The signals that change a campaign, surfaced while there’s still time to act. Twenty years of advancement work kept producing the same failure: the information that would have changed a campaign existed, and nobody saw it until the post-mortem. It isn’t a CRM, and it doesn’t replace your system of record.

The reasons +

The record · Nexus

Nexus reads Track15’s client fundraising data and puts the next action in front of the team: a donor going quiet, a match running out, a campaign falling behind. Each action shows the data behind it. You can also ask it questions in plain language.

One ranked list of actions across every client, each with the reason it is there
Ask Nexus: plain-language questions about a client’s fundraising data
Built around the real work, from planning a campaign to thanking donors after it

Built forFor Track15’s team and the nonprofits it serves

How it has grownIn use on Track15 client work

Why I built it0:00 / 0:00

Methodology · Built for Track15Watching

Track15 Readiness

Given a specific opportunity, is the organization ready to pursue it? The answer describes sequence. It never rates worth.

The reasons +

The record · Track15 Readiness

Readiness answers one question for a nonprofit. Given a specific opportunity, is the organization ready to pursue it, and if not, what has to become true first. It can recommend waiting. It is a separate product from Nexus, with its own reasoning and its own data.

A settled doctrine and constitution that govern every verdict
One opportunity archetype developed, not yet validated in the field
A one-way handoff to Nexus, only after a client approves the roadmap

Built forFor nonprofits weighing a specific opportunity

How it has grownDoctrine settled and one archetype developed. Field validation is still ahead

Writing · Contributing editorLive

Speaking Engagement

A weekly publication for advancement and engagement teams, published by Ryan Catherwood. I write about fundraising, story, and how generosity is changing.

Read →

Back to the questions ↑

Question 02

Why do some stories endure?

Some stories keep working long after the moment that made them. Better writing doesn’t fully explain it, and I’m still trying to name what does.

Software · Scripture study · Working nameIn Development

Fathom

Fathom shows the English with the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek beneath it, word by word, and says where each piece of evidence comes from and how firm each link is. Reading the Bible raises questions a translation alone can’t answer. I’m building it for my own study first. It shows evidence. It doesn’t settle questions, and it doesn’t write explanations for you.

The reasons +

The record · Fathom

Fathom is a place to read Scripture closely. Read the Berean Standard Bible or the King James Version with the Hebrew or Greek line under each verse. Tap a word to see the original word it translates, its gloss, lexicon entries and grammar, and how the English was linked to it. Where a link is uncertain, Fathom shows the candidates instead of picking one.

Cross-references on most verses, ordered by readers’ votes
Edition marks where printed Greek editions differ, with no verdict on which reading is original
On my own copy, notes kept at the passage they concern, and quiet marks where sermons mention a verse

Built forFor anyone who reads Scripture closely, and for people who study, translate, teach, or preach it

How it has grownThe reader and its evidence are built. A hosted copy for my own study is in testing

Essay · April 2026

Story vs. Messaging

Most of what gets called “brand storytelling” is messaging wearing a story’s clothes. The difference is not stylistic. It’s structural, and it’s why so little of it lands.

Read →

Essay · April 2026

Meaning Before Influence

The storytelling industry sells influence. But influence is a byproduct, not a purpose. Optimize for it directly and you usually lose both.

Read →

Software · Writing studioBeta

Inkwell

Inkwell keeps the shape of a manuscript somewhere you can check it. Structure, characters, and continuity live beside the draft instead of only in the author’s head. Every draft past sixty thousand words develops problems the author can no longer see. It doesn’t write the book for you.

Start a manuscript →

FictionLive

Henry Hail and the Whittier Kids

A middle-grade mystery adventure series.

Open →

Back to the questions ↑

Question 03

How do we make wiser decisions?

Information compounds on its own. Judgment doesn’t. We keep building better ways to collect data and almost none to reflect on it. These are attempts at the second kind, including one tool that has to show its reasoning for every call it makes.

Software · ReflectionLive

Margin

Something worth stopping for, and room to answer it. Margin moves on when you do, not when the calendar does.

Open →

Software · Listening assistantIn Development

Vantage

A listening assistant that decides which podcast episode is worth your time next and shows its work for every call.

Explore →

Case studyLive

Operation Florida

Seven people, thirty options, one week in Florida. A record of how the answers became a plan.

Read the record →

For our houseNone of them are for sale.

Family Reel

Movie night for our house. A wheel picks the film, and the ones we skip stay in the running until we watch them.

Norman Dinner Deals

Open →

Verified restaurant deals in Norman, for the weeks nobody wants to cook.

Shop Radar

Standing searches for the few things I’m actually hunting for.

DVC Watch

Watches four Disney Vacation Club resale marketplaces and reports what changed. Once a month it ranks what it found by value.

Back to the questions ↑

Question 04

How do we find direction?

Leaders get made in thousands of ordinary decisions, each handled a little more thoughtfully, over years no workshop covers. Some of what’s here is about that. Some is about planning a Disney trip, which turned out to be a smaller version of the same problem.

Software · Private prototypeIn Development

Storytelling by Waymark

Work on how people tell stories others can trust. It starts as a private curriculum, with me as its first student.

The reasons +

The record · Storytelling by Waymark

This is work on how people tell stories that hold together and that others can trust. It has a private prototype: a mastery curriculum I am running for real, as its first user, before anything else gets built.

A mastery curriculum of lectures to read and listen to, kept exactly as written
A serious reading and listening notebook, with no brand system until use earns one
Features earn a place only by changing how a story gets noticed, shaped, or told

Built forFor teams and leaders who need sharper narrative clarity

How it has grownA private prototype in product discovery, used for real before anything else is built

Software · Part of PathmarkBeta

Horizon

Disney trip planning. It turns crowd patterns and ride timing into a day-by-day plan.

Open →

Software · Set downRetired

Waymark Leadership Development

Leadership formation built on waypoints. The model held. The product around it didn’t earn its place next to the rest of the work.

The reasons +

The record · Waymark Leadership Development

Waymark was a formation platform for leaders. You moved through eras of growth, saved moments of reflection to a timeline, and built a leadership charter that changed as you did.

Four eras of growth: Foundation, Practice, Integration, and Mastery
A personal timeline of reflection moments to come back to
A leadership charter rewritten as the leader grew

Built forBuilt for leaders who wanted to get better at everyday decisions

How it has grownSet down

Waymark Leadership Development founder note0:00 / 0:00

Back to the questions ↑

Question 05

What makes us human?

Research · Serial writingIn Development

The Storytelling Project

Story is not a communication technique. It’s one of the primary ways human beings become human. This is a long public exploration of where that idea leads. I don’t know yet where it ends.

The reasons +

The record · The Storytelling Project

A public, serial exploration of story as a foundational human act: how narrative shapes memory, meaning, and identity. This is the research stream underneath why Inkwell exists, surfaced as its own area rather than a feature of a writing tool.

Story as one of the primary ways human beings become human
A public, serial exploration rather than a finished product
The foundational claim beneath the writing tools elsewhere on this site

Built forFor readers thinking about story, memory, and meaning

How it has grownAn early, ongoing research stream and serial writing project

Essay · May 2026

The Story That Built You

Long before you tell stories to anyone else, one story has already been telling you. We rarely notice it. We just call it “who I am.”

Read →

Back to the questions ↑

Oklahoma Hail

One person, a few questions, a lot of building.

Oklahoma Hail is the name I put on this work. It gets made in Norman, where I came for college about thirty years ago and stayed. What I want from all of it is the same: to help someone see a thing clearly enough to know what to do about it. My faith is where most of these questions started, and it’s still where I take the ones I can’t answer.

Twenty years in advancement and alumni engagement at the University of Oklahoma.
Senior consultant at Track15, working with nonprofit clients.
Builder of Nexus, Inkwell, Margin, and Fathom.
Husband, dad of two, OU grad.

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